Reassembling The Titan

Restoration of a Martin Marietta Titan 4B heavy-lift booster rocket began in August 2014 at the National Museum of the US Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB, near Dayton, Ohio. Acquired in 2005 from Lockheed Martin, the Titan 4B, one of the largest aerospace vehicles museum technicians have ever restored, had been in storage. Although it stood 200 feet tall, the Titan 4B will be displayed horizontally in the Museum’s new 224,000-square-foot fourth building that is scheduled to open in 2015. The Titan rocket family, which included two models of intercontinental ballistic missiles and several variations of space launch vehicles, was a critical component of the US manned and unmanned space programs from 1959 through 2005. Overall, more than 350 Titans were launched.