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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0116.PDF
116 FLIGHT Showing how the ring of Mighty Mouse tubes on the Lockheed F-94 Starfire is exposed for firing. Twenty-four of the projectiles are carried in the circle of tubes and others in wing-mounted "pods." MISSILES AND PROJECTILES . . . trol mechanism on to it. All subsequent computing is then auto-matic, and the weapons themselves are automatically launched. Immediately after firing the pilot turns hard away to avoidcollision. The 9ft x 45ft plastic-fabric banners for collision-coursepractice are towed by North American B-45 Tornado bombers, and are fitted with spinning metal discs to give the fighter's radarsomething to "lock on." Notwithstanding the automatic nature of the system, during tests at Yuma, Arizona, last year, hits werescored on only about 27 per cent of the sorties. Even so, one Sabre pilot placed all 24 of his rockets on the target at the first try. The Mk 4 variant of the Avro Canada CF-100, as now inservice with the R.C.A.F., has wing-tip Mighty Mouse pods and a third pack, holding some 48 projectiles, which is retractable intothe fuselage. When the podded rockets have been discharged the pods themselves are normally jettisoned, thereby improving rate ofroll by some 20 deg a second. Forthcoming French fighters will have fuselage-mountedMatra "automatic rocket magazines" with a capacity for 32 or 55 Brandt or Mighty Mouse projectiles, and external containers for19 rockets are also being developed. Magazine-fed rocket dischargers have been tested in recentyears by the U.S.A.F. (Lockheed F-80) and U.S. Navy (Douglas Skyraider), the latter with belt-fed, spin-stabilized Sin HVARs.The latest development in this direction now on test in the U.S.A. (at the Air Research and Development Command's Arma-ment Centre, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida) is the T-110 launcher, for which two Northrop F-89 Scorpions are being used as flyingtest-beds. Though no production-type Scorpions are intended to have the new armament, the test-beds have two T-llOs mountedin the forward nose section. The appearance of the installation, which was developed for theU.S.A.F. by the Armour Research Foundation of Chicago, Illinois, is shown on page 117. Tests are said to have provedthat the launcher is "compatible to the airplane and highly effec- tive from a fire-power standpoint."The new Scorpion installation recalls the experimental fitment of a revolver-type launching system on a Lockheed F-80 ShootingStar, wherein six 4.5in finned rockets were loaded in a "cylinder" and fired through a single "barrel." The project was abandonedbecause insufficient rounds could be provided to justify the bulk and weight of the "gun." Reference to other experimentallaunching systems is made under "Air-to-Surface Rocket Projectiles." Air-to-Air Guided Missiles. As distinct from the MightyMouse type of unguided, impact-detonated projectiles, these missiles can be classed as (1) unguided, with target homing; and(2) radar-guided—with or without target homing. For the present at least they are carried beneath, or at the tips of, thewings of fighters, though internal stowage is feasible—may, indeed, become mandatory as speeds increase unless the missilesare of very fine aerodynamic form, or are very carefully faired. Homing devices can utilize the energy radiated or reflected bythe target, e.g., heat, noise, wake, infra-red radiation or static electricity, but one difficulty common to all self-guidance systemsis that of achieving rapid change in direction of a supersonic missile to give it the "intelligence" and persistence to pursue thetarget, no matter how the latter may twist and turn to avoid interception. In the self-homing device is a "brain unit," capableof making high-g turns (up to 20g in present missiles) and of operating with split-second timing and with instantaneous controlentirely beyond human capabilities. Because of the high inertia loads involved, radio valves, actuators and other items of equip-ment have had to be redesigned for this specialized task. A device is required to ensure the detonation of the warhead ata certain proximity to the target, a good example being the British "VT" radio-fuse as used in A.A. shells. Other methods, amongthem magnetic, photo-electric and acoustic systems, have been tried. Destruction of the missile in the event of a miss must alsobe ensured by the incorporation of a safety exploder. The ultimate complication may be a device, similar in principle to the familiarI.F.F., to turn away or destroy a missile which attempts to "home" on a friendly aircraft. Of British air-to-air missile developments nothing of a detailednature can be reported, though the photograph of a Meteor N.F.I 1 (Atove) Placing the muzzle cap on a 72 X 2.75/n Mighty Mouse pod on a Starfire. (Upper right) A Starfire launching its nose-mounted Mighty Mice. (Below) Similar projectiles being discharged from a wing-tip pod of an Avro Canada CF-100.
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