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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1807.PDF
FLIGHT, 6 December 1957 897 Missiles 1957 . . . ( U.S.A.—continued) itself, originally called Nike II, is the farthestdeveloped of any Anti; a logical improvement of the basic Hercules, it has a range ofapproximately 200 miles and exists in mock- up form. Prime contractors are Bell TelephoneLaboratories (target location, acquisition, guidance and computer) and Douglas Aircraft.Late in October Western Electric (B.T.L.) received $5,086,481 for research and develop-ment of the system, but it seems clear that the fundamental brochure performance is inferiorto that of the U.S.A.F. device. Pied Piper This weapon system of the U.S.Air Force is not intended to intercept a target; it is a reconnaissance satellite. Many agencieshave conducted feasibility studies and general research into the military uses of satellites, butearly last year the U.S.A.F. formulated a sys- tem (WS-117-L) for an "advanced reconnais-sance system" taking the form of a satellite in an orbit between 300 and 1,000 miles up (andthus not "fixed" above a given part of the earth). Numerous companies are already in-volved, but that most heavily committed (and apparently acting as manager) is Lockheed Air-craft. More than $12m was invested in the first year of the Pied Piper programme; it isexpected that an unmanned version could be ready by 1960 or shortly thereafter, with amanned version following some five years behind. Talos This unusual weapon is the ultimateanti-aircraft missile stemming from the original Bumblebee programme of the Applied PhysicsLaboratory of the Johns Hopkins University. Compared with the hastily developed Terrier,Talos has better guidance and appreciably greater range owing to the fact that its sustainermotor is a ramjet. Prime contractor is the Ben- dix Aviation Corporation, who deliver com-plete rounds from the Naval Ordnance factory at Mishawaka, Indiana; a major sub-contrac-tor is McDonnell Aircraft, who manufacture the ramjet and the bulk of the airframe. As the drawing indicates, Talos is relativelyfat, in order to accommodate the ramjet duct as well as the warhead, guidance and fuel tanksin the surrounding annular space. The control system is very similar to that of Terrier, therebeing a cruciform of moving wings together with a cruciform of fixed stabilizing fins at therear, indexed at 45 deg to the wings. The fins are appreciably larger than those of Terrierto counteract the effect of the big fore-body, and in production the fin-material will prob-ably be glass-fibre. The proximity-fuzed war- head can be either of the conventional ornuclear type, and it occupies the peripheral space between the guidance annulus and theintegral tankage. A large M.W. Kellogg solid boost motoraccelerates the weapon off its launcher and takes it to ramjet-sustaining speed of well overMach 1. At the burn-out point the boost cas- ing drops off to the rear, thereby "unplugging"the ramjet propelling nozzle and allowing the sustainer to light up. Kerosine is fed throughram-air turbo-pumps located within the centre- body of the fixed-geometry, double-shock in-take. R.C.A. is a major supplier of ground guidance gear, and, like Terrier, Talos ridesa beam during the initial phase of its flight. Unlike the earlier weapon, Talos can switchto semi-active homing for a more accurate terminal phase, and in shipboard installationsthe "lamp" set is the big SPG-49 for which Sperry hold over $47m in production con-tracts. The weapon has eight flush strip aerials positioned axially around the nose, togetherwith four probe aerials spaced at 90 deg around the lip of the intake. Farnsworth supply partof the ground test-gear. Bendix received a $27m production contractfrom the U.S. Navy in February of this year and a further contract for $44m was placedfrom FY58 money to deliver additional evalua- tion quantities. In May Admiral Withington,Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance, stated that bulk delivery of evaluation rounds had begunand that intensive testing was in progress at White Sands, Point Mugu and from U.S.S.Norton Sound. Talos has been selected as the main armament of the light cruiser Galveston,which is scheduled to join the U.S. Navy in a few months' time, as well as of two other-cruisers and the nuclear cruiser Long Beach. Bell Aircraft Rascal GAM-63 Air-co-surface. Three-barrel rocket motor for cruise propul- sion. Length, 32ft; wing span, 25ft; launching weight, 13,000 Ib: speed, Mach 1.6; maximum range, 100 miles. N.A.A. GAM-77(WS- 131B) Air-to-surface. One Pratt and Whitney JS2 turbojet for cruise propulsion. Approxi- mate length, 40ft; launching weight, about 20,000 Ib; cruising speed, probably about Mach 1.7; range, 500 miles. White Sands testing demonstrated a degree ofreliability so high that installation of the weapon in first-line ships has been accelerated.The General Electric Company have received a BuOrd contract for $5m for further develop-ment of the shipboard handling and launching system for the very advanced Long Beach(earlier ships have a Northern Ordnance system). The overall G.E. installation weighs350 tons and will store complete rounds in pigeon-holes and will incorporate an electroniccomputing centre with which the fire-con- troller will automatically be able to select anuclear or h.e. Talos and have it brought up and placed on the launchers completelyautomatically. The original U.S. Navy Talos is SAM-N-6.An off-shoot of this is the land-based Talos system, which is under intensive developmentfor both the U.S.A.F. and the U.S. Army. The former Service has Talos L which bears theU.S.A.F. designation IM-70 (Intercepter Missile). Strategic Air Command are likely touse IM-70 to protect their bases both within the U.S.A. and overseas. The