The Hughes AIM-47 Falcon, originally GAR-9, was a very long-range high-performance

air-to-air missile An air-to-air missile (AAM) is a missile fired from an aircraft for the purpose of destroying another aircraft (including unmanned aircraft such as cruise missiles). AAMs are typically powered by one or more rocket motors, usually solid-fuel roc ...

that shared the basic design of the earlier

AIM-4 Falcon The Hughes AIM-4 Falcon was the first operational guided air-to-air missile of the United States Air Force. Development began in 1946; the weapon was first tested in 1949. The missile entered service with the USAF in 1956. Produced in both heat- ...

. It was developed in 1958 along with the new

Hughes AN/ASG-18 The AN/ASG-18 Fire Control System produced by Hughes Aircraft was a prototype airborne fire control radar system for the planned North American XF-108 Rapier interceptor aircraft, and the Lockheed YF-12 for the United States Air Force. It was the ...

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

fire-control system intended to arm the Mach 3

XF-108 Rapier The North American XF-108 Rapier was a proposed long-range, high-speed interceptor aircraft designed by North American Aviation intended to defend the United States from supersonic Soviet strategic bombers. The aircraft would have cruised at s ...

interceptor aircraft An interceptor aircraft, or simply interceptor, is a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically for the defensive interception role against an attacking enemy aircraft, particularly bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Aircraft that are c ...

and, after that jet's cancellation, the YF-12A (whose production was itself cancelled after only 3 vehicles). It was never used operationally, but was a direct predecessor of the

AIM-54 Phoenix The AIM-54 Phoenix is an American active radar-guided, beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (AAM), carried in clusters of up to six missiles on the Grumman F-14 Tomcat, its only operational launch platform. The AIM-54 Phoenix was the United S ...

used on the

Grumman F-14 Tomcat The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American carrier-capable supersonic aircraft, supersonic, twinjet, twin-engine, Tandem#Aviation, tandem two-seat, twin-tail, all-weather-capable variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for t ...

Development

Development for XF-108

In the early 1950s, the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

developed requirements for a high speed, high performance interceptor aircraft, originally called the LRI-X. In 1957, Hughes won the contract to supply the weapons system for this aircraft. This system consisted of the GAR-X missile and the YX-1 radar and fire control system. The original missile design had a range of , and could be equipped with a conventional warhead or a 0.25 kiloton version of the W42 nuclear warhead. When the North American

was announced as the winner of the LRI-X contest in April 1958, the Hughes entries were redesignated GAR-9 and AN/ASG-18 on the same day. The F-108 was canceled in September 1959, but the Air Force decided to continue development of the missile system with both warheads.Sean O'Connor
Hughes GAR-9/AIM-47 Falcon
Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles, 2004 During its development, the capabilities of the new missile grew tremendously. Growing much larger, the missile's range was extended to , using the Aerojet-General XM59 solid-fuel motor. The SARH seeker was a powerful system of its own, with the resolution to be able to lock onto a target at . Some consideration was given to the addition of a passive

infrared homing Infrared homing is a Missile guidance#Passive homing, passive weapon guidance system which uses the infrared (IR) light emission from a target to track and follow it seamlessly. Missiles which use infrared seeking are often referred to as "he ...

seeker to improve terminal performance but that would have required the missile to grow by and two inches in diameter, making it too large for the F-108's weapon bay. The W42 nuclear version was dropped in 1958 in favor of a high-explosive design. Problems with the motor during development led to the brief consideration of using a storable

liquid-fuel rocket A liquid-propellant rocket or liquid rocket uses a rocket engine burning liquid propellants. (Alternate approaches use gaseous or solid propellants.) Liquids are desirable propellants because they have reasonably high density and their combustio ...

design, but was replaced instead by the Lockheed XSR13-LP-1

solid rocket A solid-propellant rocket or solid rocket is a rocket with a rocket engine that uses solid propellants (fuel/ oxidizer). The earliest rockets were solid-fuel rockets powered by gunpowder. The inception of gunpowder rockets in warfare can be cr ...

