A GREAT deal of punditry has been written about the state of U.S. missilery, but usually without much firm underpinning of fact. To find out how the U.S. missile program is really faring. TIME assigned its top missile reporters to ferret outin Washington, at Florida's Cape Canaveral test center, at manufacturing plants across the countryall the missile facts that can be printed without giving away national secrets. For a firmly underpinned countdown on the U.S.'s 38 metal-bird projects, see NATIONAL AFFAIRS, The U.S. Missile Program.
ARISTOTLE foresaw the submarine, and Leonardo da Vinci designed...