Army weapon isTalos W and the first system, developed and built by R.C.A., was turned over to the Armyfor evaluation in October. Under the roles-and-missions memorandumof November last year the Army is scheduled to evaluate the Talos system, but no decisionhas yet been reached. Eger Murphree, when he was co-ordinator of missile development,said "a careful study of the Nike Hercules and Talos developments has shown no predomin-ant advantage for either system and there may be sound reasons for using both." Talos hasbeen described as "cheaper than Nike" (pre- sumably Nike Ajax), requires less operationalman-power and can be installed with more flexibility; it does, however, require a greatdeal of electronic equipment, one report claim- ing that there are 250 separate cabinets in-volved in the ground check-out system. Tartar Virtually a junior Terrier, Tartarhas been evolved by Convair at Pomona as a smaller and simpler weapon for vessels toosmall to accommodate the full Terrier system. The round itself is about three-quarters as largeas the unboosted Terrier and, although it has no booster motor, has performance approxim-ately equal to its predecessor. The sustainer motor is a solid-propellant unit by the Alleg-any Ballistic Company, and guidance and con- trol is largely handled by the Ford InstrumentDivision of Sperry-Rand. It is unofficially stated that the receiver dish for semi-activehoming is housed beneath a Pyroceram (Corn- ing Glass Works) nose which is being evolvedat the Johns Hopkins University. In May it was reported that the Tartar pro-gramme was "proceeding on schedule," and $32m was allocated from FY58 funds. Tartarwill initially be fitted to eight U.S. Navy destroyers where it will replace 5in dual-pur-pose guns. As an example of the simplification of the system it is reported that "only aboutfive avionic consoles are required for the search, track and fire-control as compared withapproximately 20 for Terrier." Maximum flight speed is given as 1,500 m.p.h., and aproduction round should not cost more than $40,000. Terrier As we recounted in our 1956review, this highly developed naval anti-aircraft weapon is a rocket-propelled offshoot of theramjet Bumblebee programme, initiated in 1945 by the Applied Physics Laboratory of theJohns Hopkins University. Terrier was origin- ally an interim quickly developed weapon, but its wide adoption and good Fleet performancehas insured it a permanent place. The system is designated SAM-N-7 and mass productionbegan in January 1953 at Convair's new factory at Pomona, Cal. From front to rear the missile consists of anogive nose housing a high-explosive warhead, a forward guidance package containing hyd-raulic servos and four pivoting wings, a solid- propellant sustainer motor by M. W. Kellogg,and the aft guidance assemblies with rearward- facing aerials for riding a radar beam from thelaunching vessel. The rear fins are indexed at 45 deg to the wings and are fixed. Storage,loading and firing from a twin launcher is automatic, boost propulsion being provided byan Allegany tandem motor. Thompson Elec- tronics manufacture the auxiliary power con-trol, and for accessory power air is stored in an ellipsoidal forged-steel flask weighing49.5 lb and tested to 7,500 lb/sq in. All guidance is effected by riding the beamfrom the big SPQ-5 radar, for which Sperry hold over $51.5m in production contracts. Twosuch radars are fitted to U.S.S. Canberra, the second Terrier-equipped cruiser; the earlierBoston had Reeves radar. Either of the twin installations on these cruisers can direct asingle launcher or a battery by "flexible modes of scanning the airspace many miles beyondthe horizon," suggesting a link with A.E.W. radars. Reeves' experience on Boston hasbeen put to good use on the simpler installa- tion in the destroyer Gyatt, in which the radarcarries out guidance and fire-control for a twin- Terrier launcher and for 3in and 5in gunarmament. Terrier was first fired from a ship (U.S.S. Norton Sound) in September 1951.In addition to the three operational craft men- tioned, the weapon is being installed in thenew cruisers Topeka, Springfield and Providence, and the giant carriers Kitty Hawkand Constellation (for which Northern Ord- nance hold two contracts totalling $20m), aswell as a new class of frigate (DLG-14, el seq) and the nuclear carrier. Production rounds cost about $62,000, Con-vair holding a fixed price (which has been criticized by certain naval spokesmen). Relia-bility of the weapon is good, and of more than 350 Terriers fired at N.O.T.S., China Lake,since 1954 about 80 per cent were described as "effective." Motorola, who are the second-source for guidance, have established the extraordinarily good tube-rejection rate of 0.5per cent, probably one-twentieth of the national average. Nevertheless, airborne-guidance prob-lems have been caused through vibration and unbalance in its cantilevered suspension, andin September Pomona began production of an improved Terrier incorporating new engineer-ing features. Potting techniques and greater mechanical strength allow the revised missileto be handled as roughly as a 5in shell, and the producability of the new weapon has alsobeen improved. For this round Pomona is handling all the guidance (no second-source),the contract for $29m being placed in December 1956. Terrier II is described as a "double-size"weapon with active-homing radar. No details are yet available, apart from the fact that itis intended particularly for frigates and similar craft too small to mount an SPQ-5 installa-tion, and that the missile has a nose of Pyro- ceram to resist heat and thermal shock yettransmit radar waves. Wizard Under this name an extremelybroad programme for an overall defensive system for the entire American continent has
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