Dave in San Diego wrote in
:

Gord Beaman wrote in
:

"Joe Delphi" wrote:


One intriguing part was that they were supposedly fitted with
rear-firing AIM-9 Sidewinders on wing pylons. To discourage MiGs
while engaged in overflights...

This sounds a bit far-fetched to me...has anyone heard of such a
thing?

Sounds a bit far-fetched to me. Too much danger of the missile
hitting the horizontal stablizer on its way out.

JD

It would tumble all over the place wouldn't it?...as likely
impact the fuselage as anywhere I'd think, hell, the turbulence
might even trash the whole missile, rip the fins off etc.

I doubt they would stay on the rails much past 100 knots. The wind
blast on the blunt back end (nozzle) would probably blow them off. The
missiles aren't mechanically locked to the rail, just held in place by
the spring loaded detent, which had been known to loosen over time,
leading to separations upon recovery, as documented here -
http://www.airdisaster.com/forums/pr...ad.php?t=51707 .

Adding a small fairing over the nozzle might alleviate that problem,
but I'm really doubtful that this whole rear-firing thing was ever
done.

Dave in San Diego

I know, it's not kool to follow up your own posts, but I just had to. The
NSC site has the originals of the 'Winder pics in the above link, and the
details - http://www.safetycenter.navy.mil/pho...ive/photo3.htm

Dave in San Diego