Air to air nuclear weapons
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Air to air nuclear weapons
On 19th July 1957 the world's only air to air nuclear missile test took place.
An anniversary to remember: The world's only air-to-air nuke was fired on 19 July, 1957 ? The Register
An anniversary to remember: The world's only air-to-air nuke was fired on 19 July, 1957 ? The Register
Having seen some nuke tipped SAMs one day I (cold war days, when I was young and spry) recall being for a moment glad that I didn't fly fighters. I figured that if we had them, our counterparts on the Sov ships had them.
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Seems they thought nuclear was the answer to everything back then!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircra...ear_Propulsion
If you want to go nuclear 'whacky projects' then look no further than General Atomics (yes the same people that make Predator/Reaper) and their Project ORION.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l2QopJbDBs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l2QopJbDBs
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Starfish Prime was the nuke to beat them all. The results were vastly different to what had been calculated by the boffins - and by vastly different, I mean an EMP of substantial magnitude.
Fortunately, the idea of ever-increasing numbers of nuke-testings in space has been canned, and for good reasons.
Fortunately, the idea of ever-increasing numbers of nuke-testings in space has been canned, and for good reasons.
Red Dean wasn't nuclear tipped and wouldn't have been carried by a Lightning. it was an large Vickers build active radar homing missile for the thin wing 'Supersonic' Javelin. Both the missile and the aircraft were cancelled in 1955/56. The best description of its configuration would be a Red Top on Steroids. The Warhead weight of it was 100 lb HE.The weight of the smallest atomic warheads in development for UK defensive missiles was between 4 and 6 times that.
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Surely any weapon dropped from an aircraft that isn't a ground burst, is Air to Air
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I have seen somewhere (possibly Derek Wood's Project Cancelled) a line drawing of a Genie-equipped Lightning, with the caption that it was schemed under project number something-or-other.
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At the time, the physicists and engineers were able to offer a nuclear solution to any question asked of them.
Just as the NDB offered a catch-all solution to the submarine threat, the air to air N option would stop any conceivable red threat from over the pole.
At a time when there was conceived to be a real threat from a perceived bomber imbalance, the air to air N option was a sensible counter force.
We can't always review the decisions of the past throught the spectacles we wear today.
Just as the NDB offered a catch-all solution to the submarine threat, the air to air N option would stop any conceivable red threat from over the pole.
At a time when there was conceived to be a real threat from a perceived bomber imbalance, the air to air N option was a sensible counter force.
We can't always review the decisions of the past throught the spectacles we wear today.
Just as the NDB offered a catch-all solution to the submarine threat
(PS I am old enough to remember Westland Wasps)
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Last edited by WET; 21st Jul 2016 at 21:55.
I have seen somewhere (possibly Derek Wood's Project Cancelled) a line drawing of a Genie-equipped Lightning, with the caption that it was schemed under project number something-or-other.
