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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1734.PDF
898 FLIGHT, 7 December 1956 Guided Missiles 1956 . . . (United States of America—continued) '.'.'• :'••• worked out how to handle a ten-ton IRBM (with a hydrogen war-head) in a rough sea. Programmes for ship-conversion are listed in the descriptions of the missiles concerned. The eventual number of missilecruisers has been put at "dozens," of which those ordered after about 1959 will be built as such from the keel up. The principle U.S. Navy missile establishment is the Missile TestCenter, Point Mugu, Cal. Other important locations are the Naval Ordnance Testing Station, China Lake and Inyokern, Cal., and amissile range at Bonham A.F.B., Hawaii. U.S. ARMY. Probably no other armed force can point to such afearsome quartet as Honest John, Corporal, Nike and Jupiter A (or Redstone, as the last-named was originally known). All are productsof Army Ordnance contracts and all are in service now. Jupiter A is in several ways an exceptional weapon. Not the least ofits peculiarities is that it was designed almost wholly by a team, employed by the Army, working at Redstone Arsenal. Such a practiceis not to be perpetuated, and at present over 80 per cent of all Army missile research and development funds is going into industry. Eventhe development of less-complex weapons than missiles is now no longer the prerogative of arsenals. Another, and even more far-reaching, change is currently taking placein Army thinking. Until 1955 the U.S. Army bought only what might be termed the "obvious" missiles; but, such is the revolution in militaryoperations since that year, contracts are now in hand for troop-carrying missiles—and it would not surprise us to learn of a guided missilecapable of making soup or digging a foxhole. Army missile procurement has more than doubled—to £289m—in the past year. Greatest of the U.S. Army's missile problems is the perennial IRBMwhich—as the Jupiter family—is now being developed by Chrysler and the Redstone arsenal, independently of the Navy. Lacking the massive,technical man-power of the U.S. Air Force, the Army have set up a Ballistic Missile Agency, on a "crash" basis. Head of the A.B.M.A.'sdevelopment operations is Dr. W. yon Brawn, principal designer of the German A-4 (V.2) and of the original Redstone weapon. RedstoneArsenal is still the major clearing-house of Army missile information, although most new design work is being farmed out to industry anduniversities. Chief test establishment is the Army Missile Test Center, White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico, and other important estab-lishments are the Army Ordnance Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, and the Army Center for Surface-to-air Missile Testing,Fort Bliss, Texas. AIR-TO-AIR BDM. These letters signify Bomber Defense Missile, and identifya system which has caused much controversy. General Electric's Special Products Division holds a prime Air Forcecontract in respect of a bomber-defence missile. In this work they are being assisted by Hughes Aircraft, Bell Telephone Laboratories and theRaytheon Manufacturing Co. The guidance of this BDM should be adequate, since that is the speciality of each of the co-operating firms(a curious arrangement). Raytheon now also hold a new Air Materiel Command contract forBDM work, and their Hawk SAM may be a basis for development. Two other major Air Force BDM contracts, both of which werere-evaluated last month, were held by Republic Aviation (with Westing- house as subcontractor) and G.E. (with McDonnell as subcontractor).At the same time, the Arma Division of American Bosch hold an Air Force study contract for a BDM in competition with both. Cherokee. This name refers to a new air-to-air weapon for theAir Force. Cook Research Laboratories are systems managers, and work began this year. Diamondback. No details are available regarding this Navy studyproject for an air-to-air missile. It is known, however, that it succeeds Sidewinder, and may well be a heat-homer. Ding Dong. Several years ago the Air Force discussed the practic-ability of an AAM with a nuclear warhead. It was argued that such a missile would be lethal even if it failed to pass in what was termed"close proximity" to its target. Disadvantages were that it would prob- ably weigh at least 5,000 lb—partly on account of warhead size andpartly owing to its obvious need for above-average range—and the fact that fall-out might prove hazardous to friendly territory.The latter factor was studied on April 6 last year, when a DB-36 launched a special nuclear weapon at a pattern of smoke trails laid at30,000ft above Nevada. It was concluded that no dangerous radiation would reach ground level. In February it was announced that a contract had been signed withDouglas Aircraft for a nuclear AAM with the above name. Guidance and fire-control is being developed by Hughes and propulsion will beby an N.A.A. Rocketdyne liquid-propellant motor. Air Defense Com- mand are to gain experience with a device named Ting-a-Ling, ballis-tically identical but carrying only a spotting charge of explosive. Duck This name is believed to identify one of the interceptermissiles forming part of the B-58 weapons system. Blue Goose (which may be an offshoot from Goose, described under SAMs) is a similarmissile, likewise of Fairchild origin. Falcon. The smallest homing missile yet developed, Falcon isnevertheless a lethal little weapon which can be fired in salvo from the latest U.S.A.F. intercepters. As far as is known (i.e., excluding Russia)it was the first AAM to enter service with any air force. Its genesis was a General