Guided JB-2 Loon

Thaddeus wrote:
the FL-Boats of WWI had "up to" 50 miles of wire! the practical limits were the operator was (initially at least) seated on a platform on the beach, then they attempted to have observer plane radio directions.

And boats can AFFORD to try and drag 50 miles of wire, (light cable actually) whereas aircraft and flying missiles can't. Once you're beyond a couple thousand feet the wire mass starts creating some significant drag on the missile which effects control, and stability. And a powered missile has to keep the wire well away from the propulsion which is highly problematical with a pulsejet, jet or rocket as the wire has to be well offset and this creates even more control and stability issues.

mentioned wire-guided since the Germans attempted that in WWII after their radio signals were jammed, believe all their guided munitions were well under 10 mi. range?

Depends on your sources but none of the wire-guided seem to have a range over 5 miles, most are less than 1000 yards with a few of the experimental but not deployed air-to-air missiles listed as 1-3 miles under ideal conditions. Radio control could give ranges out to around 10 miles but the limiting factor was the ability of the operator to keep the missile/bomb AND target in a sight picture to keep correcting the trajectory.

Again, doing this requires an aircraft that can keep up with the missile in flight AND a dedicated radio channel, and usually also a dedicated aircraft for EACH missile.

if the wire breaks to no fatal effect does the trajectory just continue with last input?

Usually the control will reset to 'neutral' to keep the vehicle from going out of control. (For example if the missile is given a 'pitch-up-roll-left' command and the wire breaks in mid-maneuver the vehicle will immediately roll level and continue on the last bearing and hope to hit something The most likely outcome is still a crash or missing the target) Today there are usually more than one 'seeker' aboard so that even if the command wire is broken the weapons can then 'seek' to find a target on its own. Late Allied glide and guided bombs could be fitted with infrared seekers tuned to seek super-hot flares dropped by "Pathfinder" aircraft but CEPs were often still in the hundreds or feet because the technology was still very primitive.

Sloreck wrote:
Moving the warhead after from the nose enough for a TV camera would change the CG some but that could be corrected for. Since the warheads were HE and not AP moving 3-6 feet after would not make much difference of any in the blast effect.

Common mistake here, the 'warhead' was not IN the nose but aft of the actual nose and forward of the wings. It is a cylinder inside the body of the missile unlike more modern versions which actually USE 'standard' bombs with seeker and guidance kits attached such as the GBU-15 and 130A, (http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/m-112.html, http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/m-130.html)

The nose contained the spinning distance counter and control and support mechanism to compute the distance traveled and relay the 'dive' command over the target. So you don't actually need to move the warhead but to keep the proper CG and weight-and-balance in flight you're probably going to lose fuel (and range) to fit in the TV transmitting equipment and antenna in the aft end of the missile.

Randy
 
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