Venice missile launch complex

The Venice missile launch complex was a Cold War Regulus missile firing installation^[1] "adjacent to the Venice Municipal Airport"^{[2][better source needed]} on the Venice, Florida, beach.^[3] Beginning in 1959, KD2U-1 drone versions of the U.S. Navy's Regulus were JATO-launched from the strip of beach in front of the airport, flew across the Gulf of Mexico for simulating a penetrating enemy bomber for test interception, and then were "recovered on the runway at Eglin" AFB.^[4] The launch complex was one of several Eglin missile range facilities^[5] (e.g., the Anclote Missile Tracking Annex near Tampa)^[6] and conducted the "Regulus 2, KD2U intercept missile test [on] September 3, 1959" in which the "first launch of the Air Force's new Bomarc IM-99A missile [successfully intercepted] the Regulus 2 missile at 35,000 feet altitude and at supersonic speed"^[7] (the Bomarc launch complex was at tbd after "BOMARC missiles arrived Jul 1958" at Hurlburt Field.)^[8]