US beam riding missile in 1941 ?

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edwest4

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I recently bought a copy of the March 1950 issue of TRUE magazine. A Commander Robert B. McLaughlin of the US Navy is credited with coming up with the 'technique' for such a missile. Was there any missile work going on in 1941 in the US? I know some aircraft rockets were developed but not this.





Ed
 
I have found the earliest evidence of missiles/targets (as we understand them) being developed for the US military as early as 1939, and that was from Vega (a division of Lockheed). Vega designs V-111 to V-114 are described as "target planes", while V-122 is an "unmanned aircraft". Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like any documents pertaining to these probably unbuilt projects have survived.
 
It is off-topic - but what were the earliest proposals for guided missiles? I recall reading somewhere that ship-to-ship missiles were pitch the the Royal Navy sometime around 1915...
 
The Germans were developing guided antiship missiles for launch from airships in WW1. The payload was a torpedo.
The UK developed a prop powered SSM called the Larynx (?) that saw combat use in Mesopotamia in the '20s. Some versions may have used radio guidance.


There were also WW1 projects in the US and UK for flying bombs which Gunston describes as SSMs. Thousands were produced in anticipation of the planned 1919 offensive. They had no guidance other than an autopilot and timer.

Bill Gunston's Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Worlds Rockets and Missiles has entries on these and other early missiles.

Regards the missile in question:
The USAAC began developing an AAM in 1937 called Gorgon. It went through several designs switching to turbojet and then back to rocket power. The actual production run of the AAM version around 25 and was completed by 1943 . According to Gunston it ultimately spawned families of experimental SSMs and SAMs that were at least test beds into the late 40s. Robert Truax was involved in the development towards the end so that might be a good place to start looking for info.

Update: Or you could just click here.... :)

http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app1/asm-n-5.html
Note that some of the info there contradicts mine, which comes via Gunston. Designation Systems is much more recent and has lots of photo's so I'd go with them.
 
Agreed - though Designation Systems is more of a he (Andreas Parsch) than a them :)
 
Brickmuppet said:
http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app1/asm-n-5.html
Note that some of the info there contradicts mine, which comes via Gunston. Designation Systems is much more recent and has lots of photo's so I'd go with them.
Click to expand...
My primary sources on GORGON were Friedman "US Naval Weapons" and Ordway et.al. "International Missile and Spacecraft Guide" (first two quoted sources on the web page). There were few, if any, plain contradictions between sources. The bigger problem are the numerous GORGON configurations, the various changes of focus in the development history, and last but not least the confusing array of changing names and designations. Add to this the occasional typo in second-hand sources, and you can quickly get lost ... ;)
 

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