RAF Thor Missiles Post 1963…

If you want to see a Minute Man missile in it’s silo watch Star Trek First Contact. The warp drive space ship is the Minute Man in drag.

😀 I know you’re not really interested in replicas but I couldn’t resist!! 😉

Does anyone know what happened to the RAF Thor missiles after their deployment (1959 to 1963)? I understand that three remain in the UK, but were the rest returned to the USAF or scrapped in the UK? It would be good to think that more than three survive.

The surviving confirmed ex-RAF Thors appear to be as follows:

Thor 110 (56-6760)
Current location: RAFM Cosford
RAF assignment: Bomber Command Strategic Missile School, RAF Feltwell

Thor 139 (57-2647)
Current location: Unclear. Was on static display at Patrick AFB, FL. Possibly scrapped post 1991
RAF assignment: Not yet known

Thor 150 (58-2261)
Current location: NMUSAF
RAF assignment: 150 (SM) Squadron, RAF Carnaby, Pad 38

Thor 166 (58-2277)
Current location: National Atomic Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico
RAF assignment: Not yet known

Thor 157 (58-2268)
Current location: Remains belived to be at Pima Air & Space Museum, Tuscon, AZ
RAF assignment: Not yet known

Thor 211 (58-2322)
Current location: NMUSAF.
RAF assignment: 104 (SM) Squadron, RAF Ludford Magna, Pad 28

Thor 273 (59-2394)
Current location: NASA Goddard Space Center Rocket Garden
RAF assignment: 218 (SM) Squadron, RAF Harrington, Pad 51

Thor 278 (59-2399)
Current location: Space and Missile Heritage Center, Vandenberg AFB
RAF assignment: 223 (SM) Squadron, RAF Folkingham

Thor 284 (59-2405)
Current location: Space and Missile Heritage Center, Vandenberg AFB
RAF assignment: Not yet known

Thor 285 (59-2406)
Current location: Pima Air & Space Museum, Tuscon, AZ
RAF assignment: Not yet known

Thor 292 (59-2413)
Current location: Partial remains at Space and Missile Heritage Center, Vandenberg AFB
RAF assignment: 218 (SM) Squadron, RAF Harrington, Pad 50

All other known RAF-assigned Thors are now accounted for as launched or otherwise destroyed.

All the best,
PB

Missing missiles

Were the missing missiles deposited on top of some spitfires in an Aussy mine shaft?

[SNIP] This was followed on the 26th July by Bluegill Prime, ex-RAF Thor No. 180 (58-2291), again with a live W-50 warhead. The motor malfunctioned at ignition and the RSO blew the missile up on the pad, destroying both missile and emplacement and contaminating the launch complex with plutonium which took nearly three months to clear up.

It took two weeks to clean up the plutonium and three months to clean the mess made by those who watched a nuclear missile explode on the launch pad! Well, what would you do if you saw a nuclear tipped missile explode! 😀

Anyone know if the former UK Thors were the ones used in Operation Fishbowl?……….ie. The lofting of H bombs from Johnston Island into the ionosphere to investigate EMP.

Yes, some of them were.

Ex-RAF Thor No. 195 (58-2306) was successfuly launched as Starfish Prime with a live W-49 warhead from Launch Emplacement No.1, Johnston Island, on the 9th July 1962.
This was followed on the 26th July by Bluegill Prime, ex-RAF Thor No. 180 (58-2291), again with a live W-50 warhead. The motor malfunctioned at ignition and the RSO blew the missile up on the pad, destroying both missile and emplacement and contaminating the launch complex with plutonium which took nearly three months to clear up.

Apologies for thread necromancy. 😉

All the best,
PB