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Old March 27th 04, 04:03 PM
Peter Stickney
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In article ,
"Kevin Brooks" writes:

I thought the F102's were wired for Geine also ?


Nope. They carried the AIM 4 and AIM 26 model Falcons, but no Genies. Genie
was carried by (IIRC) F-89, F-101, and F-106; ISTR hearing that some F-4's
were also wired to carry them, but never did operationally as the other's
did. The Deuce's nuclear round was the AIM 26A, which was completely retired
from service by 1972.


There are some who claim that the F-4 was capable of carrying the
Genie - that's really not the case. There are one or 2 photographs of
an F-4 carrying a "Genie-Shaped" object under one of the inboard wing
pylons, it's not actually a Genie, but an air-launched sounding rocket
based on the Genie's rocket motor. There's a big difference between
being able to fire off an a rather dumb rocket. (You only need the
firing signal) and firing a real AIR-2. The airplane systems have to
be able to acquire the target, compute the firing solution, both for
the launch airplane's position and vector, and the fuze timer settings
in the Genie, and be able to direct the airplane, or teh pilot, to the
proper firing point. There were some efforts to explore the use of
the Genie on other interceptors - The English Electric Lighting could
have ended up carrying two of them, and the F-104A was considered at
one point. (The F-104 system required this big pantograph rack on the
belly station - given the size of th AIR-2, there are some questions
about who was launching who, in that case.


--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster