In article ,
(Prowlus) writes:
I was watching this programme called "flying through time" which this
week was about the century series fighters from f-100 to f-106 and it
mentioned that the f-104 toted the genie rocket as one of its weapon
options .
Now this programme usually gives info whilst givin the wrong imagery
or both but it did show a zipper with a weird retractable centerline
pylon supposedly for a big honking genie as so the programme is leadin
the viewer to believe .
Is this a genuine capability for a Starfighter? I would have thought
it wouldn't have the loading capacity for such a weapon or even the
software to launch it unlike the F-102 or F-106

There were proposals to put Genies on a bunch of aircraft, such as the
English Electric Lightning. If you're playing Global Thermonuclear
War, the Genie solves a lot of problems - it's unjammable, the target
can't jink out of the lethal radius, and you don't have all the
complications and failures of a proximity fuze (Which is still a very
difficult problem in a missile, and it should defeat any salvage
fuzing on the Bad Guy's bombs. (Rigging the bomb so that it goes off
if it hits the ground anywhere in your territory)

There was a test program for launching Genies from the F-104A, but, as
others have noted, it wasn't proceeded with. The program did,
however, evolve into a NASA study for using jets as the first stage of
a rocket system. The F-104A. the launching gear, and some of teh
effects on performance are detailed in NASA Technical Note D-1279,
"Some Operational Aspects of Using a High-Performance Airplane as a
First-Stage Booster for Air-Launching Solid-Fuel Sounding Rockets",
Horton and Messing, Jan. 1963, available online at:
http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/DTRS/1963/citation.html

There were 5 operational sounding rocket launches under the name of
ALSOR, using a Deacon sounding rocket as the second stage. Altitudes
of 100-116 km were reached.

This program also led to some confusion about the F-4 and Genies. A
later followon to this program was ALARR, which used an F-4 as teh
launching aircraft, and time-expired Genie airframes and motors as the
sounding rocket. Photos of the F-4 carrying the Genie shaped ALARR
have been presented as proof that the F-4 was qualified to carry the
AIR-2, which is not the case - The F-4's radar and FCS couldn't, in
its stock form, compute the launch and intercept points for the Genie,
or perform the electrical octoflugerons needed to set the Genie's
timers. (It wasn't anything as simple as a mechanical clock.)
There wasn't any real desire to put the Genie on the F-4 - when you've
got 4 fairly reliable AIM-7s aboard, you don't need a Genie.

It's pretty much a given that these studies, and the Bold Orion, High
Virgo, and Caleb projects were teh foundation for the U.S.A.F. air
launched ASAT of the 1980s. (High Virgo actually intercepted a
satellite)

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