WW2 missiles

While we are on the subject, is there a difference between aircraft launched missiles and aircraft launched rockets?

All the common missiles seem to be rocket powered.  

Are missiles guided and rockets are not?

The first non RC Air to ground missile was developed by Lear Aviation corporation after the war my uncle was on the design and engineering teams that created it.

dmk

Bocks Suv

I watch a lot of history channel and whenever they show footage of missiles/rockets fired from a WW2 or modern jet, I wonder how are they aimed or guided? When was guidance or heat-seeking added? I can't imagine a Hellcat et al hitting anything under combat conditions. I guess I could look it up, but I prefer not to have to wade thru a 50 page PDF. Insights and references welcome.

The standard rockets found on Fighters in WWII were spin stabilized and followed a ballistic trajectory just like a bullet. The only advantage these had over the machine guns and cannon on the aircraft was the rockets had a large exposive warhead. I've read that a full rack of these was equivalent to a USN Cruiser's broadside (which had what, 8 inch guns?), so they didn't have to be very accurate to be effective in most cases.

There were some experimental guided missiles and guided bombs, but these were radio controlled (like an R/C plane) and were actually flown by someone with a joystick controller in the aircraft that fired it, or another flying along. They sometimes had a flare on the back to make them easier to see as they "flew" it in.

Radar and IR guided weapons came along well after WWII.  I believe China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station developed the first IR guided missile in the 1950s, which became the AIM-9 Sidewinder.  There was an article about this in Finescale a few years back.

There were experiments underway on IR heat seekers, but they did not become operational during the war.  The only guided air-air and air-ground missiles were the radio guided ones mentioned above and wire guided missiles.  There are still many wire guided missiles in current inventories.  At the back of the missile is a small coil of wire, carefully packed. It is held on the outside, the inside open, and the wire departs through that open middle "core."  The Germans did have a wire guided air to air interceptor missile.  No Hellcats were fitted with guided missiles- those were all guided.  More of the guided missiles were fin stabilized than spin-stabilized.  Some had folding fins, some were fixed fins. Some had fins that spun the missile so they were finned spin-stabilized.

Radar guided missiles were also in development during the war, but I don't believe any were fired operationally.

Bocks Suv

I watch a lot of history channel and whenever they show footage of missiles/rockets fired from a WW2 or modern jet, I wonder how are they aimed or guided? When was guidance or heat-seeking added? I can't imagine a Hellcat et al hitting anything under combat conditions. I guess I could look it up, but I prefer not to have to wade thru a 50 page PDF. Insights and references welcome.

The standard rockets found on Fighters in WWII were spin stabilized and followed a ballistic trajectory just like a bullet. The only advantage these had over the machine guns and cannon on the aircraft was the rockets had a large exposive warhead. I've read that a full rack of these was equivalent to a USN Cruiser's broadside (which had what, 8 inch guns?), so they didn't have to be very accurate to be effective in most cases.

There were some experimental guided missiles and guided bombs, but these were radio controlled (like an R/C plane) and were actually flown by someone with a joystick controller in the aircraft that fired it, or another flying along. They sometimes had a flare on the back to make them easier to see as they "flew" it in.

Radar and IR guided weapons came along well after WWII.  I believe China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station developed the first IR guided missile in the 1950s, which became the AIM-9 Sidewinder.  There was an article about this in Finescale a few years back.

look for something having to do with adding guidance to the 5 inch HPAG.  that is a rocket longer than the HVAR, and the HPAG is the motor body used in the creation of the Sidewinder by adding a guidance packet onto the HPAG. As Stik says, this was in the 1950's, post Panther (good Panther books show the HPAG and the HVAR mounting, not just one of them) and early Cougar and Cutlass days. VA-86 changed names to the Sidewinders by being one of the earliest Sidewinder missile carrying units, while equipped with the Cutlass.

I don't know of any "one stop" book or website with this info in it, though

Rex

There were only a handful of guided weapons in WWII, and those were air to surface. They were usually guided by radio control by the bombardier in the launching aircraft who would keep visual track of a flare in the tail of the weapon and make corrections via a joystick. Guided air to air weapons did not appear until the 1950s.

Uh, Wikipedia?