Electric guided-rocket study for the U.S.Air Force shortly after World War 2. Known as Project Dragonfly, this study was cancelled before much hardware had been made, but wasreinstated in 1950 with Hughes Aircraft as prime contractor. At their main plant in Culver City, Cal, this firm have developed many remark-able examples of military electronic gear. Falcon is certainly one of Falcon 1. AAM with 6,000 Ib-thrust solid-propellant motor; no boost motor"Length, 6ft 6in; span, 2ft 6in (reduced to 1ft 6in in a later variant); body diameter 6in; weight, 112-122 Ib; burn-out speed, M = 2.8; operational range, 4 miles. their greatest achievements, for its guidance package includes theworld's smallest production homing receiver; yet the whole missile is designed to accept no less than 58 g during the launching phase. By the autumn of 1952 Hughes knew that they had a workableweapon. The Air Force made available a large government plant in Tucson, Ariz, and Hughes moved in with a "producability" contract andtooled up. In November 1953 the complete missile (which was then designated F-98, as if it were a fighter aircraft) was tested in the gasdynamics tunnel at Tullahoma, and air-firing was also intensified. A few months later the U.S.A.F. discarded the idea of a second-sourcecontract—they had furnished another electronics manufacturer with "sufficient Falcon data for educational purppses"—and in June 1954the Tucson plant was enlarged to lm sq ft, bringing the total govern- ment outlay on the facility to £5m. The missile itself then began to engender a family of related, butimproved, weapons. The basic designation became GAR-98 and finally GAR-1, and very large production orders were placed in 1954. Thecost per missile, originally £31,600, came down to £9,000 in October 1955, when production was averaging 100 per month. Employment atTucson had at this time reached 5,500 and the total GAR-1 backlog was standing at over £3 57m. When production reached 250 per monththe cost was down to £6,800 and the ultimate price per missile at 350 per month—which should now be reached—is £3,600. Approximatelyhalf the cost is for subcontracted parts. As the drawing shows, Falcon has a trim cylindrical fuselage. Thisis an assembly of precision-cast magnesium rings and skin, made by Solar at Des Moines, Iowa. Falcon is steered by a cruciform of rudders,similar to those of supersonic aircraft, used in conjunction with the nose fins; the delta wings provide lift and stability. Extensive use ismade of glass-fibre-reinforced phenolic plastic, which can accept working temperatures of 500 deg F. The extreme nose is formed bya small radome, covering the forward-facing radar dish. Later Falcons are to have a rather more pointed radome than that shown. There isno booster, propulsion being provided by a single Thiokol solid-pro- pellant motor giving 6,000 1b thrust during the 1 seconds of burningtime. In consequence, although the missile is quite "clean" the range is fairly short—but still much better than that of any aircraft gun. During early trials Falcons showed exceptional accuracy-^—character-istic of homing weapons—and "hit drones repeatedly in vital parts so that, even with an inert warhead, QB-17s were often knocked down."With an explosive warhead, said Trevor Gardner, Asst. Sec. of the Air Force, "virtually every hit is a kill"—as p. 883 emphasizes.At present the weapon is standard equipment for intercepter squad- rons of Air Defense Command, although it may also be employed on dayfighters. The most important carrier of the missile is the supersonic Convair F-102—and, no doubt, its derivative the F-106. The formercarries six Falcons in an internal bay, the missiles being lowered on a tray and fired, in any chosen sequence, by the automatic Hughesfire-control system. By the spring of this year squadron tests had proved that the F-102A had "satisfactory systems capability." It was foundthat the Falcon could be fired up while the F-102 was still climbing towards its target. Another carrier of the Falcon is the Northrop F-89HScorpion, which can take three inside each wing-tip pod and one on a pylon below each wing. These aircraft became operational during the past few months, andsquadrons are now training intensively, and very successfully, using Ryan Q-2 targets. Bulk deliveries are made by rail, with the missilespacked in Craig welded-aluminium boxes measuring 21in square by 88in. Hughes have spent £5.4m on test gear and flight-simulationequipment, and the Electronic Engineering Company produce a simu- lator which automatically checks out Air Defense Command rounds andnotes any deviation from standard on a punched card. Early in 1955 it was announced that "much more advanced guidedmissiles than the Falcon are close to production." The whole family is developing rapidly to keep A.D.C. armed with the latest of theseveral derived versions; in particular, the guidance is being improved steadily to keep one step ahead of any possible countermeasures.Development is done at Culver City, but all production engineering and bulk manufacture is concentrated at Tucson. Sidewinder. In many ways this slim air-to-air missile is unique.It is a heat-homer, it is of incredibly small diameter and its development must have broken all records for rapidity. Sidewinder started as XAAM-N-7 at the Naval Ordnance TestStation (NOTS) at China Lake, Cal. This sprawling 1,000-square-mile establishment in the Mojave Desert employed a strong team, led by Sidewinder. AAM with solid-propellant motor; no boost motor. Length, 9ft 2in;span, about 1ft 7in; bod/ diameter, about 5in; weight, about 150 Ib; burn-out speed, over M = 2.
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