The Chrysler Corporation Missile Division and the Redstone missiles
Chrysler Corporation had developed a formidable reputation during World War II as a "can-do" engineering team of experts, with the broad ability to tackle any engineering situation. U. S. Army Major General Leslie Groves, whose single-minded, aggressive determination of his visions brought forth the Atom Bomb, could not praise Chrysler Corporation, and its leader, K. T. Keller, long or high enough. Nor could the Chief of Ordinance during the war, or the Military Chief of Staff, George Marshall. Without Chrysler's engineering prowess, and the Chrysler Airtemp Division's knowledge of large or special areas to cool, there would have been considerably more years needed to produce the necessary uranium materials to cause the atomic explosions.
World War II ended in total on September 2, 1945. The Japanese signed instruments of surrender aboard the giant battleship USS Missouri. Five-star General Douglas MacArthur presided over the proceedings. American war planes, ships, and fighting men were shipping everywhere across Japan as soon as the pen strokes were complete.
Germany had completely capitulated on May 8, 1945. Five-star General Dwight David Eisenhower had been in charge, but refused to meet with the Germans. After personally inspecting the prison camps where untold atrocities had occurred, General Eisenhower showed nothing but disgust and contempt towards the Nazi tyranny as well as those that participated in it.
Teams of US Army Intelligence Branch officers set out across Germany to acquire as much of Germany's war booty as could be had. They were keen to get German rockets and rocket scientists, as was Great Britain, which had suffered mightily with the terror of such machines. They were in a race with the Soviet Union to get those scientists; and among the 135 (counts vary because some files are still classified today) German missile experts that were "pirated" by the United States was the head of the German programs, and world's leading rocket expert at the time, Dr. Werner Van Braun.
Labeled as truck drivers in an operation called "paper clip," the German missile experts were quietly brought to Huntsville, Alabama, then supporting a population of 18,000. It was quiet and nondescript, which meant it was under the radar, not having a lot going on except for military programs. Helped by the United States military, German experts were "encouraged" to work for the United States in missile development. They were told that they didn't have to work for the U.S. government at all. Most did stay on.
For Walter Chrysler, retirement was the end of a totally wonderful era, and one helluva ride! He was rich beyond any expectation, had all that any man could enjoy, and a time to move on to enjoy the good life he had built. He sought and took his retirement in 1935, at a $200,000 a year salary. He personally picked K. T. Keller as President. By then, the 1938 and the 1939 model cars were already on the drawing boards. New engineering items were nonexistent. Drawing against the poor sales performance of the Airflow, Keller was satisfied in building non-descript, solid engineered cars, that were not trendy, but exuded solid transportation reliability. It began a slow slide into Chrysler being viewed as producers of "dowdy, dumpy, school marm cars," with all the charm and desirability of a high backed wooden rocking chair.
Keller was at his most comfortable, content, and competent during World War II. One of the first things he developed, aside from a great friendship with the Roosevelt administration, and with FDR himself, was the Tank Arsenal for the US Army. Often, a direct phone call, followed by a meeting with some military functionary, was all that was needed for Chrysler to secure millions of dollars in defense contracts. Keller was good as gold, and solid as any mountain anywhere. So much so, that when a certain Senator from Missouri came calling, looking into military price gouging, overruns, and production cost runups, Chrysler was always given a clean bill. It would go on to portend things for Chrysler in the future.
Harry Truman was not a man to forget. Nor did Keller go unnoticed by the Defense Department. He received several medals, honors and awards for his war work, part of which was building the equipment for enriching uranium at Oak Ridge. That job commenced with a handshake from Keller to General Leslie Groves. At that second, $55 million was committed, with no one really aware of what they were seeking! Keller was given the highest award through his war work, the Civilian Medal of Merit. He was also honored by Hollywood through a movie from M-G-M entitled The Beginning Of The End which starred John Litel as Keller.
However, things continued into the deepening abyss with Keller more interested in remaking the conference room than new designs. Most of this could be attributed to Keller's management style. He loved to micromanage, often interfering with projects, wouldn't take advice, didn't like styling, and insisted on cars that were boxy so people could wear hats inside them. Defense income for Chrysler went way down. Of course, there wasn't a shooting war on then.
