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Nike Manufacturing Facility
in
Burlington, NC

Table of Contents
      - Text and images - from Bill Harmon
      - Nike Missile Manufacturing - from Charles Everett
      - Douglas Tailors Plant for Nike Hercules - from Greg Brown
      - Burlington nominates former Western Electric plant ... (successfully) - from Thomas Page
      - Nike Ajax assembly line - image on wikimedia - link from Chuck Zellers


Text and images - from Bill Harmon
At this plant all battery and radar control trailers plus LOPAR, TTR, MTR, and TRR radars were built and tested prior to shipment to the Army, mostly by rail. During the peak of the Nike SAFEGUARD there were between 3 and 4,000 employees. The plant is empty now, and belongs to the U.S. government.

-07 is a picture of the Nike Ajax Test Building. 5 or 6 systems could be tested at one time. TTR and MTR were mounted on the lower roof with a test tower (now removed) off to the levt. The LOPAR was on the upper roof. The two control trailers were located at the bricked-in openings on the ground level right. There were two large elevators at the rear to each of the roofs.
-09 is a picture of the Nike Hercules Final Assembly and Test Building. A total of 12 systems could be in various states of test at one time. The ground level openings held the generator sets (vents can be seen on the roof. Nest level held the TTR and MTR radars facing a test tower near the Nike Ajax buildings (see next photo). TRR and LOPARS were on the upper roof. Assembly of the units was immediately behind the control trailers. There were large overhead tracked cranes to move the units around. The elevators at the end of the building were large enough to drive a small truck-trailer to the roofs. The building while three stories was taller than a 5 story building across the street.
-12 shows the Nike Ajax Test Building to the left. The main factory building is to the right. Large machine shop cabinet assembly and plug-in assemblies were built here. Nike Hercules Test Tower is shown in the middle. There were 6 antenna positionsl. The RF Test Sets were in the small building at the tower base.

There were more than 20 buildings of various sizes at this site.


Nike Missile Manufacturing
from
Charles Everett
Nike Ajax Missile Manufacturing - 110 K Bytes
November 12th, 1959 – the Douglas Aircraft Manufacturing complex in Charlotte, North Carolina – Nike Hercules missile in their shipping containers stand ready to be shipped out for deployment.


Douglas Tailors Plant for Nike Hercules
from
Greg Brown
Douglas Tailors Plant for Nike Hercules - .pdf 1.2 MBytes


Burlington nominates former Western Electric plant to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. (Successfully)
from
Thomas Page

"... It was transformed into an aircraft factory during World War II and was best known for its production and testing of the Nike Missile Guidance System during the Cold War. ...."

http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/news/2016/03/01/burlington-nominates-former-western-electric-plant.html

The images to the left were stolen from the Triad Businness Journal article mentioned above -

- Dec 10, 2016, Thomas Page notes the New York Times article: Burlington sites have been added to U.S. historic register.

The image to the left was stolen from the NY Times article mentioned above -


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