In article ,
(WaltBJ) writes:

That was the problem with the F104A launching an AIR2A Genie. It's
ASG14T1 radar (highly resembling an AI10 AI set from WW2) didn't even
have a computer. It didn't angle track, either - the pilot did that.
It did have range track and an overtake indicating needle but there
was no precision output reading in range. Some more boxes would have
been needed to get a Genie to go off at the right spot; TLAR wouldn't
have hacked it.

Yeah - the same Genie interface issues would have occurred - I can't
see them sticking an MG-13 in an F-104.
One thing I've been wondering - given the way that the ASG-14 worked,
and its presentation, how hard was it to sort out multiple targets in
its field of view? I can see some potential for real problems, there.

BTW the AIM26A Fat Falcon did have a prox fuze; unfortunately it was
determined that chaff would most likely have set it off so we had to
do odd offset attacks to keep the missile out of the chaff trail. Like
the Genie-launchers, our bellies would have been facing the FF when it
went off. Best use I'd heard for the Genie rocket motors was the idea
to screw a CBU24 to its front and use it for flak supression. Would
have beat a ballistic drop all hollow - nice stand-off weapon!

Yeah - If I were in a "Picking on Hughes" mode, I'd say that a nuke
was the only way that Hughes could get a Prox Fuze to work. That is
slightly unkind - Missile prox fuzes are something that still gives
trouble, and designers still throw up their hands on them, One good
example is the Rapier SAM. They couldn't make a prox fuze for the
first generations, so they made the Marketing Decision to call it a
"Hittile", adn claim that it didn't need one. Oddly enough, when the
second generation Rapiers came out, it had a prox fuze, and all the
"Hittile" talk went away. SA-2s and Nikes were all, AFAIK, command
detonated. They didn't have the space to fit the necessary smarts in
the missile, so they left it up to the guidance computer.

I wonder what the guys flying the F-101s thought. Their options were
2 AIM-4s and 2 Genies. That sounds like a choice between Probably
Miss and really upsetting somebody on the ground's day.

Walt BJ ex-Deuce driver
Thanks, Walt, I was hoping you'd pick it up.

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