Keller had to be credited with some things. He did okay a new automatic transmission study, which eventually (1953) resulted in the Powerflite two speed automatic. He hired Virgil Exner to start to remake the designs on the entire line of cars in 1949. That was also the year that Keller ordered that 1.5 inches be added to the entire spectrum of Chrysler cars. Keller also made the final decision on a new engine for Chrysler which was the new FirePower Hemispherical Head design V-8 in 1951. He kept Chrysler in the defense loop with building a V-12 and a V-16 engine nominally designed to power tanks. Chrysler designed, developed and built the M-48 tank and the tank engine. He also was not a man to forget.
Keller often described himself as "a machinist by trade." That is exactly what he was. He had no real inside knowledge of how a big corporation worked and never developed the legendary skills that his boss had in engineering, styling, sales, and human resources.
Meanwhile, President Harry Truman was working on a number of domestic issues, among which was a national health insurance plan, not unlike the ones being developed by Britain, Canada, France, and Germany. A potential hot spot was virtually ignored until the 25th of June 1950. North Korean soldiers burst across the 38th parallel, putting the South Koreans and the American military on the run. At that point, military income amounted to about 3% of the total of all income for Chrysler at about $75 million.
Chrysler Corporation had a hand in the electronics development of the new missile program that the US Army was cobbling together in late 1945 going in to 1946. Largely this was based upon Chrysler's engineering acumen, along with its early use of computing, which had been applied in development of radar, as well as the electric components for the atom bomb circuits during the wars years of 1942 through 1944.
America's first military missiles were made out of parts and bits from the German V-2 rocket program in early 1944. General Electric had taken charge of that. America's rocket program wobbled along, sometimes getting what it asked for, and other times left dangling, struggling to survive. At the conclusion of WW II, GE just ran ahead of what was considered the apex of missile development, at the time. Not all eyes were set on missiles. With spotty intelligence, combined with the deepening secrecy surrounding the Soviet Union, no one realized what the Russians were engaged in, with their own German rocket scientists.
With Korea suddenly on the forefront of everyone's mind, President Truman moved to action. Honoring the United Nations treaty, he committed huge resources of American military forces to assist the South Koreans. President Truman, a pragmatic individual, recognized that the military state of the United States had to be changed. It need revitalization, in line with the Pentagon building. He sought a program that would bring a centralized military, changing the Cabinet level Secretary duties in his administration, since the President is the Commander in Chief. K. T. Keller made contributions to this vital piece of legislation by accepting President Truman's invitation to join the Coast Guard Advisory Panel in mid year 1947; he held this position until his next commitment to his country in 1950. At the time it was proposed that the Coast Guard be moved from the Treasury Department into the National Military Establishment, which did not happen.
Known for keeping in good contact, President Truman highly recommended to his Defense Secretary, General George C. Marshall, that K. T. Keller be put in charge of the newly formed U.S. Guided Missile Program. Keller answered the call on October 25, 1950. His job was to coordinate missile research, implement development, and to accelerate production so as to deploy the products. At that point, Chrysler Corporation released Keller from the Presidency. It wasn't such a big deal. Keller had been scheduled for retirement on November 3, 1950 due to his age of 65.
However, the position of Chairman of the Board of Chrysler Corporation had been resurrected, just for Keller. Walter Chrysler had been the last man to hold the Chairman job. It had been eliminated in 1940 after Walter's death.
K. T. Keller held considerable sway with the Truman Administration. As the Korean war escalated, President Truman began procedures to implement the War Production Board so as to insure that the tools, weapons, and components needed by the military would be available through the taking over of civilian production facilities. A great debate arose, which became quite contentious, on both sides about shutting down plants and transitioning to war production. Even as it had prior to the declaration of war in 1940/41, with a lot of companies, including Chrysler, which just said "no" to War Production Materials. Chrysler turned down the contract for the Merlin Rolls Royce Engine, saying it was too "costly to convert from metric to SAE!"
Most major auto facilities did not want to have to shut down, thereby losing auto production income, in order to make war goods. They reasoned that it was not a world conflagration such as was the situation when America was attacked at Pearl Harbor in 1941. This was more a "police action" so huge amounts of materials would not be needed. With a few quiet words, K. T. Keller assured the Truman administration that the American industrial might was so great that not only could they continue to produce the civilian products now in high demand, they could also build and maintain any materials called upon for the military simultaneously. (Just to hedge his bets, Keller ordered a total study done for every car and truck built by Chrysler to find a means to save materials in building them!)
