Saturday embarrassment
Luckily this is old enough that I am sure all the principal players have long since retired, if not died. Good thing, too.
Back in the mid-’50s, the Navy was testing a new radar-guided air-to-air missile, the AIM-7 Sparrow. Targets were needed, so older prop planes were reconfigured as unmanned drones. We’re going to take Mr. Peabody’s Wayback machine to Point Mugu Naval Air Station, California, in August 1956.
The Navy launched a bright red F6F-5K Hellcat target drone on its final mission. The Hellcat was en route to the testing area over the Pacific when it suddenly stopped responding to its radio commands. Via radar, the Navy test team helplessly watched the drone slowly make a left turn and head towards Los Angeles.
The Navy obviously didn’t want it to come down in LA, but had nothing appropriate available so they called the Air Force at Oxnard Air Base. The Air Force was happy to oblige (and was no doubt happy (mixed meat metaphor approaching) to not only be able to save Navy’s bacon but make them eat a little crow, too.
The base dispatched two F-89D Scorpions with an Interceptor Squadron. The Scorpions headed towards the area in full afterburner, caught up with the drone near Los Angeles, and followed it until it was over an unpopulated area.
Designed to defend the U.S. against aircraft from the Soviet Union, the Scorpion was the latest frontline interceptor in the U.S. Air Force’s fleet, flown by 30 active-duty and seven Air National Guard squadrons. It was equipped with a new fire control system and radar, and loaded with 104 2.75-inch folding fin aircraft rockets (FFAR), which could be fired all at once or in a three-burst ripple mode.
Note – no guns. Some of you might remember ‘way back when the eggheads all said the future of air battle was MISSILES! and guns were unneeded. Contradictorily (is that a word?) many air battles took place at ever-decreasing speeds as the fighters tried to turn inside their opponents, and eventually the range is too short for missiles. Even the sainted F4 PhantomII started out in life gun-less (and pilots speedily got THAT corrected as soon as they could.) As one said, bullets are cheap and go where you want them to. But I digress.
Since the drone was now in a continuous, slow turn, the Scorpions had to wait for the right moment to fire. As the drone slowly turned towards Antelope Valley, the pilots decided to make their move. Both pilots attempted to fire in automatic mode, and when they pressed the trigger, nothing happened.
A design flaw prevented their rockets from firing in automatic mode, so the pilots were forced to switch to manual control. If that wasn’t bad enough, the D model Scorpions were initially equipped with gun sights, but when the new fire control system was added, the sights were removed.
You may have noticed that the Sparrows were still in development – what the AF had on hand were FFAR Folding Fin Aircraft Rockets, not radar-or heat-seekers. So, sightless, the pilots had to fire rockets in manual mode and hope they tagged the drone.
The first Scorpion lined up and fired off a burst of 42 rockets, but they all missed. The second did the same, with the same result: 42 misses. The jets made a second attempt, but both missed yet again. As the Hellcat flew toward Palmdale, both Scorpions fired their last salvo, but again, they missed. They fired a total of 208 rockets, and the Hellcat flew on unscathed.
One target, no hits. No need for sarcasm here.
The Hellcat eventually dropped low enough to clip a power line and cartwheel into the desert. No harm, no foul? Uh, no…
During their rocket attacks, the Scorpions caused significant damage. The first salvo of rockets caused brush fires near the city of Castaic, destroying about 150 acres. The second salvo caused fires near the town of Newhall, set fires to pumps belonging to the Indian Oil Company, caused a brushfire that came within 300 feet of an explosives plant, and burned over 350 acres of land. Fires were also started in Santa Clarita, and because the Air Force pilots fired the last salvo as they approached Palmdale, many of those rockets landed in the town, ended up in people’s homes, and destroyed their vehicles.
However, more than 1,000 acres were burned in the resulting brushfires, which required 500 firefighters two days to bring the fires under control.We Are The Mighty
The Battle of Palmdale. Some Air Force history you didn’t know.
Used to cal that a “teachable moment”. It could always have been worse. The F89 was also armed with air to air nukes.
