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| F89-D Scorpion armed with rockets - John Mollison |
Tam digs up some ancient history:
In the early Fifties, our nation's first line of defense against Rooskie nukyular bombers was "all-weather" fighters with on-board radar for finding the incoming targets.The weaponry needed to destroy jet bombers once the radar-toting fighter had located them was the sticking point. Guided missiles were still in their infancy, machine guns lacked the power required to bring down a big bomber, and even cannon weren't a sure thing since a head-on pass by a 600mph Lockheed F-94 Starfire at a formation of Soviet M-4 Bisons doing 500mph would be over in an eyeblink. A 20mm autocannon might only chug out a few rounds in that blink.Stealing an idea from late-WW2 German jet interceptors, the USAF turned to unguided rockets. The Northrop F-89 Scorpion carried a hundred and four of the things, split between two wingtip pods.
She goes on to talk about an incident that demonstrated just how effective these rockets were.
1 comment:
Chuck, the 142nd Fighter Wing @ PDX had those bad boys before getting F-102s. You could put 3 dozen troops on each wing for a photo shoot and the wings would not budge. Used to be one at OMSI, moved to Evergreen Museum maybe?
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