4 COLLAPSE OF TEXAS TOWER NO. 4 
Having, then, restricted its inquiry to matters relating to the de- 
sign, construction, and repair of the tower, the subcommittee noted 
the emergence of three significant issues which are enumerated below 
in their chronological sequence: 
1. Was there a deficiency in the design of the tower ? 
2. Was there a deficiency in the construction of the tower ? 
3. Was there a deficiency in the intervening repairs which 
were designed to restore to the tower its intended structural 
integrity ? 
It is to these issues that this report is addressed. 
SUMMARY OF FACTUAL INVESTIGATION 
1. Preliminary background 
The concept of the Texas towers originated from the award of an 
Air Force contract to the Lincoln Laboratory of the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology to determine whether cheaper and more 
reliable substitutes might be found for the picket ships which served 
as a seaward extension of the early warning radar system. In a report 
of August 1, 1952, entitled, “Preliminary Report on the Substitution of 
Off-Shore Towers for Picket Vessels in the Continental Air Defense 
System,” it was concluded that it was both feasible and practical to 
construct such platforms off the northeast shore of the United States 
at five locations out in the Atlantic Ocean that would provide proper 
radar coverage. More specific geographic information concerning 
their locations is as follows: 
Tower No. 1 was to have been located on Cashes Ledge, 106 miles 
northeast of Salem, Mass. 
Tower No. 2 was placed on Georges Bank, 174 miles southeast 
of Salem, Mass. 
Tower No. 3 was erected on Nantucket Shoals, 113 miles south- 
east of Wickford, R.I. 
Tower No. 4 was set in place, 80 miles east of Barnegat Inlet, 
N.J., but was referred to throughout as the “location off-New 
York,” bearing 84 miles southeast of Coney Island, N.Y. 
Tower No. 5 was to have been erected on Browns Bank, 75 miles 
south of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. 
These are more graphically depicted by the following map. 
