F6F Drone Vs USAF in California.

[ngatimozart]

Interesting story about the "Battle of Palmdale" with two F89 Scorpions chasing and trying to shoot down a USN F6F K5 target drone that they had lost control of. It was supposed to head out to sea but they lost control of it shortly after takeoff from Pt Mugu in California and it headed inland towards LA. So the USN called the USAF for help who scrambled two F89s. It's a very good read.

[flyjoe180]

Interesting article there, thanks for posting the link. All those rockets fired and no hits!

[suthg]

The uncontrolled radio drone hit some power lines and crashed into the ground. Rockets fired generated a few fires and others landed in populated areas.

[davidd]

The F-89 Scorpion was for a while in the mid-1950s the main (USAF) all-weather interceptor tasked with defending the continental United States against attacks by Soviet long range jet bombers. The later models (and the ones in the story definitely sound like these, D and H types) were armed solely with large numbers of small, unguided missiles, intended to bring down large jet bombers by obliterating them - somebody thought that cannon fire alone would be incapable of doing the job, although this was almost certainly a fallacy. The story as related would seem to confirm that this method of destruction was far from foolproof, and the expended rockets were left free to continue on their merry way fully armed; fortunately large parts of the USA are largely empty! The small rockets were carried in large wing-tip pods, and were usually fired en mass "to guarantee destruction". There have been quite a number of theories about intecepting and destroying enemy bombers over the years which had major influence on fighter design based on such thinking, many of which were founded on faulty knowledge of same facet of the interception/destruction problem. However not all aircraft resulting from these theories were complete failures, but most were. Think of Defiant, XF-85 Goblin, Bell XP-77, Typhoon/Tornado (the WW2 ones), and the F-4 Phantom (US Navy's first nil-gun fighter); the last of course was able to be salvaged and thoroughly redeemed itself, and the Typhoon was also able to give good service in roles other than for which it was designed. The Defiant made a moderately useful interim night fighter, and later a useful target tug (but only because they were already available and it saved building new aircraft.
David D

[mumbles]

Feb 11, 2013 9:22:55 GMT 12 davidd said:

The F-89 Scorpion was for a while in the mid-1950s the main (USAF) all-weather interceptor tasked with defending the continental United States against attacks by Soviet long range jet bombers. The later models (and the ones in the story definitely sound like these, D and H types) were armed solely with large numbers of small, unguided missiles, intended to bring down large jet bombers by obliterating them - somebody thought that cannon fire alone would be incapable of doing the job, although this was almost certainly a fallacy. The story as related would seem to confirm that this method of destruction was far from foolproof,

Possibly one of the reasons why F-89s wound up being armed with only a couple of big unguided but nuclear tipped rockets instead . Must be having a hell of a day when using those becomes a good idea!

[corsair67]

Reminds me of this one:




Story isn't completed accurately researched - but you get that sometimes on commercial television!