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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.
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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