National Affairs: Mongrel Makes Good

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Air Force missilemen made a convincing display last week of a new missile that they have put together out of the parts and pieces of old projects. The mongrelized missile is aptly named Hound Dog. It has real bite. As the U.S.'s first effective plane-launched, jet-propelled air-to-ground missile, Hound Dog adds range and firepower to 1960's most potent operational weapon, the intercontinental B-52s of the Strategic Air Command.

To prove it, an eight-jet B-52G lifted off from Florida's Eglin Air Force Base last week with a 43-ft. Hound Dog slung under each wing. Air Force Captain Jay L. McDonald, 36, piloted the bomber over Cincinnati, Lake Superior, Hudson Bay and to the North Pole; then he wheeled it back all the way to Florida and unleashed one of the Hound Dogs. Still fully operative after the rigors of a combat-type, 10,800-mile, 22-hour plane flight, the missile streaked off on a northern course at close to Mach 2 speed. Then it turned around as directed, headed south, made "dog leg" evasive turns of well over 90°, and landed on target more than 500 miles down the Atlantic firing range.

Hound Dog was developed in record time of 30 months. Back in August of 1957, SAC put in a hurry call for an air-launched missile. The order: get it ready by 1960. To meet the deadline, Air Force Research and Development people made a missile out of existing systems. They:

¶ Dusted off the old X-10 frame that North American Aviation had begun working on way back in 1946 for its air-breathing Navaho missile, since scrapped.

¶ Salvaged an inertial guidance system that North American had been working on since 1950 for a fighter plane (the system has yet to go into a fighter, but its kissing-cousin now guides Polaris subs).

¶ Picked up a Pratt & Whitney J52 jet engine that had been under low-priority development for planes for two years, used it to power Hound Dog, which is like a pilotless bomber.

The mixed ancestry produced bright offspring. The Hound Dog, now operational, weighs less than 10,000 Ibs., has a thrust of 7,500 Ibs. The engines may even be used as secondary power sources to give an extra 15,000 Ibs. of thrust to the B-52 on takeoff. The Hound Dogs do not interfere with the B-52's normal H-bomb load; each missile simply adds a one-megaton hydrogen punch and an extra reach that combine to make a single B-52 the mightiest weapon ever seen.