"Ed Majden" wrote in message news:QVm1c.655692$JQ1.252816@pd7tw1no...
SNIP:
I was with the Canadian Bomarc squadrons, 446 and 447 in the late 60's
and early 70's. Lucky enough to go to Florida on two trips to test fire a
Bomarc. Both intercepts were successful. Great fun! Worked in MIU, Target
Seeker Labs and finally as a Quality Control Inspector.
Ed



I was involved with drone Bomarc As in the early 60s. ADC was trying
to shoot them down with their interceptors. I was on three missions
out of Homestead in our 104As. All three times the bloody Bismark
crapped out. One never moved off the pad, one had a booster blow up,
and the last one's ramjets never lit off. I was yelling at the range
control to leave it alone as I dove down at the thing and switching to
the gun but the RSO blew it up about 2 miles in front of me. This was
always a PITA as wake-up was about 0430 (after a night at the club).
Later on our CO saw the thing sail past, took a second to realize real
in-service Bismarks were painted grey and not black white and orange,
took off after it, neither AIM9 would fire, and scorched the paint on
the missiles as he trouble shot the system. Still no go and he RTB'ed.
He never would say just how fast he got up to but Lockheed stated
thrust crossed drag at about 2.36. He did allow as how the SLOW light
had been on a while. Okay, Walt M., (not me) how fast did you really
get to? I understand an F101B got a hit with an infrared Falcon on a
front - head-on- attack later on.
Walt BJ