peter wezeman wrote:

Vygg wrote in message
...

peter wezeman wrote:


AL wrote in message
...


Hi,


Here is a newbie question.

What are the merits and the pitfalls of rail vs ejector
launchers for guided missiles? I suppose bombs have to be
ejector launched and rockets rail.

Whenever I visit an airshow, I ended up scratching my head.


Ejectors are used to place a missile or bomb far enough away
from the aircraft so that they are in relatively undisturbed
airflow. This has been required on every fighter that carries
missiles in an internal weapons bay, such as the F-102, F-106,
YF-12, and the new FA-22. Ejectors are also often useful for
external stores to get the weapon clear of the complex flow
field near the aircraft. Extensive tests are carried out for
any new aircraft or new store to determine the separation
behavior and what type of ejector is required for it. I have a
vague memory that the F-14 required especially powerful
ejectors to ensure clean separation of bombs carried under the
fuselage, as the fuselage of that aircraft is a lifting body
and stores are subjected to aerodynamic forces that tend to
push them up against the aircraft. I think it was also an F-14
that shot itself down when the ejector for a Sparrow missile
failed and the missile lit off while still held in its recess.

Hope this helps, Peter Wezeman anti-social Darwinist


The F-106 and F-102 used rails, not ejectors for the AIM-4. Only
the AIR-2A was "ejected" from the bay.


Vygg


In the pictures I have seen, the Falcon missiles on the F-102 and
F-106 were held on parallelogram linkage devices that swung them
down out of the weapons bay. I had thought that this was a type of
ejector, but is it actually considered to be a retractable rail
mount? Did it release the missile with a downward component of
velocity, or did the missile fly itself forward off the rail? Did
the missile guidance system have to establish lock on the target
before it was launched?

thank you Peter Wezeman anti-social Darwinist

On the F-106, rails 1 & 2 (forward) were connected by a web (actually a
large metal plate rather than a spiderweb contraption), and rails 3 & 4
(aft) separately bracketed the ejector rack for the AIR-2A. The forward
rails came down together (obviously, since they were connected) and the
aft rails lowered simultaneously after 1 & 2 were retracted and clear.
The Falcons were fired in pairs after the aircraft locked onto the
target (MA-1A Radar for the AIM-4F, IR sensor on the upper part of the
nose forward of the windscreen for the AIM-4G). The missiles came
forward off of the rails. No ejector cartridges were loaded (or
necessary) for the Falcons.

The AIR-2A was kicked down out of the bay by a pair of ejectors and a
lanyard pulled a pin in the rocket motor to fire it once the weapon
cleared the aircraft. No actual "lock-on" was necessary for the Genie as
it was ballistic. The AWCIS did, however, compute a flight path and
time-to-go for detonation, as well as an egress sequence for the
aircraft to escape the blast. That path was flown automatically if the
pilot was in Auto AFCS and had SAGE Datalink in control.

Can't speak for the Dagger as the only ones that I ever were around were
all QFs. The drones didn't use the weapons bay, AFAIK.

Vygg