This one was much too easy, but it did bring out 37 members of the Observer Corps who submitted their answers from as far away as Bagdad, Iraq. The mystery airplane was the proposed Douglas F6D Missileer.
To combat the threat posed by former Soviet Union long-range bombers and their air-launched missiles in the late 1950s, the U.S. Navy projected a requirement for an aircraft capable of engaging multiple targets at ranges in excess of the then current air-to-air missiles. In 1957 the Navy requested proposals for a Fleet Air Defense Fighter and its associated missile and fire-control system. The result was a Navy contract awarded to the Douglas Aircraft Co. in 1959 to develop their model D-776 into a slightly overgrown version of the F3D Skyknight — designated the F6D-1 and named the Missileer. The new aircraft was built to carry six Bendix XAAM-N-10 Eagle long-range, air-to-air missiles guided by Hughes advanced pulse-doppler, track-while-scan missile fire-control system.
The F6D-1 was to be a large, straightwing aircraft powered by two Pratt & Whitney TF30-P-2 turbofans and manned by a crew of two, side by side. The Missileer was designed for a maximum speed of Mach 0.9 and on station endurance of four–six hours.
In 1960 a cost conscientious economic climate prevailed in the Department of Defense, and in December the Douglas F6D-1 contract was canceled, mainly due to the aircrafts’ limited combat capability. The cancellation of the F6D-1 was followed in April 1961 by the cancellation of the Eagle missile and Hughes fire-control system.
AT1 Charles Berlmann Jr. of the VAQ-135 Black Ravens, NAS Whidbey Island was the winner of the spring contest and will receive a one-year subscription to The Hook magazine and a Tailhook coffee mug.
Please keep your informative cards, letters and e-mails coming (the Tailhook Association, 9696 Businesspark Ave, San Diego, CA 92131-1643; thookassn@aol.com). Below is the new "What Is It?" aircraft. Be sure to include the manufacturer and correct designation of the aircraft at the time of the photograph. Please, no phone calls. Deadline is June 15, 2009.
Oh, yeah. Only one entry per contestant, please.
Either e-mail your
guess to thookassn@aol.com
or send it to:
"What is it?"
The Hook Magazine
9696 Businesspark Ave.
San Diego, CA 92131-1643