Aerowolf air-to-air missile

[Petrus]

At http://retromechanix.com/article/fighters/lockheed-l-242-navalized-star-fighter/3/ there is some information on a misterious air-to-air designated Aerowolf that was to arm a not-built naval derivative of the Lockheed Starfighter.

Lockheed gave special consideration to the airplane with the
Aerowolf, since this missile promised the simplest possible sighting arrangement,
eliminating range determination by the sight and eliminating the necessity of lead
computation. Lockheed believed usage of the Aerowolf missile as sole armament
merited special consideration for versions of the airplane which were to do interceptor
duty only.

I've tried to google more and found this (www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a406104.pdf#page=1&zoom=auto,0,792):

Aerowolf. This Aerojet missile is believed to be the earliest of any of these air-to-air concepts, and was a completely in-house project (company funded). It used all purpose designed components and systems, and was very similar to Sidewinder except that it was only 3.5 inches in diameter and claimed slightly better performance in essentially all parameters. It never reached the stage of complete assembly of a working breadboard model.

Does anybody have more information on the Aerowolf missile?

Piotr

 

[Grey Havoc]

Very little at the moment, I'm afraid.

...Mr. J. B. Newman at Johns Hopkins University conducted a study for the Air Force
in 1955 concerning pyrotechnic decoys for use as infrared countermeasures. The
primary aircraft of concern was the B-47 bomber. The possible missile threats were
the Sidewinder, infrared Falcon, Aerowolf, and the British Bluejay, all with lead
sulfide detectors. Mr. Newman’s team consulted with the Pyrotechnics Group at
NOL White Oak, the Infrared Section of Squier Laboratory of the Signal Corps, the
Night Photo Laboratory of WPAFB, the Armaments Laboratory of WPAFB and
Picatinny Arsenal....


...In conjunction with WPAFB during 1955-1956, the Engineering Research Institute,
Willow Run Laboratories at the University of Michigan conducted captive field tests
of the Falcon GAR-1B air-to-air missile. They simulated the missile with a modified
analog computer such as the one owned by the Eastman Kodak Company at that
time. In the simulations, they considered dropped decoys, towed decoys, smoke,
dust and blinking countermeasures.
Under a contract with WPAFB in 1957, Mr. Breymaier of the Willow Run
Laboratories at the University of Michigan managed the dispensing of flares from
the B-52 bomber and the B-47 bomber at Eglin Air Force Base to test their
effectiveness against the Aerojet Engineering Corporation Aerowolf air-to-air
missile, the Hughes air-to-air Falcon missile, and the Navy Bureau of Ships
Atmospheric Sounding Projectile (ASP). Towed decoys and “blinking” techniques
were also examined. Flare trajectories were determined by film reduction, a very
tedious process. In 1958, the researchers declared, “The flare is the most important
infrared countermeasure at the present time. Other countermeasures appear to
have certain significant disadvantages. The most important characteristics of a flare
are its infrared radiation intensity compared with the target, its trajectory relative to
the target, and its burning time.”...

GENESIS of INFRARED DECOY FLARES
The early years from 1950 into the 1970s

 

[Petrus]

Browsing through my files I've found those that depict the Lockheed L-242 'Navalized Starfighter' (thankfully I downloaded them before retromechanix.com became a paid-for service). They include a drawing that shows the Aerowolf (or Aero-Wolf) missile under the wings of the 'Navalized Starfighter'.
The length of the missile may be estimated as appox. 76.8 inch (1950 mm). Its launcher resembles that for the HVAR unguided rocket, in my opinion at least.

BR
Piotr

 

[Dilandu]

So essentially it was a 3.5-inch rocket fitted with Sidewinder controls?

 

[Petrus]

So essentially it was a 3.5-inch rocket fitted with Sidewinder controls?

Someting along these lines, apparently.
Btw in the 1950s they thought about even smaller infra-red guided missile, a variaton on the 2.75" folding-fin rocket.
In https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/northrop-n-102-fang-light-fighter.263/post-164430 you may find a drawing of the N-102 Fang with such weapons. Obviously state of the art of the mid-1950s made it impossible to built those micro-missiles.

Piotr

 

[Conspirator]

Browsing through my files I've found those that depict the Lockheed L-242 'Navalized Starfighter' (thankfully I downloaded them before retromechanix.com became a paid-for service). They include a drawing that shows the Aerowolf (or Aero-Wolf) missile under the wings of the 'Navalized Starfighter'.
The length of the missile may be estimated as appox. 76.8 inch (1950 mm). Its launcher resembles that for the HVAR unguided rocket, in my opinion at least.

BR
Piotr

that design seems a bit advanced for its time. i do see Dilandu's point about the Sidewinder-type control surfaces. its hard to believe it would be unguided in my opinion. i would think they would possibly have this as a downsized/simplified EMRAAT system.

 

[DWG]

Browsing through my files I've found those that depict the Lockheed L-242 'Navalized Starfighter' (thankfully I downloaded them before retromechanix.com became a paid-for service). They include a drawing that shows the Aerowolf (or Aero-Wolf) missile under the wings of the 'Navalized Starfighter'.
The length of the missile may be estimated as appox. 76.8 inch (1950 mm). Its launcher resembles that for the HVAR unguided rocket, in my opinion at least.

BR
Piotr

that design seems a bit advanced for its time. i do see Dilandu's point about the Sidewinder-type control surfaces. its hard to believe it would be unguided in my opinion. i would think they would possibly have this as a downsized/simplified EMRAAT system.

Grey Havoc's quote specifically says it had a lead-sulfide seeker, "The possible missile threats were
the Sidewinder, infrared Falcon, Aerowolf, and the British Bluejay, all with lead sulfide detectors."