AIM-47 Falcon

The GAR-9/AIM-47 Falcon by Hughes Aircraft was to design an air - to-air missile of Hughes Aircraft for the United States Air Force.

History

The development of the Falcon, referred to at the beginning as GAR -9, started in 1958 as a long-range interceptor missile for the North American XF -108 Rapier, which should take the necessary fire control system AN/ASG-18. After the F -108 program had been stopped, the development of the rocket went on, they should now be used as AIM -47B Falcon at the Lockheed F-12 Blackbird. From the YF -12A total of seven test launches were conducted at speeds between Mach 2.19 and Mach 3.2; in six of the rocket passed the target in shooting distance. 1966, this program was canceled. At this time, Hughes had already built about 80 pre-production models of the weapon.

The technology that has been used in the precursors of the AIM -47 ( these were the AIM -4 Falcon and the AIM -26 Falcon) came later in the AIM -54 Phoenix the United States Navy for use.

Technology

The AIM -47 was 3.82 meters long and measured 34.3 and 33 cm (AIM -47B ) in diameter. The maximum span was 83.8 cm, the weight at 371 or 363 kilograms. For the production version of a nuclear warhead was planned with 0.25 kt explosive force.

The rocket is propelled by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, reaching speeds up to Mach 4 and a range of about 100 miles.