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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1735.PDF
FLIGHT, 7 December 1956 899 Guided Missiles 1956 ... (United States of America—continued) Dr. W. B. McLean, now the technical director, in working out theessentials of the weapon between 1948 and 1952. Throughout, the keynotes were simplicity of design, ease of manufacture and use, andminimum maintenance requirements. Within these limits a very effective, and remarkably cheap, missilehas been designed. When development was well advanced the Navy brought in the Philco Corporation, whose Government and IndustrialDivision, at Philadelphia, was charged with the task of engineering AAM-N-7 for production and then building it. Named after a desertrattlesnake—which, says the Navy, is likewise "fast, deadly and un- complicated"—Sidewinder went into production, to BuOrd contract,in 1954. Deliveries began early in 1955. The body of Sidewinder is formed by joining cast magnesium cylin-ders, each of which has a particular function. At the front is the infra-red detection unit, guidance system and servos which pivot thedelta-shaped controls. Next comes the warhead and finally the solid- propellant motor. Along the top are four forged lugs which slide in theshoe of the launcher. The large fins are fixed. Philco recently stated that Sidewinder had "few moving parts" and "no more electroniccomponents than an ordinary radio." Although the original 1953 scheme was that the missile should becarried in groups of three on a fighter's wing tips, the first machine to be armed with the missile—the F9F-8 Cougar—carries either one ortwo under each wing. A picture (p. 897) shows the installation on this air- craft. Service trials have emphasized what an admiral has called "theuncanny accuracy" of Sidewinder. It is claimed to "lock on a smoulder- ing cigarette at 100 yd" and to have knocked the incendiary flares offthe wing tips of F9F drones without destroying the drones themselves. It has been fired by Cougars at heights around 50,000ft, and is shortlyto be evaluated against the rocket-propelled RP-70, which is capable of Mach 0.9. By the end of October, fighters of the 6th and 7th Fleetswere fully equipped with the missile. Early this year, when Philco were in bulk delivery, General Electricwere brought in as a second source. Curiously, this was the first contract received by this company for missile production, notwithstand-ing their vast missile development experience. Sidewinder is now being manufactured by G.E.'s light military electronic equipment department. In October the Air Force decided to adopt Sidewinder, to augmentFalcon and to serve as a missile suitable for the day fighters and fighter/bombers of Tactical Air and Air Defense Commands. Desig-nated GAR-8, a special variant is now being made for this new role. As contracting agent, the Navy awarded two new contracts, combiningtheir requirements with those of the Air Force. The contracts for guidance and control units were £5m for Philco and £6.1m for G.E.Bulk production for both services is lowering the cost below the original estimate, already at the fantastically low figure of "under £1,000." Skokie. Skokie I and II are both supersonic air-to-air missilesbeing developed for the Air Force by Cook Research Laboratories. Sparrow. Operational with the U.S. Navy since 1955, Sparrow isone of the most effective AAMs currently in service. It is now used in more parts of the world than any other missile. From the earliest days of the project the chief contractor has been theSperry Gyroscope Co., of Great Neck, Long Island. Work began in 1946-7 on a BuAer (not BuOrd) study contract named Project Hot Shot.Sperry were given full responsibility "to create an entire new air-to-air missile system, suitable for multiple launching from fighters." Testfirings began in 1947 and over one hundred different designs were investigated in actual trials before the eventual Sparrow I was evolvedin 1951. Several combinations of firms are stated to have made early Sparrows, but Sperry has remained prime contractor. By the end of 1952 Sparrow I, designated XAAM-N-2, was fit forproduction. Bulk orders were placed and a new plant, the Sperry- Farragut factory, in Bristol, Tenn, was tooled for production. Second-source production was subcontracted to Douglas Aircraft, at Santa Monica. The basic weapon is eminently clean, and has no booster. Thebody is built up from standard cylindrical light-alloy sections—war- head, guidance, controls, powerplant and rear guidance—and has a fineprofile. The missile is steered by the pivoting wings, which give very fast response. The rear fins are fixed into slots in the cast rear body.All eight double-wedge aerodynamic surfaces are made by Kaiser Aluminium, whose precision die-castings require no machining. Thesolid-propellant motor is by Aerojet-General. In April 1954 the AAM-N-2 was described by the Navy as "suffi-ciently reliable for Service use." Extensive trials from squadron aircraft had shown that it was an effective air-to-air weapon, and that it tookless time to convert pilots to use it than to train them to shoot with conventional armament. Although only an interim stage, the missilewas found to be "exceedingly formidable, with a highly lethal warhead, well-developed