Another aircraft related thread. The Douglas F6D Missileer . An Interesting concept but IMO would be very vulnerable to interceptors with no defensive weapons other then the Eagle missile.
"One of the Navy's ongoing concerns is defense of its ships from attacks by aircraft and/or missiles. The Chinese anti-ship missile threat is only the latest. In the 1950s, it was long-range, high-performance missiles launched from Soviet bombers. The first solution was the Sparrow air-to-air missile carried by fighters whose development had begun in the late 1940s. The F4H Phantom was the first Navy fighter specifically designed for the mission and was also armed with the Sparrow. However, the Navy continued to fret about a combination of faster bombers and longer range air-to-surface missiles that the Phantom/Sparrow approach was not capable of adequately addressing.
The solution from operational analyses was the Missileer concept. The Operational Requirement was issued on 11 July 1955. The "fighter" would simply be a subsonic platform that loitered out on a station on the threat axis, lugging a huge, long-range radar and up to eight very long-range air-to-air missiles. The missile's range requirement necessitated that it be provided with its own radar for terminal guidance. That and fuel required range that it was a very big missile indeed. It was to be called Eagle.
Work on the missile and engine design definition began first, because they would take much more time to develop and qualify than the airframe. The Bendix Corporation was selected as the prime contractor for the Eagle, including the airborne radar and missile control system, in December 1958. Grumman (airframe and flight test), Westinghouse (aircraft radar), Litton (tactical computer), Sanders (missile active pulse doppler seeker), and Aerojet (propulsion) were subcontractors.
The missile and booster were 16-feet long. Together, they weighed 1,288 lbs, including the missile's on-board radar and 110-lb warhead. The maximum range from launch to intercept was 100 nautical miles against a bomber flying at 60,000 feet and Mach 2."
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examines another pre-painted building for WWII.
