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Ah, early Cold War insanity at its finest. Glancing through this, it might help a few people to clarify that the weapon designations used in this are (of course, since it's 1951-1963) prior to the 1963 Tri-Service Missile And Drone designation system. BOMARCs are BOMARCs, but the GAR-11 is better known as the Hughes AIM-26 Falcon (which in a rather roundabout way is the great-granddaddy of the AIM-54 Phoenix) and the MB-1 is AIR-2 Genie. And it's a fun side note that during the live test of the latter during Operation Plumbbob, several Air Force officers were standing directly under the detonation point to show how safe it was.The whole thought process leading up to the AIR-2 is in itself pretty funny to look back at, too. By the late '40s, the USAF is realizing its Browning AN/M3 .50s are getting to be obsolete, so they start moving towards 20mm cannons. But damn, those aren't performing great either, not enough ammo or time on target. So alright...rockets. The F-86D gets 24 2.75" Mighty Mouse FFARs. That's not enough? Here's the F-94 Starfire with an extra rack for 48 total. Still need more? F-89 Scorpion, now we put them in the wingtips and wing pods, 104 of them to be exact. Oh hell, the Soviets are building B-29s now...how about one BIG rocket with a nuke on it? Yeah, that should work.
Ah, early Cold War insanity at its finest. Glancing through this, it might help a few people to clarify that the weapon designations used in this are (of course, since it's 1951-1963) prior to the 1963 Tri-Service Missile And Drone designation system. BOMARCs are BOMARCs, but the GAR-11 is better known as the Hughes AIM-26 Falcon (which in a rather roundabout way is the great-granddaddy of the AIM-54 Phoenix) and the MB-1 is AIR-2 Genie. And it's a fun side note that during the live test of the latter during Operation Plumbbob, several Air Force officers were standing directly under the detonation point to show how safe it was.
The whole thought process leading up to the AIR-2 is in itself pretty funny to look back at, too. By the late '40s, the USAF is realizing its Browning AN/M3 .50s are getting to be obsolete, so they start moving towards 20mm cannons. But damn, those aren't performing great either, not enough ammo or time on target. So alright...rockets. The F-86D gets 24 2.75" Mighty Mouse FFARs. That's not enough? Here's the F-94 Starfire with an extra rack for 48 total. Still need more? F-89 Scorpion, now we put them in the wingtips and wing pods, 104 of them to be exact. Oh hell, the Soviets are building B-29s now...how about one BIG rocket with a nuke on it? Yeah, that should work.
