Viking rockets
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- NASA thes.(Viking rocket vehicle)
- Viking Rocket web site, Nov. 18, 2003(The U.S. Navy's Viking rocket was conceived shortly after WWII as a replacement for the V-2 rocket. The Viking was designed specifically as a research rocket by the Naval Research Laboratory.)
- Rosen, M.W. The Viking rocket story, 1955:pp. 172-173 (Viking 8 was the first of the bigger Vikings. The Martin designers planned and built a Viking that held 3,500 pounds, almost two tons more fuel; the rockets appearance was changed, no longer could reporters call it "the slim, pencil-like viking")
- Ley, W. Rockets, missiles, and men in space, 1968:p. 249 (The first Vikings were slim cylindrical rockets) p. 257 (Viking III looked different. Its diameter was 45 inches and it was shorter with a better mass-ratio. Because the tail section was wider the hydrogen peroxide tank no longer had to be coiled around the turbine)
- Von Braun, W. History of rocketry & space travel, 1969.
- Directory of U.S. military rockets and missiles web site, May 18, 2004:early missiles and drones page (Viking rockets #8 and later were of a significantly revised design, and were formally designated RTV-N-12a, externally, the RTV-N-12a was slightly shorter than the RTV-N-12, had a much larger diameter, and used triangular fins)
Viking was a series of twelve sounding rockets designed and built by the Glenn L. Martin Company under the direction of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). Designed to supersede the German V-2 as a research vehicle, the Viking was the most advanced large, liquid-fueled rocket developed in the United States in the late 1940s, providing much engineering experience while returning valuable scientific data from the edge of space between 1949 and 1955. Viking 4, launched in 1950, was the first sounding rocket to be launched from the deck of a ship. After twelve flights, the Viking was adapted into the first stage for the Vanguard satellite launch vehicle, which launched America's second satellite into orbit in 1958.
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