[Ads-l] Antedating of "Launch Pad"

[Peter Reitan]

"Launching Pads" 1948.

El Paso Times (Texas), May 21, 1948, page 13.

[Excerpt] At Alamorgordo, the report states all Air Force rocket flight 
test activities are being concentrated at the range adjacent to the air 
force base.  Construction required there consists of three rocket firing 
ranges, three launching pads, an electric power line, pads for 
telemetering equipment, 30 miles of low-type access roads and 30 miles 
of telephone lines.[End Excerpt]

The "report" referenced in the excerpt appears to be a funding bill for 
"Southwest Army Jobs" and construction at White Sands, Alamagordo and 
Roswell, passed by the House earlier that week, as set out in the first 
part of the article on page 1 of the same issue.

Money was allocated to build missile launching pads at Point Mugu in 
California five months later.

Wilmington Daily Press (Wilmington, California), October 22, 1948, page 
2.

[Excerpt]It is expected to take 300 days to move some four million cubic 
yards of sand and gravel to the sites of permanent buildings, 
stockpiles, road banks and the missile launching pads.[End Excerpt]

Launch Pad 1954

Alamogordo Daily News, July 29, 1954, page 9.

[Excerpt]At x minus 30 minutes the tension mounts - spectators move to 
the safety area and the launch pad is cleared of people, firing 
personnel retreat to the block house - only the rocket remaining.  The 
rest is done by remote control.[End Excerpt]


------ Original Message ------
From: "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
To: ADS-L at listserv.uga.edu
Sent: 9/13/2020 4:45:58 PM
Subject: Antedating of "Launch Pad"

>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
>Subject:      Antedating of "Launch Pad"
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>launch pad (OED 1960)
>
>1957 Wash. Post 21 Nov. A4 in A Dictionary of the Space Age 115
>J. Paul Walsh, deputy director of Project Vanguard, told a news conference =
>that the test of the important second section was carried out on a launch p=
>ad at Patrick Air Force Base, Fla.
>
>Fred Shapiro
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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