guidance and high reliability." It is a beam-rider. Production Sparrows were issued to both Pacific and Atlantic Fleetsin the first three months of this year. Many squadrons are now armed with the weapon and have worked up to a high efficiency. Althoughmuch of the development was conducted with such machines as the F3D Skynight, the most important Sparrow-armed aircraft in Fleet Bomarc. SAM with two 28in ramjets; take-off boost by liquid-propellant boost rocket. Length, as shown without boost, 39ft; span, 19ft;weight, 5,000 Ib (8,500 Ib with boost); cruising speed, M = 2.5; range, 250 miles. service are the F7U-3M Cutlass and the F3H-2M Demon, the latternow joining squadrons. Both machines carry four Sparrow Is on slab pylons under the wings, those of the Cutlass being toed in towards theaircraft centre-line (picture, p. 897), to assist in "gathering" the Sparrows into the beam. Current Sparrows are painted white to match the revisedNavy aircraft colours; earlier deliveries were black. Sparrow III. Offspring of the original missile are the Sparrow II(XAAM-N-3) and Sparrow III (XAAM-N-6). Development of the latter was assigned to the Raytheon Manufacturing Co., whose first£715,000 contract for research was placed in October 1954. Sparrow II was not built in quantity and Sperry-Rand are scheduled to phase outthe original Sparrow I next year. When this happens Raytheon will move in as managers of the plant in Bristol and start making SparrowIlls. The new version has fully active homing and is therefore capable of greater accuracy at longer ranges.Eighteen months ago, when it appeared that their indigenous missile would not be acceptable, the Royal Canadian Air Force turned toSparrow as a missile suitable for the CF-100. Plans have now been completed for the manufacture of Sparrow III in Canada. AvroAircraft is overall manager, Canadair is in charge of the airframe, and electronic guidance equipment is the responsibility of CanadianWestinghouse, at Hamilton, Ontario. Between £3.5m and £4m has been allocated to the programme in the current financial year. SURFACE-TO-AIR Antis. No task for a missile seems more difficult—even impossible—than the interception of an ICBM. The ballistic-missile warhead is relatively small and forms a poor target even for the most sensitive radaras it plunges down from 800 miles above the earth. It emits no radiation or other signals which could be detected. Above all, it approaches itstarget at a speed of some three miles per second. Yet, to talk to some American engineers, one would think that theICBM had been specially thought up in order that they might make it look a waste of time. For one thing, they argue, a ballistic missile willfly for half an hour, and its very altitude brings it rapidly into radar view, perhaps at a range of 300 miles. The remainder of the problemcan then—it is said—be solved by an automatic system which can fire the Ami (pronounced aunty) at the last possible moment. The Anti isa fiercely performing SAM with a high weight /thrust ratio and a nuclear warhead. Groups are fired to meet the oncoming missile at from 250to 150 miles from the point being defended. The temperature of the nuclear bursts is expected to prove the last straw for the ICBM warheadand re-entry body. The Air Force request for £ 12.3m for this work was severely prunedby Congress, and Army Ordnance consider themselves ahead. The following are some of the firms involved in Antis:— Bell Telphone Labs: possibly the furthest-advanced of all Antis;Army Ordnance £4.5m contract, hardware 1956; also Air Force study contract for similar idea, Convair: prime Air Force contract for oneAnti. Cornell Laboratory: Army Ordnance study contract. North American: Air Force contract, study phase late 1955, hardware 1956.Syvania, Electronic Systems Division: one prime Air Force contract, one sub-contract to Convair. Waltham Laboratories: prime systemscontract for DICBM (detection) monitored by Rome Air Development Center and prime Army Ordnance contract for complete Anti-system,including detection equipment and weapons. Bomarc. As big as a small fighter, Bomarc is a frightful weaponfor any bomber to encounter. Alone among interception missiles Boeing's weapon flies like an aeroplane and banks during turns. Thedifference is, it does it quicker than the eye can follow. The curious name is a synthesis of Boeing and Michigan AeronauticalResearch Center. The latter establishment, now under a different name, was one of the first agencies to investigate complete weaponssystems, and worked on Project Wizard, a 1947 surface-to-air missile. Meanwhile, the Boeing Airplane Company, at Seattle, had in 1947begun an extensive programme upon the characteristics of ramjets. The latter soon crystallized as Project GAPA (ground-to-air pilotless aircraft)and, although inter-Service disputes set the schedule back by two whole years, hundreds of test vehicles were fired in desert proving establish-ments and good results were obtained. By 1951 Boeing had obtained Air Force support for a complete Sparrow 1. AAM with solid-propellant motor; no boost motor. Length. 8ft 4in; span of movable wings, about 21 in; body diameter, 6in; weight, 295 Ib; burn-out speed, M = 2.7; range 5-7 miles.
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