Posted on 04/14/2015 6:41:53 AM PDT by C19fan
One of the most enduring symbols of the Cold War’s destructive potential is the intercontinental ballistic missile. But during the 1950s, the U.S. Force developed a strategic cruise missile known as the Snark.
The Snark was highly unusual at the time. Almost forgotten today, the flying branch developed the missile as a nuclear-armed “pilotless bomber” that would herald a new era of robotic warfare.
(Excerpt) Read more at medium.com ...
They say that penicillin clears up the snark real fast these days... ;-P
I seem to recall seeing a mockup or display of the Tory II engine at the Atomic Museum in Las Vegas. Wow...
DASH had an interesting history, if you like that kind of stuff...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrodyne_QH-50_DASH
Jimmy Ling, a man for all weapons? He had some really great ideas and aircraft. This one, the SLAM was one of the great ideas.
The Polaris going on line, as well as reliable ICBM’s, is why Kennedy was looking to phase out the PGM-19 Jupiter before the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Jupiter was also a stopgap, as well as obsolete shortly after it was deployed.
I always thought it was neat how the first US nuclear cruiser (the Long Beach) was supposed to have first a Regulus launcher then a vls farm amidships for eight Polarises. Ended up putting the ASROC box there instead. And the 5” guns Kennedy himself ordered in after a tour.
The Snark WAS a boojam you see.
Thats’ Boojum...
There were a couple of attempts by the USN and the Army playing catch-up, to develop a “flying torpedo”/”flying bomb” during WWI.
Basically a mini-biplane. Development petered out after the Armistice.
RP-1 and LOX didn’t make for very reliable rockets. I was 7 - 9 years old when all the crashes were occurring regularly at Canaveral. Dad subscribed to Aviation Week and I recall the steady stream of articles about failure after failure. Then all the Redstone and Atlas failures about the same time. It was an exciting time to grow up (if you weren’t too worried about getting incinerated by a Rusky nuke — but scrambling under your school desk was going to save you).
Good ones... though I was expecting to see “SNARKNADO”. </s
I don’t think it was slow - it ran at Mach 3.
But the exhaust was radioactive and a Mach 3 shockwave at low altitude would be dangerous.
That's because it never blew anything up. It would just sit on the launch pad making catty and sarcastic comments about the enemy.
What a snarky comment! LOL!!!
A great idea indeed...if you were for total nuclear destruction.
I think the SLAM was designed to be a “middle-finger” weapon, launched only after a first strike was perpetrated against us, and we wanted to ensure that the Soviet Union was nothing but an irradiated wasteland, useful for no one.
Pretty much an affirmative on that as I remember it.
Just to confirm your supposition:
It was a Dr. Stranglove worthy Doomsday equivalent weapon.
http://www.whiteeagleaerospace.com/the-missile-from-hell/
“The heart of the Project Pluto missile was the nuclear-fueled ramjet. An unshielded nuclear reactor, code named TORY, was devised, built and successfully tested. Testing was conducted at a special-purpose test site in Nevada. In its Tory II-C configuration, the SLAM ramjet produced over 500 megawatts of power in 5 minutes of continuous operation during a test conducted in May of 1964.”
(snip)
“Coupled with the above practical concerns of SLAM flight testing were growing political and mission obsolesence issues. Pentagon officials ultimately deemed Project Pluto as being highly provocative to the Soviet Union in the sense that the communist super power might feel compelled to develop their own SLAM. Further, American missilery was quickly developing to the point where ICBM-delivered warheads would do the job and at a lower per-unit cost.”
I believe the design intent was to putter around at idle until called to strike and then it would go supersonic and fly under the radar to the target area. I am amazed they actually tested these engines.
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