That was good enough for General Marshall. It was also a great political move for the Truman Administration. The President could prosecute the war, and still keep the economy humming without curtailing all those new products. However, President Truman was a practical man. He never rescinded his intention to implement the War Production Board, thereby dangling an implied use of it over America's industrial base.
K. T. Keller was just what the missile program needed. He was a dominant manager. While it hurt Chrysler Corporation, it centralized the mission of guided missile work which was being carried out by both the Army and the Navy. The programs lacked central information sharing, record keeping, and budgetary controls. This was soon rectified under Keller. Funding was also increased since Keller held much esteem with the military command and the President. He was, after all, an astute, highly capable engineer, well able to discern what would work, and what needed to be set aside.
In July 1951, the Chief of Ordinance, formerly transferred all development work on the US Army missile over to the Redstone Arsenal. This had been done after Keller recognized that the latest and best information led to the further development of such a rocket. The work had begun by the General Electric Corporation in 1944, using acquired German V-2 rockets under project HERMES. At various times, the projects were headed under program titles of HERMES C1, MAJOR, URSA, XSSM-G-14, XSSM-A-14 and others.
Keller's recommendations were sent forward, and out of the three U S Army missile programs that were ongoing at the time, K. T. Keller picked the Redstone project. Officially it became the Redstone missile on 8 April 1952. Included in the project were some spectacular changes that K. T. Keller had initiated on his own study. All the changes he instituted were based upon his production experience, and they resulted in an accelerated program; the Redstone missile operated under the Keller Accelerated Program, or Redstone KAP. This did NOT mean, however, that any of the other programs were curtailed or stopped. They went right on, as did the Air Force and Navy missile programs. Keller made changes and recommendations to other programs for all the services. It only meant that the Redstone, at that stage of its development, could meet the target requirements as outlined by the Chief of Ordinance in the shortest possible time.
Personnel at the arsenal assumed that the program would go ahead, just as the previous ventures had gone, with the arsenal doing the development, assembly, designs, production, and launch control. The Chief of Ordinance stated that the capabilities and facilities at the arsenal were totally inadequate to be expanded rapidly enough to permit all the fabrication to be performed there. Time was of the essence, so as much work as possible was to be contracted by outside vendors to stay within the time and budgetary constraints indicated by the Keller Accelerated Program. The Chief of Ordinance went on to say that as far as he was concerned the research and development facilities at Redstone Arsenal would remain exactly that. He stated: "Any manufacture and assembly of the Redstone missiles beyond that required to get a prime contractor successfully operating, will be accomplished by contract outside of the Redstone Arsenal."
One week later, on 17 April 1952, the Redstone Arsenal submitted its scope of proposed research and development to the Chief of Ordinance. At the same time, it requested the funds necessary to award a cost plus fixed fee type contract. It also needed to have the authority to award a 100% letter order contract because of the shortness of time in contract negotiations.
As it turned out, the arsenal had been searching around for contractors that might be capable of handling this sort of work. One day after it sent in its proposals, on the 18 of April 1952, it forwarded a list of six potential contractors, considered capable of being prime. They looked at only automotive and locomotive manufacturers. They purposefully avoided aircraft manufacturers because it was indicated that they would only be interested in items for the Air Force. On the prime list, out of the six, happened to be Chrysler Corporation. No one had contacted Chrysler or Mr. Keller about them being under consideration.
The criteria examined to determine the prime contractor list was based upon whether the management and administrative capability was strong enough to handle and coordinate all the factors involved in design, development, procurement, manufacture, assembly, and of course delivery of the complete missile systems. The Procurement board, acted quickly and added 3 more potential contractors to the list. Contact was initiated with all 9 potential prime contractors.
The first three, Chrysler included, all turned the bid down. L. L. Colbert told the board that Chrysler was at its capacity, and there was just no where they could possibly place the program for production, within the companies facilities anywhere.
Three of the others also turned down the work. The three that did convey interest were further evaluated, and the board found them inadequate to do the whole job.
Suddenly, the United States Navy handed a cancellation notice in a deal for a new jet engine. The Navy had built and owned the Naval Industrial Reserve Aircraft Plant that was located in Warren, Michigan, near Sterling Heights, and of course, Chrysler's Tank Arsenal.
