Sidewinder (The missile that has rattled enemy pilots since 1958)

Air & Space Magazine ^ | November 01, 2010 | Preston Lerner

[ansel12]

That is a good read, missiles and aircraft normally don’t interest me much, but I look forward to seeing the air combat crowd’s, responses to this.

[olezip]

The missile that has rattled enemy pilots since 1958. By Preston Lerner

Great article! ...took a trip down memory lane!

[Young Werther]

I attended Comm Officer's school in 1966 and met the first pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft with a sidewinder missile. He shot down a Chinese MiG-17 while flying a Taiwanese F-86. It was 1958 and he had the medal on his uniform to show his achievement.

He was in my swimming class and was afraid of deep water. I asked him hwy since he had fought over the straits between formosa and Mainland China. HGe said that he had an ejection sheet which came with survival kit and a RAFT! I did help him to overcome his fear.

[Psycho_Bunny]

I remember my father telling me it was like launching a locomotive off your wing.

[ThunderSleeps]

An ex fighter pilot friend of mine says of the AIM-9 series “...it is a very hungry missile.” Which I guess coming from a fighter jock is high praise. :-)

[Candor7]

AIM 9X Target Flight Test Video

[Mr. Silverback]

Bump!

[mowowie]

There are some cool videos of the AIM-9X on youtube.

The missile is pretty amazing.

[Calvin Locke]

The WSJ had a similar article 25 years ago or so. The first Gen had only 12 moving parts, iirc.

[Texas Fossil]

“White Sands”

Brings back fond memories of ham friends who worked there. Really great tech and great friends. I salute WSMR, ratscat, Holloman and Lockheed techs.

[null and void]

Thank! I remember as the kid on the flight line (I was all of 10) when the F-8s first got Sidewinders. I thought they were swell then, and I still do!

[Chode]

the role of the Sidewinder is bound to shrink. “These days,” he explains, “the object is to deploy your radar missiles so that when you get to the merge [the point at which two fighters pass each other], hopefully you see nothing but fireballs.

sure, soon as the ROE allows us to engage BVR targets...

[ProtectOurFreedom]

IIRC, there was an excellent article in Scientific American 10 or 15 years ago on the development.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Great article. Thanks for posting.

[magslinger]

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[spookie]

spent 7 yrs at China Lake working on Aim-9 and Cruise Missiles from 84-91. Listen to stories on how they initially tested the aim-9 original design. They used a car with sensor head mounted on right front window while they drove up and down the runway at max speed possible.

[Wilum]

Loaded a few of them on F-100D’s in the late 60”s. Got a couple of funny stories about them. I'll save them for another time. Heading back to the wood shop.

[chaosagent]

Back in the late 60’s I worked for a civilian DOD contractor. Was working on Marine and Navy F4D’s at MCAS Beaufort (Parris Island).

In a hanger that held 30 F4’s they had a Sidewinder on a test bench at one end with the nose cone off. One guy went to the other end of the hanger and lit a cigarette lighter.

Back on on the test bench the swivel head immediately gimbaled over and locked on the flame. As the lighter was moved back and forth across the far end of the hanger, the head tracked right along with it.

At the time, it was amazing. And I guess it still is.

[null and void]

Beautiful Beaufort by the sea...