Some bigwig Good Idea Fairy was whispering sweet nothings into Air Farce policymakers ears, hence the Charlie Foxtrot.
The GIF should have been swatted with the largest fly swatter as soon as it opened its mouth.
Ouch.
Not a story you want to tell the grandkids.
This happened after the AF moved from proper management from the Army. It is, to my knowledge, the first example of the new zoomies looking at new toys without having anyone to hold their imagination back. Yeah they had an example of when the Germans used the same principle, with rather poor results, against massed formations of B17s / B24’s but forgot that it takes a massed target and more than a little luck to work.
The good idea fairy was in frantic mode spreading all kinds of ideas with no basis in factual impact. Today that situation is still in operation where the zoomies want to get rid of the only effective ground attack aircraft in inventory, the A 10.
The fighter interceptor F-89, F-94, F-101/102/106 were designed to defeat large bombers coming over the Pole and AIR-2 Genies, FFAR, and AIM-4 Falcons with contact as opposed to proximity fuses were okay, Not designed for fighter sized targets manned or unmanned.
Several of my classmates were A-10 pilot. Seventeen of my last years working were in Electronic Warfare. The A-10 hasn’t been updated in this century in that regard and are sitting ducks. Two words Brewster Buffalo.
Brewster Buffalo to the A 10 is apples and raspberries comparison. The Buffalo was designed and intended to be a fighter, not ground attack. The A 10 was never intended to be a fighter, just ground attack. An A 10 would be outmatched by a Mig 17 in Air 2 Air much less anything more modern.
The Navy was whispering in the Air Forces ear. The F-4 was a Navy design and while the USAF F-4E had an internal gun, the Navy never fielded such a thing in the F-4.
The F-8 Crusader and the F-105 Thud had internal guns but not the F-4 until the Air Force did the E model.
Reminds me, my mom told me the tale of my dad’s exploits as a target drone flyer back in the mid 1960s. VC-8, NAS Roosey Roads, Puerto Rico. The pilot flies and what his aircraft does, the target drone does the same. There’s a Marine Corps fighter squadron in town to shoot down some drones. The drones are supposed to fly generally straight and level so the missiles will hit. They ain’t cheap, you know.
So the Navy drone pilots wait for the Marine pilots to launch their missiles and each time take sharp evasive action. Those early generation missiles all miss in their turn. At the officer’s club that night they play the audio tape of each engagement with the hot shot Marines complain of missing their targets.
Might not be a bad idea to rocket LA now and then.
Back then, LA wasn’t the hive of villainy and desperation that it is now.
Like what some of my fellow CW Reenactors on the CSA side said some years ago: “Atlanta didn’t have anything wrong when the Blue-bellies burnt it, but nowadays it could use a good burning, …”
Pretty certain it was… I’ve seen the documentary L.A. Confidential a few times. 😀
But seriously, that’s a pretty good movie. I need to dig out the DVD or watch it online again soon.
I can only imagine that if aircraft were living, breathing beings, that old Hellcat was thinking, “I survived half the air battles of the Pacific war, I’m going out on my own terms.”
I’ve found a rare, colorized photo from that incident of the governments of Castaic, Newhall, Santa Clarita, and Palmdale telling the Air Force they are going to pay for the damages:
That shows what happens when some people have too many bright ideas that only look good on paper, and nobody says “NO, wait a minute …”
Somebody probably did say”Wait a minute….” and was promptly promoted (?) to base beautification where they were issued paint, a brushes and the assignment to go paint rocks. When you get done with that, turn them over and paint the bottoms. Repeat as necessary to keep the know it all out of our hair.
Isn’t the US Navy on this kick? Less guns on ships and more missiles?
Jeff Cooper’s Rule #4, Be sure of your target. Know what it is, what is in line with it, and what is behind it.
Something else about keeping your nose picker off the trigger until sights are on target, but that’s just if one has sights.
*cough*
Also in the world of Navy Flight Test- as well I know- failure is always an option.
awesome story