Monday, April 4, 2011

The Falcon Missile

A while ago I mentioned that I was working on a history of the Hughes Falcon missile family. Well, after about a decade or so of (gradual) research and writing, I now have a finished product.

Anyone interested in this facet of Cold War history can download the PDF file here: click
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4 comments:

  1. Pat FlanneryApril 12, 2011 at 10:39 AM

    Thanks for doing that; it got overshadowed by the Sidewinder missile, but its something I always wanted to learn more about, and the pdf has loads of interesting info on it.

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  2. Pat FlanneryApril 12, 2011 at 7:20 PM

    One use I'd read for IR-homing Falcons over Vietnam was night attacks on SA-2 sites.
    The generator that powered the site's radar put out enough heat that the missile could lock on it and home in to destroy it.
    After some successful attacks like this, the North Vietnamese military began using old oil drums full of burning material to serve as IR decoys, and the missiles were withdrawn from this mission.

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  3. children booksApril 12, 2011 at 7:57 PM

    Lol this reminds me of that gaming move falcon punch for some reason

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  4. ClarkApril 16, 2011 at 6:26 AM

    A really interesting work. I didn't know about the many variants, and that it was in use in AFNG so long.

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