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Show 1 The Salt Lake Tribune, Sunday, August 23, 1981 1 5 Sidewinder Missiles Been Around Long Time and Getting Better EDITOR'S NOTE: The Sidewinder missiles used by the U.S. Navy iets to shoot down two Libyan fighters last week were advanced versions of an i missile ngenious almost 30 years spawned ago at a naval installation little-know- n in California's Moiave Dee writer sert. William F. Wright, who is on the book on a working Sidewinder, chronicles its development and describes its value to the United States and its allies today. Free-lanc- accuracy, but the origi- nal design concepts survive in todays versions Another View 'Its just like the Vosaid retired lkswagen, Navy Capt. William B. Haff, a former commander of the Naval Weapons Center. They have improved it yet they have always managed to keep it simple enough where it is reliable to do the job when they want to use close-i- n it "It's Both Wilcox, now a scientist with the Naval Ocean Systems Center in San Diego, and Walter B. LaBerge, who also sered as an early Sidewinder program manager, maintain that the missile is America's foremost weapon for served as undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, said Wednesdays battle aerial combat today. by effective far the mos: air-to-a- ir eapon in the U .S. arsenal, Wilcox said in an interview. "Its extremely reliable and very simple to use. Theres not a heck of a lot you can do to evade it once it's going after you." LaBerge, who later w demonstrated Sidewinder's effectiveness and the quality of the pilots trained to use it. LaBerge, now executive assistant to the president of Lockheed Missile and Space Co. in Sun- nyvale, Calif., said Sidewinder also demonstrates the effectiveness of military research and view. Sidewinder is an example of how wrong that is. Top Item LaBerge noted that Sidewinder is the princimissile in pal short-rang- e the North Atlantic Treaty Organization arsenal. development installations such as China Lake. People like to argue that the military laboratories are filled with foggy thinking people that only build things that are expensive and dont work very well, LaBerge said in an inter buy Sidewinder and they couldn't do it if they didn't think Sidewinder wasn't effective." Sidewinder is one of a host of weapons developed at China Lake that helped revolutionize aerial warfare. Tucked between the High Sierra and Death Se Page A 16, Column I Sidewinders last year for $42,350 each. But the magazine said unit costs of an improved version this year introduced would rocket to $175, 3S5. "It's still a good buy According to Defense Week magazine, the U.S. Air Force bought 2,050 for the defense dollar," LaBerge said. "It's reliability is truly outstanding. Everybody who wants to buy fighter planes from us wants to By William F. Wright For Associated Press CHINA LAKE NAVAL WEAPONS CENTER, On a clear auCalif. tumn day in 1953, high above the desert floor. Navy Lt. Walter M. Sehirra fired an ungainly looking little missile from beneath the wings of his World War II Douglas Tiger. The missile whooshed across the sky and brushed past another vintage wartime aircraft, a pilotless F Grumman fighter, and a new era in the history of aerial warfare was bom. The encounter, at this remote Navy installation 160 miles northeast of Los Angeles, marked the first successful combat-simulate- d test of a cleverly simple weapon that radio-controll- o off Noritake Fine China Closeout I would revolutionalize aerial combat: the hea- tseeking supersonic Sidewinder missile. J p) 05? - , '5 '' v Navy jets used advanced versions of the missile to shoot down two Libyan fighters over the Mediterranean last Wednesday. the successful U.S. Sept. 11, 1953, who would become one of Americas Spring first astronauts, repaired to the base home of Navy physicist William Meadow Chorus Raleigh Delevan B. McLean for a boisterous barbecue with members of the small civilian-militar- y team that developed the missile. They had reason to Celebrate. Although the missile carried no warhead explosives, the telemetry in the warhead Your Choice of Our indicated that the Sets 92-Pie- ce s299 weapon would have exploded close enough to the target aircraft to destroy or cripple it. Day and Night Working day and night seven days a week for months and scavenging parts from junkyards in Uos Angeles, McLean and his team had devised a weapon with very few moving parts and no more electronic components than an ordinary radio. The tail fins mounted on the slender (five inches in diameter), projectile and the control surfaces at the front gave it the ungainly look of a duck in flight. But appearances were g misleading. The homing device, so sensitive it could be activated by a lighted Noritake has closed out the 14 patterns you see illustrated here, so we're able to offer them to you at this special one time sale price. Each set includes 12 each: dinner plates, salad plates, breadbutter plates, cups, saucers, soupcereal bowls, fruit bowls and one each small and large platters, round and oval vegetable platter, gravy dish, sugar bowl with lid and creamer. ZCMI China. Spring Meadow pattern Whiteview pattern nine-foot-lo- heat-seekin- several cigarette thousand feet away, Biltmore guided the missile unerringly to its target. A solid propellant rocket 'motor powered the missile at speeds of up to 2.5 Mach. "It was the extreme embodiment of elegant simplicity, said Howard A. Wilcox, who served as project engineer and later program manager in the early development of Sidewinder. It was the embodiment of the philosophy that a complex function should be performed with simple hardware. Because of its zigzagging quest for its victims, the little missile was .C7K; Club Plan more Purchases $100 or of nothing down, no additional finance charge (the cost of credit is included in prices quoted for the goods and services), up to 2 years to pay with $10 a month minimum - only 13.08 a month (including 5 Utah sales tax) for your Noritake acquisition Shop Monday through Friday 10-Saturday 10-6- : Closed Sunday. named "Sidewinder after the deadly rattles- ) -;-V- v ', - ' - ", ' ' - '' ,11 4L' ' !' 'V " ' J&vt ri nv JmA l 9, t, ' '' ' "''t ' VsA; ' . V nake that inhabits California's Mojave Desert, home of the Naval , Weapons Center. Successive Sidewinder models have been refined to give the missile greater control, speed and el ; "'I - ' 00 IT YOURSELF WE HAVE WHAT IT TAKES t ' , ' - Vs s K t, J , t ' V PLUMBING BATHS -T- OILETS LAVATORIES LAUNDRY - SINKS TRAYS "'A REPAIR PARTS " Enchantment AND ADVICE. v ', V PIPE -V- ALVES FITTINGS SAVE NOW AT HUM'S 400 S. 800 WEST 24 Hour Toll-Fr- ee Direct Dial 'p fra'', Shopping S0 321-666- It ('4 5M . ' ,' '' 4 6, Western US SV2 ' , 'j i. Whiteview Trilby Upbeat Salt Lake t I (outside SIC) or write ZCMI, Salt Lake .City 84137 |