. This lowered the top speed from Mach 6 to Mach 4. In this form, the GAR-9 started ground firings in August 1961. For air-launch testing at supersonic speeds the

Republic XF-103 The Republic XF-103 was an American project to develop a powerful air-to-air missile, missile-armed interceptor aircraft capable of destroying Soviet Union, Soviet bombers while flying at speeds as high as Mach number, Mach 3. Despite a prolong ...

had originally been proposed as a test platform, but this aircraft was canceled before reaching the prototype stage. Instead,

B-58 Hustler The Convair B-58 Hustler, designed and produced by American aircraft manufacturer Convair, was the first operational bomber capable of Mach 2 flight. The B-58 was developed during the 1950s for the United States Air Force (USAF) Strategic Air ...

s/n 55-665 was modified to house the

AN/ASG-18 The AN/ASG-18 Fire Control System produced by Hughes Aircraft was a prototype airborne fire control radar system for the planned North American XF-108 Rapier interceptor aircraft, and the Lockheed YF-12 for the United States Air Force. It was the ...

radar in a large protruding

radome A radome (a portmanteau of "radar" and "dome") is a structural, weatherproof enclosure that protects a radar antenna (radio), antenna. The radome is constructed of material transparent to radio waves. Radomes protect the antenna from weathe ...

that gave it the nickname "Snoopy", and in-flight launches started in May 1962.

Development for YF-12

In 1960 Lockheed started development of the

Lockheed YF-12 The Lockheed YF-12 is an American Mach number, Mach 3+ capable, high-altitude interceptor aircraft, interceptor prototype, developed and manufactured by American aerospace company Lockheed Corporation. The interceptor was developed duri ...

interceptor, as a lower-cost replacement for the F-108. The GAR-9/ASG-18 were moved to this project. The F-12 would have featured four flip-open internal weapons bays on the chines behind the cockpit, one of these filled with electronics. The F-12B bays were too small for the GAR-9, so the GAR-9B was developed with flip-out fins to reduce its diameter. It weighed . Test firings of the GAR-9A from the prototype F-12As resulted in six kills from seven launches, the lone miss due to a missile power failure (there were several non-guiding test launches as well). The missile was renamed AIM-47 in late 1962 as part of the transition to common naming for aerospace vehicles across the U.S. Department of Defense in 1962. The last launch was from a YF-12 flying at Mach 3.2 and an altitude of at a

QB-47 The Boeing B-47 Stratojet (Boeing company designation Model 450) is a retired American long-Range (aeronautics), range, six-engined, turbojet-powered strategic bomber designed to fly at high subsonic flight, subsonic speed and at high altitude ...

target drone off the ground.B. Rich, ''Skunk Works'' (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1994), p. 236 In 1966, the F-12 project was canceled just as the F-108 had been. Another project which expressed an interest in the design was the

XB-70 Valkyrie The North American Aviation XB-70 Valkyrie is a retired prototype version of the planned nuclear-armed, deep-penetration supersonic strategic bomber for the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command. Designed in the late 1950s by North Am ...

, a bomber which could have carried the AIM-47 for self-defense. This aircraft was also canceled after Soviet deployment of effective high-altitude surface-to-air missiles made high-altitude attacks on the Soviet Union impractical. Hughes had built 80 pre-production AIM-47 missiles.

Legacy

The AIM-47 was used as a base for the

(originally the AAM-N-11), intended for the

General Dynamics F-111B A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED Online. Mar ...

. This project was also canceled in 1968, but the weapon system finally found a home on the

F-14 Tomcat The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American carrier-capable supersonic, twin-engine, tandem two-seat, twin-tail, all-weather-capable variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experi ...

, entering service in the early 1970s. In 1966, the basic airframe was adapted with the seeker from the

AGM-45 Shrike AGM-45 Shrike is an American anti-radiation missile designed to home in on hostile anti-aircraft radar. The Shrike was developed by the Naval Weapons Center at China Lake in 1963 by mating a seeker head to the rocket body of an AIM-7 Sparrow. ...

and the warhead from the Mk 81 bomb to create the high-speed AGM-76 Falcon anti-radar missile, although this did not see service.Andreas Parsch
Hughes AGM-76 Falcon
Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles, 2004

References

External links