Newbie questions Rail / Ejector launchers

F102 had rails for missiles and tubes for rockets. 3 each RX tubes
were in each of the center four doors. MX rails were pneumatically
extended and retracted. The firing cycle was thus: Doors snapped open,
rear (3) rails extended, 3 missiles fired, front rails snapped down as
rears retracted, front 3 missiles fired, front rails came up, doors
snapped closed - all in 3 seconds flat. Everybody was extremely
respectful of extended doors on the ground especially with HP
pneumatic (3000PSI) system charged. Special clamps held doors extended
when working around the Deuce in this condition.
Walt BJ

"WaltBJ" wrote in message
om...
F102 had rails for missiles and tubes for rockets. 3 each RX tubes
were in each of the center four doors. MX rails were pneumatically
extended and retracted. The firing cycle was thus: Doors snapped open,
rear (3) rails extended, 3 missiles fired, front rails snapped down as
rears retracted, front 3 missiles fired, front rails came up, doors
snapped closed - all in 3 seconds flat. Everybody was extremely
respectful of extended doors on the ground especially with HP
pneumatic (3000PSI) system charged. Special clamps held doors extended
when working around the Deuce in this condition.
Walt BJ

Right. Rails for missiles held internally. Same as the -106.

IIRC, a guy at Loring lost part of his arm putting the downlocks on a bird
coming back from an alert mission. You had to put the locks on prior to
shutdown, and with the doors open. Fault in the system caused a door-close
just as he was putting on one of the locks.

There is no possible way to move fast enough to avoid the doors snapping
shut.

Pete