Hurricane Supersonic Research Site

This feature is directly east of my campsite:

[caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”1280”] Hurricane Mesa[/caption]

Apparently, the Hurricane Supersonic Research Site, a 12,000ft rocket sled rail system,  was up there.  It was used for supersonic ejection seat testing.

The operator

achieved a "world land speed record [using] a 9,400-pound sled rocketing down the track at 1,800 miles per hour." The numerous test facilities included a powered comparator for high-speed motion pictures, a 1956 [IBM 706](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IBM_products) computer, and 1960 [Bendix G-15](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bendix_G-15) computer

This film is from an earlier period (1955?):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWpAVLjFsc4