Rocket pods during the 1950's

[chrisonord]

I am currently  building  a wiff frog Gloster Javelin  FAW 9, instead of  being  armed with  firestreak missiles, it will  be armed with  ground pounding ordnance.  I don't  have  any more  suitable  individual rockets  left, used them all on my RB-66, so was wondering  if some  Matra rocket pods would be within  the mid to late  1950's,  to arm it with. I  know  there are a few different  types and sizes of these pods, but I can't seem to find  when they would  be in service. Many thanks in advance.
Cheers,  Chris

[kitnut617]

If you google 'rocket launcher', you find some info. Basically the article says rocket pods were developed "immediately" after WWII to replace the rails previously used to fire rockets from. SNEB pods were one of them.  I would say if you used those small pods found in the early Airfix Harrier GR.1 kit, you wouldn't be far wrong.

[chrisonord]

Cheers Robert,
I have  the recent  boxing of the gr1 from  airfix, I will  look at those and see if they are  the same as any of the  recycled  ones  I have.  I was thinking  a load of  rocket  racks would look the part on a  Javelin, but I  don't have any  suitable ones
Cheers
Chris

[kitnut617]

Just another thought, Sea Vixens went into service about the same time right ?  Well one of the 1/72 kits has Matra type pods in it IIRC and they were of the 19 shot type.

[chrisonord]

Just another thought, Sea Vixens went into service about the same time right ?  Well one of the 1/72 kits has Matra type pods in it IIRC.

I will have  a look  for some  pictures of  one  and  see what they are like.  I  wouldn't mind a kit of one  but they are a bit sparse.  Thanks again  Robert 
Chris

[Weaver]

Just another thought, Sea Vixens went into service about the same time right ?  Well one of the 1/72 kits has Matra type pods in it IIRC and they were of the 19 shot type.

Be careful: Sea Vixens mostly used Microcell 36-round 2" (51mm) rocket pods, not the 18-round 68mm SNEB/Matra type. It's easy to mix them up, but the key thing is that the 2" pods have three rings of tubes instead of the two on the SNEBs.

[kitnut617]

Just another thought, Sea Vixens went into service about the same time right ?  Well one of the 1/72 kits has Matra type pods in it IIRC and they were of the 19 shot type.

Be careful: Sea Vixens mostly used Microcell 36-round 2" (51mm) rocket pods, not the 18-round 68mm SNEB/Matra type. It's easy to mix them up, but the key thing is that the 2" pods have three rings of tubes instead of the two on the SNEBs.

Mostly my comment was meant to be directed to the fact Sea Vixen's had rocket pods, and the Javelin was in service at the same time so putting rocket pods on it wouldn't be out of whack so to speak.

As an aside, the Hawk Javelin kit I have comes with six missiles that look like Sparrows, but are only half the size. I haven't been able to find any other missile that looks like them. Not sure if they're some sort of air-to-ground missile or not.

As another aside, matching the Hawk Javelin with an Airfix one, you could mix-n-match the two kits very easily (which I intend to do    ) The Hawk kit though is really of one of the prototypes and not a Mk.1 as it says on the box.

[Weaver]

Both aircraft had their first flight in 1951
The Javelin entered service in 1956
The Sea Vixen entered sevice in 1959

Now that might only be three years, but they were an important three years:

Sidewinder and Falcon entered service in 1956
Firestreak entered service in 1957
Sparrow entered service in 1958

That's why the Javelin started off with guns-only, while the Sea Vixen had no guns, and only briefly had built-in rockets before going over to an all-missile armament. The latter's rocket pods were there for ground-atttack only.

The RN used the 51mm Microcell rockets rather than the 68mm SNEBs favoured by the RAF because the former were more resistant to RF interference and so less likely to be set off by the powerful radar and other emitters on ships. AFAIK, the RN never had an accident like the devastating RF-induced, rocket-fires-on-the-deck accidents that the USN suffered. When RAF Harriers deplyed to RN ships in the Falklands War, they had to be hurridly adapted and qualified to use the 51mm rockets because the RN wouldn't have SNEBs on a ship.

[jcf]

Gloster looked at putting bombs on the Javelin, P.317:

[PR19_Kit]

It looks much better with longer wings................. 

[chrisonord]

I wanted to  stick  bombs on mine, but I  don't have any to put on it, so rockets it is. I like the look of the  one with the longer wings,  I would like to build one of those.
Chris

[kitbasher]

Have toyed with the bomber Javelin for a while, so go for it!  My take would have bombs on fuselage racks like the Tornado GR1/GR4 and one each on the outer pylons (tanks on the inner pylons like the FAW9).
The idea's been with me for a while and I'm sure it's the fin that makes me think of the Javelin as a 1950s Tornado.
Looking forward to seeing the end product.

[NARSES2]

I wanted to  stick  bombs on mine, but I  don't have any to put on it, so rockets it is.
Chris

Chris.

I've almost certainly got some Cold-War era bombs that you are wellcome to (they are to streamlined for most of my projects). Let me know how many you need and I'll have a look.

Chris

[chrisonord]

I wanted to  stick  bombs on mine, but I  don't have any to put on it, so rockets it is.
Chris

Thankyou Chris, that will be brilliant.  Whatever you can spare please as I have a few different projects that will need bombs  on them. Much appreciated 
Chris

Chris.

I've almost certainly got some Cold-War era bombs that you are wellcome to (they are to streamlined for most of my projects). Let me know how many you need and I'll have a look.

Chris

[kitbasher]

I've some Airfix Tornado and Matchbox Phnantom/Harrier 1000 pounders I can spare if Chris finds he's not got any.