Winners and Losers

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 03/04/2015 at 15:02 • Filed to: planelopnik

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In 1948, the Air Force was looking for a replacement for the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Curtiss-Wright proposed the XF-87 Blackhawk. Initially conceived as an all-weather attack aircraft, the Air Force changed the requirement to an all-weather fighter. Curtiss made some changes, and built the four-engine Blackhawk. When it lost out to the F-89 Scorpion, it spelled the end for Curtiss-Wright, a name that goes back to the earliest days of aviation. Curtiss was at one time the largest aircraft manufacturer in the United States. Its assets were sold to North American Aviation.

Although technically a fighter, the F-89 Scorpion was a very large aircraft. It was America's first jet-powered aircraft designated as an interceptor, was among the first to be armed with guided missiles, and the first armed with unguided air-to-air nuclear rockets. The wingtip pods could be used for fuel or rockets, and AIM-4 Falcon missiles could also be attached to the pods. The Scorpion was retired in 1969.

Gonemad > ttyymmnn 03/04/2015 at 15:13

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(...)unguided air-to-air nuclear rockets.

Yeah, what could possibly go wrong with that?

"- Almost on crosshairs... Fire!

"- Oh, he dodged!"

"KOOOOOMMMM" [half a country disappears after a blinding flash of light]

"- Let's try that again, shall we?"

ttyymmnn > Gonemad 03/04/2015 at 15:19

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Yeah, I thought that sounded pretty sketchy too. But you know the old saying, "Close enough for horseshoes, hand grenades and atomic bombs." I doubt they were intended to be fired at moving targets.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Gonemad 03/04/2015 at 15:20

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The key - exceptionally sensitive and vague proximity fuses. "HEY, THERE'S A PLANE WITHIN A MILE OF HERE!" - *explosion*

Gonemad > ttyymmnn 03/04/2015 at 15:27

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Yeah, a bit far-fetched, unless you're aiming at a Tu-95 Bear. That's one big plane. And it would probably be carrying a nuke on its own.

Or the previous equivalent bomber in 1948, that would be a Tu-4. Thanks Wikipedia.

But you never know. Unguided NUCLEAR air-to-air rockets, if it says so...

ttyymmnn > Gonemad 03/04/2015 at 15:32

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Towards the end of WWII, the Germans used rockets against formations of Allied bombers with some reasonable effect. But they were firing into a formation of hundreds of bombers, so the likelihood of hitting at least one was pretty good. I was just looking at the Wikipedia article about a2a rockets, and found this sentence:

The United States built one last air-to-air rocket, the AIR-2 Genie . It used a nuclear warhead with a blast radius of 300m to compensate for its inaccuracy.

Manic Otti > ttyymmnn 03/04/2015 at 15:50

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Wonder what it did to the handling & roll rate having those bigass tanks way out on each wingtip. Also, it seems really weird to attach the missiles to the fuel tank also.

bryan40oop > Gonemad 03/05/2015 at 03:01

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"Or the previous equivalent bomber in 1948, that would be a Tu-4. Thanks Wikipedia."

AKA Boeing B-29 Superfortress

Gonemad > bryan40oop 03/05/2015 at 04:47

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Now that you mentioned... Yep.

bryan40oop > Gonemad 03/05/2015 at 04:50

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I had to double check, but yeah when I saw the pic the familiarity struck. I knew the soviets copied the B29, just didn't know the designation they gave to their copy.