Apix, Florida was a former rocket testing facility created as part of Project Suntan during the

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, including a fake town in

Palm Beach County Palm Beach County is a county located in the southeastern part of Florida and lies directly north of Broward County and Miami-Dade County. The county had a population of 1,492,191 as of the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous county ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, the primary feature of which was an alleged fertilizer plant set among the surrounding swamplands. Very little details have been revealed about the rocket testing facility.

Background and overview

Background

Starting in 1945, there was heavy research into hydrogen as a fuel source. The Air Force wanted to create a faster plane for spying than the U-2.

Overview and Alleged Location

In 1956,

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along with the

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decided to buy a 10 square mile piece of land in Western Palm Beach County, and development plans included a main street called Hawthorn Road surrounded by housing plats (lots). Apix was alleged to exist several miles west of

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, near the intersection of the western terminus of West Indiantown Road and State Road 710 on the Beeline Highway. Apix never had a downtown area, post office, population, or government. Apix appeared on some contemporary maps from 1959 and 1960; one map listed "Apix" alongside location markers for the Pratt & Whitney plant, William R. Gwinn Airport, and Palm Beach Racetrack.

Security

At the time, the western part of Palm Beach County was sparsely populated. Authorities said it was a fertilizer producing town to cover up the operation so that residents would not be suspicious. The name Apix meant Air Products Inc, Experimental. There was also commercial protection to make sure that potential speculators and buyers stayed clear. Land nearby was also platted and had a census marker. Pratt & Whitney bought 9,000 acres near what would today be the J.W. Corbett Wildlife Refuge. For buyers to not know it was

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(now

United Technologies United Technologies Corporation (UTC) was an American multinational conglomerate headquartered in Farmington, Connecticut. It researched, developed, and manufactured products in numerous areas, including aircraft engines, aerospace systems ...

) a third party had bought a ranch and gave it to the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission which then was given to the U.S. Air Force.

Testing

The project's main goal was to test

liquid hydrogen Liquid hydrogen (LH2 or LH2) is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecular H2 form. To exist as a liquid, H2 must be cooled below its critical point of 33 K. However, for it to be in a fully li ...

as a fuel source for rockets which had been in interest of the United States government since the late 1940s. Apix was part of what was called Project Suntan that was carried out in extreme secrecy from 1956–1958. The plant could liquefy Hydrogen at approximately rate of a half a ton a day, costing $6.2 million a day ($53,580,135.23 in 2017) and would be transported in an underground pipeline to a testing facility. A second plant was built in 1959 and had a capacity of 30 tons and cost about $27 million. In February 1959 the managers had decided that transporting liquid hydrogen in the underground pipeline took too much energy and decided to close it. Instead, they decided to ship hydrogen in insulated tanks on the Beeline Highway.

References

Science and technology in Florida Palm Beach County, Florida NASA {{Rocket-stub