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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1803.PDF
FLIGHT, 6 December 1957 MISSILES 1957 . . . (continued from p. 88(T,CT U.S.A. AIR-TO-AIR B.D.M. In our 1956 review we publishednotes on the various bomber-defence missile systems then current. No weapon system hasbeen so hesitantly played with in recent years, but the two examples quoted below are stillactive programmes. WS-126A It is intended that this systemshould replace the gun turret at present carried by the B-52. Engineering manager is CornellAeronautical Laboratory and among the com- panies involved are Bell Telephone Labora-tories, Hughes Aircraft and Raytheon. The last-named examined the unique problems ofcross-wind and rearwards launching with test vehicles fired one year ago from sleds at Hollo-man. Cornell's data has been turned over to industry and, although still bearing highpriority, the system is in partial abeyance. WS-132A This is the B.D.M. for theWS-110A chemical-fuel supersonic-cruise bomber (for which either Boeing or NorthAmerican will receive a contract in a matter of weeks). There were two systems involved,one by G.E. and McDonnell and the other by Westinghouse and Republic, but both arereported to have been terminated late last year. Presumably the programme will be re-activatedwhen the configuration and performance of the aircraft are known with certainty. Diamond back It is known that the Side-winder family of heat-homing air-to-air mis- siles is being progressively improved and isleading to more sophisticated weapons. Diamondback (likewise a member of therattlesnake family) is reported to be the desig- nation of one of these weapons. Duck Originally reported in 1956 to bepart of the weapon system of the Convair B-58 (WS-102A/L), Duck is stated to be an air-to-air weapon of the U.S. Air Force intended for the armament of "long-range supersonicbombers." Fairchild is reported to be the prime contractor and the system is said tohave been in the research and development stage in July of this year. It is related to theGoose missile referred to on page 899. Falcon One of the first air-to-air weaponsto go into service anywhere in the world, Falcon is small enough to be carried and fired in salvoby U.S.A.F. intercepters. Development of the system as it is known today began under themanagement of Hughes Aircraft in 1950; the history was related in our 1956 review.At the Hughes plant at Tucson, Arizona, there are now two types of Falcon in produc-tion: the GAR-1 series with radar guidance and the GAR-2 series of infra-red heat-homers.Many thousands of examples of the former family are in service with the U.S.A.F. AirDefense Command, current production being centred on the GAR-ID. The cylindrical body,for which So'ar Aircraft at Des Moines is a major sub-contractor, is built up from magne-sium castings. It houses beneath a bonded radome a semi-active radar which receivescoded pulses from the intercepter reflected by the target. The warhead is relatively small,and at the rear is the Thiokol M58-E4 solid sustainer motor. Around the nose are fourstabilizing fins and at the rear is a cruciform of wings; the latter are built up from a magne-sium frame with a glass-fibre laminate skin, cured to give an inward buckle over unsup-ported portions so that differential expansion due to aerodynamic heating gives better stressdistribution. At the rear are the control sur- faces which, in the ID and later versions, arecarried well aft of the wings. Production GAR-IDs cost about $19,000when they entered production last year, and about $12,000 today. Compared with their pre-decessors they have better performance and manoeuvring power at high altitude. The wea-pon is carried by all the A.D.C. aircraft, and by the F-101B which has a triple installationon a rotary door. Similar in external configuration to theGAR-ID, the infra-red GAR-2A was planned w 1952: it is in production at Tucson at a costof rather more than $9,000. Like most infra- «ci weapons, the seeker head is slaved to theter;ret before the round is fired, and the horn- 893 Douglas MB-1 Genie Air-to-air. Solid sustainer motor. Length, estimated at9ft; diameter, about 17in over the warhead j firing weight, probably about 1,000 Ib. ing accuracy is reported to be fractionallybetter than that demonstrated by the radar Falcons. A surprisingly large contract is the$2.25m awarded last month to the Hamilton Watch Company for "aircraft data recorders"in the development of the GAR-2 system. The infra-red Falcon has behaved extremely wellwhen fired by F-102As against TM-61A, QF-80 and other aircraft and air-launchedrockets. Mixed with radar GAR-lDs it should be possible to achieve a kill-probabilityapproaching 90 per cent with good resistance to countermeasures. Compared with theGAR-8 (Sidewinder), GAR-2 is a more sophis- ticated, all-weather system. Genie Several years ago Douglas studiedthe concept of an air-to-air weapon with a nuclear warhead, and this was re-activated in1955 to produce a weapon which would be lethal to attacking aircraft over a very wideradius. Originally the device was called Ding Dong, and later High Card, but its presentsoubriquet is that given above, and the desig- nation is MB-1. Douglas remain managers for the completesystem, which includes substantial pylons on the carrying aircraft. As the drawing shows,the missile has no wings, and guidance takes the form of gravity-correction and rudimentarysteering effected by the four movable fin-tips. Propulsion was to have been effected by anN.A.A. Rocketdyne liquid-propellant motor, but the sustainer is now a solid charge byAerojet-General which burns for the first 9,000ft of flight. At the front is the warhead,developed at the Los Alamos laboratory of the A.E.C., with a yield of about 1.5 kilotons. In 1955 a similar warhead was balh'sticallydropped at Holloman, and the complete weapon system has been one of the major responsibili-ties of the 4950th Test Group (Nuclear) of the A.R.D.C. since that time. Numerous roundshave