AGM-28 Hound Dog

[Daryl J.]

What if there was a spy "satellite" that was reusable like the Space Shuttle so it could serve in different locations at different times, returing to earth for a quick refurbish and then carried aloft for release again to high altitude by the B-58 Hustler?  And to keep in line with the Convair aesthetic, these machines could look a bit like the old Hound Dog missile modified according to the confines of low level space reconnaissance.  Carried in pairs underneath the wings of the Hustler.  Appropriate sensing/transmitting devices aboard and rocket power underneath rather than jet for obvious reasons.    Deployable landing skids or wheel/skid combo for landing.

And the Hound Dog for a visual starting point.




Pix credit to whom it is due....

Feasible?  Most likely not one chance in aych-ee-double-toothpick.  Fun idea?   


Daryl J.

[GTX]

Be interesting to some V-bombers fitted with Hound Dogs.

Regards,

Greg

[Archangel]

Maybe a pair of rocket boosters to take it to orbit then when they are done they drop off like the shuttles. A third engine in the tail takes it to the final leg of the trip and when the missions done it fires again to send it on a glide path to return home. Any large aircraft like the B-58/B-52/B-1/Vulcan should be able to take a pair of these to a decent altitude.

What equpiment you have in them is up to you. Remove the warhead and the space for it should be big enough for anything you want to jam in there. IF not a minor stretch of the body and enlarge the tail fin and the canards and your done.   

[Weaver]

If it's going to be launched anywhere in the world at short notice and then come back down as soon as the job is done (1960s technology wet film cameras?), then there might be a problem getting recovery assets to the touchdown point in a timely fashion, or even worse, a real chance of unfriendlies getting to it first! So maybe it should have external rocket boosters for launch and a small internal/retractable turbojet, so that after re-entry, it can hold a high altitude cruise long enough to get to a convenient recovery point.

Recovery could be mid-air, using an advanced version of the "trapeze" system used for real (much smaller) space capsules. When the recovery aircraft sights the craft, it sends it a signal which makes it cut it's engine and deploy a parachute which leave it hanging nose-up. The recovery aircraft then snags it and tows it to a suitable touch-down point. The craft then jettisons the chute, re-ignites it's turbo jet, and makes a conventional landing.

[Archangel]

If it's going to be launched anywhere in the world at short notice and then come back down as soon as the job is done (1960s technology wet film cameras?), then there might be a problem getting recovery assets to the touchdown point in a timely fashion, or even worse, a real chance of unfriendlies getting to it first! So maybe it should have external rocket boosters for launch and a small internal/retractable turbojet, so that after re-entry, it can hold a high altitude cruise long enough to get to a convenient recovery point.

Recovery could be mid-air, using an advanced version of the "trapeze" system used for real (much smaller) space capsules. When the recovery aircraft sights the craft, it sends it a signal which makes it cut it's engine and deploy a parachute which leave it hanging nose-up. The recovery aircraft then snags it and tows it to a suitable touch-down point. The craft then jettisons the chute, re-ignites it's turbo jet, and makes a conventional landing.

I was thinking that if it had a landing gear system like the X-15 that it would just glide back to the base the yneeded it to go to and be recovered there.

[Iranian F-14A]

The concept you're talking about sounds ALOT like the Lockheed D-21 Tagboard program. Interesting though.

The basic idea of putting AGM-28s on a B-58 sounds good. Get rid of the pod,add a couple AGM-28s. It'd give the Hustler a nice little stand off attack capability,therefore the fuel lost with the deletion of the pod wouldn't matter since and over flight would be redundant. Also it'd give the Hustler the ability to attack more then one target( something the Hustler lacked until the addition of either Mk.28 or Mk.43 external mounted bombs)

[GTX]

Speaking of Hound Dog, get alod of the paint job on this (especially the pylon/missile match up):



Now how many JMNs would criticise the modeller who did something similar saying they obviously pained the missile by accidental...

Regards,

Greg

[PR19_Kit]

Makes you realise just how big that darned thing is! Getting on for the size of a Gnat, for goodness sake!

[kitnut617]

Speaking of Hound Dog, get alod of the paint job on this (especially the pylon/missile match up):



Now how many JMNs would criticise the modeller who did something similar saying they obviously pained the missile by accidental...

Regards,

Greg

The book I have on the B-52 has photos of Hound Dogs in storage, they have the pylon left attached to them

[philp]

That's cool Greg.  Never seen a camoflaged one.

The SAC Museum has one I was able to get a couple pics of.

[Archibald]

I discovered the Houn Dog some years ago on Andrea Parsch website. I really like this missile !

I think one should replace the turbojet by some rocket stages - the Agena may be good. Or a high energy RL-10, but the hydrogen is a pain in the donkey to store. Maybe some refrigirator system in the B-52.
http://www.astronautix.com/engines/rl10.htm

[Sauragnmon]

Or go for completely broke - modify the engine so you have a ramjet, and give it a short-burn rocket booster to kick the missile up to ignition speed on the ramjet.  You already have the fuel storage for the turbojet in the missile, you could just go from there and give her a ramjet.

[AS.12]

A period 'docudrama' about Operation Bluenose, 24-hour B-52 training mission over the North Pole culminating in a Hound Dog shot down the Atlantic Missile Range.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BXR-h84DZg

Wonderfully wooden acting from the SAC guys but lots of footage of the ground-handling equipment.

Interesting that on training missions the Hound Dog engines were started in flight, not on the ground.

[PR19_Kit]

I like the bit about '.......the Hound Dog will soften up the target with a nuclear burst'.

SOFTEN UP??? 

[AS.12]

4 MT of softening before the real firepower arrived!  Primary targets were SAM radar & command facilities and 'lower-priority' airfields.


I'm also trying to find some footage of Operation Silk Hat in May 1962, it was another SAC training mission and was scheduled so as to return to Eglin AFB during a firepower-demonstration air show.  It then launched a live Hound Dog on a lo-lo profile in front of an audience.  One of the crew was Captain Paul Gauntz.




Another quest is for a photo of the original GAM-77 configuration with two aft-mounted J85 engines.  That was NAA's preferred configuration despite advances from P&W advocating the J52; just a few days before final competition submission the USAF told NAA to switch to the J52, after a successful run-around-the-back by P&W!