FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0118.PDF
118 FLIGHT, 28 January 1955 Project Hot Shot and dating from 1947, when the U.S. Navyassigned to Sperry the full responsibility for creating an entirely new air-to-air missile system. Embodied in this missile arefeatures of more than a hundred different designs tested during a seven-year period. Production Sparrows are said to be beam-riders with terminal homing, but Sparrow I (XAAM-N-2) and Sparrow II (XAAM-N-3) are known to differ in guidancesystems, and Sparrow V is made by Raytheon. Reference to a Sparrow III (XAAM-N-6) has appeared in the American press.All types are 8ft 3in long but less than 6in in diameter and use a solid propellant. Speeds up to Mach 3 and ranges of up tofive miles are reported. Gross weight is 280 lb. The airframes are Douglas-built and have folding fins for storage and shipment.For the early air-launching of Sparrows the U.S. Navy employed a Douglas F3D Skyknight all-weather carrier-borne fighter, withtwo of the missiles under each wing on pylon mountings. For the U.S.A.F. the Hughes Aircraft Company has developedthe Falcon, existing or planned in three versions: Falcon I (formerly F-98, now GAR-1), Falcon II and Falcon III.(Falcon II differs from Falcon I in its guidance system.) This weapon uses a solid propellant to achieve Mach 3 speed and hasautomatic tracking radar. Glass fibre-reinforced phenolic plastic is extensively used in the body and wings to withstand a 500-degtemperature. The first fighter specifically designed to be armed with auto-matically launched Falcons is the Convair F-102 delta-wing inter- cepter, from which initial trials, using a specially developedHughes fire-control system, are likely to be made this year. Mean- while, to determine the stability of the F-102 as a firing platform,dummy firing tests (without the fire-control equipment) will be undertaken by Convair. A "second source" named for Falconproduction is Philco, which company is also building, to the designs of U.S. Navy Ordnance, the air-to-air Sidewinder I(XAAM-N-7) and Sidewinder II. Of these weapons little is known except that they are used in conjunction with a three-pod (Below, left) Tier-stowed 60 Ib R.P.s on Supermarine Swift F.4. (Lower, right) de Havilland Vampire with concrete-headed practice R.P.s. Sparrow I guided missiles on a Douglas F3D Skyknight of the U.S. Navy. (Below) Matra M.04 air-launched missile, weighing 920 Ib. MISSILES AND PROJECTILES . . . rocket, initially boosted by a separate bi-propellant rocket; lengthwas 7ft 6in; diameter 6in; span of the cruciform wings 3ft; and the weight 600 lb. The Martin Oriole (XAAM-N-4) was a ramjet-powered missile for the U.S. Navy, having a speed of Mach 3, a range of some 20 miles, and a gross weight of 1,500 lb. Mentionmay also be made of the Bell Meteor for the U.S. Navy, pro- pelled by a liquid-fuel rocket, weighing 500 lb (warhead 25 lb)and having Mach 3 performance. Today the U.S. Navy has in production at Sperry's Farragutplant, in Bristol, Tennessee, the Sparrow I, originally designated installation at the wing-tip. One pod is mounted above, onebelow and one outboard, giving a cruciform section when viewed frontally. It is appropriate here to take note of the Boeing F-99 Bomarcwhich, though generally described as a pilotless intercepter, must be considered, for the present at least, as an ordinary ground-to-air missile. It does, however, foreshadow the possible develop- ment of pilotless fighters, which would carry their own air-to-air missiles and discharge them automatically before being guided back to earth for recovery, or descending by parachute.Among French air-to-air missiles is a Matra product, a proto- type of which was tested during 1952 over the Sahara. The (Lower, left) Thunderjet being loaded with thirty-two Sin HVARs at Eglin A.F.B. (Right) Thunder streak with twenty-four Sin HVARs and JATO.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