Learning of this, Chrysler indicated it would be interested in bidding on the Redstone contract providing they could obtain the jet engine plant. The word was passed, and the Navy offered the facility to Chrysler.
It wasn't until Chrysler started to move into the facility that certain parts of the Naval contract came forth that unnecessarily delayed the factory from opening. Initially it was thought that 200,000 square feet would be enough space. The Navy said at that point that it was all right, however, they wanted to be kept apprised of any and all programs going on inside the plant, and required that if they needed the plant to initiate jet engine production there, Chrysler had to completely vacate within 120 days.
By December 1953, it became obvious that to meet the contract requirement of 5 missiles a month, the production area would need to be enlarged to 400,000 square feet. The Navy balked. They insisted that the best use of the facility was for production of jet engines. In that instance, having Chrysler use one quarter of the available floor space was not in the best interest of the Navy, especially if a national emergency arose where the immediate production of jet engines would become a high priority. Ordinance also learned that the Navy, in lieu of letting Chrysler expand inside the plant, intended to mothball the facility or lease it out for some other military application, not a private contractor. It was a difficult situation, particularly for Chrysler as they were caught in the middle of a military political cat fight.
At first, the Ordinance Department tried to get a firm commitment from the Navy to allow Chrysler the use of the facility in part. The Navy again firmly said "no." They reasoned that the highest best use of "their" wholly owned plant was for jet engine production. Essentially, if a national emergency arose, it would be competing for space with another high priority item in the Redstone.
Ordinance then made a request in February 1954 for $6.5 million to build a new facility where the Redstone could be built. The Detroit District began a diligent search for an area to develop. 45 different potential spots were looked at. Either the land cost too much, or there wasn't enough space. With the exception of Chrysler's San Laendro plant in California, the jet engine plant remained the best place to put the Redstone production without letting out a large amount of money. Chrysler had already spent just over $2.5 million when the installation and rehab of the Warren facility was held up by the Navy.
The boondoggle slowly worked its way up through the chain of command. Eventually, it ended up in the Secretary of Defense office. It was assigned as a priority to Assistant Secretary of Defense, Mr. Frank Higgins. Working his way through the various bureaus, Mr. Higgins visited the plant personally in September 1954, nine months after the issue had been raised.
On 27 September 1954, Mr. Higgins issued his report that the plant was capable of joint production of jet engines and the Redstone. At that time, he had obtained a firm commitment from the Navy that Chrysler would have use of the facility for two full years in order to run the Redstone "Pilot" program out of the plant. It was all a blind. Once that memo had been issued, everyone in the echelon fully grasped that the so called pilot program was going to be permanent. Subsequently, Ordinance issued Chrysler another contract, whereby immediate work was resumed in the plant. It had been a 10 month unnecessary delay.
As a result of the Naval blockade at the Warren Michigan facility, the first 12 missiles had to be built at the Redstone Arsenal. However, it was under the supervision of the prime contractor. The rest of the run of Redstone missiles were all built by Chrysler in Michigan. While total numbers of missiles built varies by source, at least 137 Redstone Missiles were built, and perhaps as many as 146.
Chrysler was the last contractor actually that came on board. Chrysler had to accept the other contractors that had already been bid and accepted. Reynolds Aluminum had been selected to build the fuselage. The engine contract had been won by North American (P-51 Mustang – F-86 Sabre Jet) Rocketdyne Division of the aviation company. Ford Instrument Company, which was a division of the Sperry Rand Corporation, was also included; Sperry and Chrysler Corporation were old acquaintances, having built the Sperry Gyro Compass which revolutionized ship navigation during Word War II.
The first Redstone was launched on 20 August 1953. It had been hand assembled, since at the time, the production line at Chrysler plant in Michigan was under construction. The test was a complete and total success making it a tribute to the Redstone Arsenal and to the Prime Contractor, Chrysler Corporation.
The full contract lasted 12 years. Every time a certain goal was reached, the contract was increased. The last Redstone left Chrysler's production line in 1961. The Redstone remained in Army service through 1964. Some were sent to Australia for their missile testing programs.
During that time, the Redstone gained a reputation as "The Army Work Horse." Civilian applications called it "Old Reliable."
Our next installment will cover the Redstone itself. Chrysler's work on missiles did not end with the Redstone program. They were also one of the first to receive contracts from the newly formed NASA programs.
Next: the Redstone and Saturn missiles — Chrysler lifts NASA
