Sometimes
of course failure produces opportunity.So it went with another secret weapon, the Navy’s Gorgon.Originally intended to be a rocket-propelled,
500 mph, dual role blockbuster, it suffered from
stability and control issues and couldn’t be
deployed.Instead
it became a flying test bed.Variants included pulse jet, turbojet and
rocket powered models equipped with active, passive,
and semi-active radar systems and television guidance.The experience provided with the bird proved
invaluable, and the Navy continued to refine it after
the war, even producing a ramjet version in the early
1950’s.A
smaller cousin, McDonnell’s pulse-jet powered
Katydid, also played a significant role after the war
as a target drone.
Developed by McDonnell, the Katydid was a
jet-powered naval gunnery target.The broad V-shaped tail, which provided
both aileron and rudder control surfaces, was
copied in the design of the Gargoyle.
The test bed for all sorts of propulsion
and guidance systems, Gorgon had a long and
varied career but never saw combat. In this
photo, taken in the post-war period at Pt.
Mugu Naval Air Missile Center, a P-61 Black
Widow zooms skyward carrying a ramjet powered
Gorgon IV.
Tests with WWII-era missiles continued well
into the 1950’s.Powered by a ramjet, a Gorgon IV races
across the Pacific near Pt. Mugu Naval Air
Missile Test Center circa 1950.
Suspended beneath the wing of a PB4Y-2
control plane, this rocket powered Gorgon IIA
is outfitted with a nose-mounted television
camera.
Ironically,
one missile that was mass produced in American factories was… the German
V-1.After
the unguided, pulse-jet powered “buzz bombs”
terrorized London in 1944, recovered pieces of
airframes were delivered to the U.S. for study.The ingenuity, reliability and war record of
the weapons spoke for themselves.Thus the JB-2 Flying Bomb or “Loon”
came into being – the “Americanized” V-1.Planners ordered hundreds and hoped to launch them from
aircraft carriers against the Japanese mainland.Like many things at that stage of the war, the purpose would
have been purely to affect morale.After VE-Day, the Loon was extensively modified
and a fully-guided version produced.In 1947 it became the first guided missile ever
launched off a submarine.Like the German V-2 rocket, a weapon never equaled by
America’s defense industry and which was therefore
used extensively in this country for experimentation
in the post-war period, the V-1 became a stable
platform from which to survey the future and
hopefully, gain supremacy in it.
Shortly after it first struck England,American copies of the V-1 rolled off
the assembly line.Although produced too late to give the
Axis a taste of their own medicine, the
“Loon” became a valuable post-war test
bed.Members
of the Naval Electronics Lab outfitted them
with radio controls and turned the flying
bombs into guided missiles as part of
“Project Derby”.
As its launch slippers eject, a Loon
rockets off of a catapult at Point Mugu circa
1947.A few months later the submarine USS Cusk would make history
by taking a Loon out to sea and launching off
the deck and into the Pacific.
Yet
supremacy, at least in the years immediately following
the war, took the form of the war’s ultimate secret
weapon: the Atomic Bomb.Amazingly, America developed the fission bomb while
conducting dozens of other sophisticated research and
development efforts not just in aviation, but in all
forms of armaments.Perhaps in some respects this helps explain why
most of America’s advanced weapons were not produced
or deployed en masse.The President and those privy to the
undertaking recognized that the Manhattan Project was
absolutely imperative.The Bomb represented a goal so vital that it
demanded the complete attention of most of the
nation’s brightest scientific and engineering minds,
and the lion’s share of capital to boot.If that enormous gamble paid off, it would
trump all other innovations, whole armies of men,
fleets of ships, and squadrons of planes and missiles.
Yet
also noteworthy is that since 1945, no nuclear weapon
has been used for military purposes.In the absence of a nuclear option, this nation
has relied upon conventional, and increasingly
high-tech weapons to fight its wars. Remarkably, those
which constitute this nation’s modern air forces
eerily mirror those developed by both sides during
World War II: the cruise missile, the smart bomb and
guided munitions, the stealth fighter, and so forth.Thus the innovations produced in the crucible
of that great conflict continue to define modern
airpower and inform military strategy in the present
day.
Special thanks to
Mike Machat, Capt. Grayson Merrill, USN (ret.), Billy
Joe Thomas, Norm Tengstrom, Andreas Parsch, Alan
Alpers, Raymond Puffer Ph.D., John Hart and all those
who provided photos and proof readings for their
assistance in preparing this article.
About the Author: Nick T. Spark’s articles have
appeared in Wings, Airpower, Naval History, The Annals
of Improbable Research, and other magazines.His documentary film, “Regulus: The First
Nuclear Missile Submarines” aired on Discovery
Channel Europe. Visit www.regulus-missile.com
