need info on missile launch key

[Squelchtone]

Hey Gang,

In my research of Cold War locks, I have ended up on an interesting path into Cold War nuclear missile launch silos.

Remember those movies like Red Dawn and War Games, where they show a couple guys in berets and jumpsuits sliding around in office chairs in a small bunker?


Then they open a door and get out 2 keys and walk to seperate panels insert the keys, and turn at the same time to initiate the missile launch?

I'm trying to see if anyone here knows what brand those locks were, and if they were wafer, pin tumbler, double sided wafer, or something more exotic like a Maxis key.

here's a photo of such a panel from a Titan II silo.


"One of two keys used to launch Titan II. The keys had to be turned within two seconds of each other and for a total of five seconds in order to start the launch sequence."

Here is a photo of the key the commander had to turn, in order for missiles to accept instructions from the other 2 key panels. There is a patent number on that, maybe this will lead somewhere good.


If anyone has better pics of the key, key bitting, or cylinders, I'm interested in learning more.





.... 45 minutes later....

and much googling..

Patent 3,035,433 (1962) Frank J. Testa, Inventor for Eagle Lock of Terryville Connecticuit, USA,

What an amazing sidewinder lock! the key had Scorpion CX-5 style cuts on one side, in which would ride knobs attached to wafer like things, and when all was alligned properly, including what looks like normal wafer key bitting, the sidebar was allowed to fall in and the lock could turn. sort of like an ASSA Desmo cam lock, or like I said the Scorpion CX-5.

large pics ahead..






akes Medeco's 1968 sidebar look less and less original by the minute..

Squelchtone

[Jaakko]

...I think you should call a locksmith

Nah, just kidding with you The first thought of mine was also "this is like Medeco but earlier". It would be really nice to have locks like those in a collection

[linty]

neat lock. at first from the pictures i thought it was one of those chicago elevator lock style things and was kind of baffled at why they wouldn't have gone higher security.

still, gm has had sidebar locks since the mid 30's, so i guess that gave the government enought time to catch on. :)

[MacGyver101]

at first from the pictures i thought it was one of those chicago elevator lock style things [...]

The two pictures appear to be of different cylinders: the first one ("Launch Control and Monitor") is a Chicago lock, is it not?

[raimundo]

Yeah, the first one was a chicago lock, easy picking, tensor in the middle, stroke a small diamond pick down one side then the other, then the first side again. its open. theres only one spring in it.

Now go to BBC's website, and look up british nuclear weapons launch lock, if you find the right story, they were using seven pin ace common type until 1998, I guess they got the word on the bic pen pick 7 years before kryptonite did.

[keysman]

The second lock is an Eagle or more currently LORI.. still in production AFAIK

Often used in high security applications .. slot machines, atms ect

[raimundo]

bit similiar to assa desmo, is there a dedicated pick for these or do I have to figure it out for myself. It would probably use a split tensor, and common picks for the common pintumblers, with something form a half diamond to a split pick that would work the top and bottom of the finger pins simultaineously, because these may be over set and need to be pushed down, the best fingerpin locks have no springs in them to prevent this, they let you help the lock by not resetting the pin.

[raimundo]

oops, not pintumblers, the whole thing is wafer, and spring loaded. probably not too difficult to pick