been fired with conventional warheads, and Ting-a-ling is given as the name of atraining version with a spotting charge. First aircraft capable of using the MB-1 system isthe Northrop F-89J, and most of the earlier F-89s are being converted to this standard.Hughes received a $380,139 contract last month for the MG-12 fire-control system (a develop-ment of the E-9 used in the F-89H), which both fires the weapon and detonates its war-head. The flexibility of the MB-1 system per- mits attack from any direction, renderingcollision-course fire-control inappropriate. A round was fired at 18,000ft from an F-89J lastsummer at Yucca Flat, Nevada, the aircraft pulling 3g to escape as soon as the missile left.The weapon travelled about 6,000 yards hori- zontally and was detonated by ground com-mand; numerous observers were unprotected at ground-zero but suffered no ill effects. Very large scale production is expected to beundertaken at Santa Monica for the U.S.A.F. Air Defense Command. Principal future car-riers of MB-1 will be the Convair intercepters; the F-102 can be equipped to carry it on itsunderwing-tank pylons and the F-106 was designed to carry the weapon internally as itsprimary armament. In addition to procurement of the MB-1 for current use, the Air Force hasasked for $19.1m to buy "mobilization reserve stocks." Sidewinder Owing to its simplicity and tothe large number manufactured, this is un- doubtedly the cheapest homing missile in theworld, yet it is an effective weapon for high- performance day-fighter aircraft. As we des-cribed in our 1956 review, Sidewinder was developed between 1948 and 1952 by theN.O.T.S. at China Lake, Cal., and has for three years been produced to BuOrd contractby the PhiJco Corporation. (General Electric have been second-source manufacturers foralmost two years). Beneath the hemispherical glass nose is aPbS infra-red seeker which, with its mirror system, occupies an axial distance of 4in. Be-hind is the guidance equipment, for which the Avion Division of A.C.F. Industries are sub-contractors, followed by the servos which operate the canard controls which are stabilizedby a tiny turbine running at very high r.p.m. The warhead has a total of 5 1b of high explo-sive with Honeywell fuzing, there being an influence fuze lethal up to 35ft-radius supple-mented by contact fuzes at the tips of the control surfaces. The rear 75in of body housesthe solid sustainer motor by Norris- Thermador, Hercules Power Company orHunter Douglas. The charge is composed of propellant grains which are rolled into a sheetused to form a cylinder, which in turn is ex- truded to give a compact motor, the nozzlebeing 7in long and having an inside diameter of 3in. Burning time is two seconds. Like most infra-red air-to-air weapons, Side-winder's seeker operates from the moment its parent aircraft takes off. When the pilot hearsthe seeker in his earphones he triggers a switch which fires the solid-propellant gas generatorwhich drives the accessory turbine, making power available for the guidance and controlsystems. The generator also provides current for the igniting squib of the sustainer motor.In spite of its exceptionally low diameter/ length ratio, the missile can manoeuvre at from10 to 14 g. Training missiles have a special exercise head, which explodes in a white flashfor a miss or a red flash for a hit. Approxim- ately seven out of ten Sidewinders fired duringdevelopment and training have hit their targets, and several drones have been destroyed bythe impact of unfuzed Sidewinders. Several thousand rounds have now beendelivered by Philco, against a number of con- tracts. For FY57 the Navy told Congress thateach round cost "about $3,600," but it has been questioned whether this includes thewhole expenditure. Appropriation for FY58 amounts to $3 8m and the missile is widelyused throughout all carrier-based day-fighter squadrons. GAR-8 This is the U.S.A.F. designationof Sidewinder, for which quantity inventory procurement was made under FY58; G.E. wereawarded a $17m production contract in October 1956. The GAR-8 incorporates aGeneral Electric guidance unit and has been intensively engaged in air-firing since March.Principal carrier of GAR-8 is the F-104, which first fired the missile in May. Sparrow The original Sparrow family wasevolved for the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics as project Hot Shot by the Sperry GyroscopeCompany. Test firings began in 1947 and the eventual Sparrow I, designated AAM-N-2,was evolved early in 1951. The weapon became operational in 1955 with both Atlantic andPacific Fleets by which time ten years and four million engineering man-hours had gone intothe system. The basic missile has a pointed nose, a solidsustainer motor (by Aerojet-General, concen- tric grains with a plastic base) fixed tail fins anda moving wing cruciform. Guidance and con- trol incorporates multi-axis gyros and accelero-meters, aerials and receivers for detecting the intelligence in the fighter's radar beam, com-puting circuits to shape the signals to obtain proper beam-riding and servo-mechanisms forpositioning the wings. The trajectory immedi- ately after launching is controlled by inertialelements. Power supplies are furnished by electrical batteries and a high-pressure hydrau-lic accumulator, both close to the wing servos. In June 1951 the Sperry-Farragut Divisionof Sperry-Rand was organized to build, equip and operate a Naval Industrial Reserve Air-craft Plant at Bristol, Tennessee. The 537,000 sq ft plant has produced thousands of Sparrow Imissiles, conducting the manufacture, test and delivery of the whole system. No Sparrowprices have been published, but the break- down of costing is as follows: avionics, guid-ance and control, 75 per cent; airframe, 12J per cent; propulsion, 61 per cent; warhead, 3fper cent; remainder, 2\ per cent. Sparrow I went out of production one year ago. Sparrow II This missile is described in thesection dealing with the Dominion of Canada on page 876.
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