Well of course it's a guidance system, silly! They could use just a pocket
radio for a receiver.
I wonder if the Nike Ajax used any gyros at all, if the radar guidance
uplink was continuous from launch.
I imagine The Military Masterminds would not have expected the 'Bears' to be
accompanied by radar suppressing 'Thuds': "Fishboobs".
Also, what kind of propellant/oxidant was used?
Also, was the uplink data stream encrypted?
What kind of warhead did the nike Ajax have?
Inquiring minds want to know.

David Stinson wrote in message
...
Trying to identify a vacuum tube based missle seeker head.



Can anyone ID this? The box said "NIKE AJAX."

Thanks,
Dave S.

I wonder if the Nike Ajax used any gyros at all, if the radar guidance
uplink was continuous from launch.

Radar guided from launch.

I imagine The Military Masterminds would not have expected the 'Bears' to be
accompanied by radar suppressing 'Thuds': "Fishboobs".

The missle was headed away from the launch site and toward the target.
The receiving "horn" was directional enough to maintain a good S/N
ratio in the face of target aircraft jamming efforts.

Also, what kind of propellant/oxidant was used?

It was a two-stage missle with a solid fuel booster and a liquid fuel
missle motor. One of the liquid components was "red fuming nitric
acid" but I forgot the other component. It's been well over 40 years
ago, so cut me some slack!

Also, was the uplink data stream encrypted?

No.

What kind of warhead did the nike Ajax have?

The Ajax had three warheads. A 12 lb. nose warhead, a 179 lb. center
warhead, and a 122 lb. tail warhead. The warheads were TNT and
covered with layers of steel blocks about 1/2-inch square. The idea
was to produce a burst pattern of sufficient size to cover the target
aircraft.

Best Regards,

Ed Engelken
Canyon Lake, TX

In (rec.radio.amateur.boatanchors), Ed Engelken wrote:

Also, what kind of propellant/oxidant was used?

It was a two-stage missle with a solid fuel booster and a liquid fuel
missle motor. One of the liquid components was "red fuming nitric
acid" but I forgot the other component. It's been well over 40 years
ago, so cut me some slack!

If RFNA was one component, then the other probably was some form of
hydrazine -- probably unsymmetrical dimethyil hydrazine, which is
Nasty and Corrosive enough to make RFNA look positively friendly.

--
How about "suspender snapping three martini lunching mahogany tabled
conference room equipped with overhead projector dwelling golden parachute
flying bill gates specifying buzzword spewing computerworld and datamation
reading trend bandwagoneering meeting going morons". -- Tom O'Toole

(Mike Andrews) wrote in message ...
In (rec.radio.amateur.boatanchors), Ed Engelken wrote:

Also, what kind of propellant/oxidant was used?

It was a two-stage missle with a solid fuel booster and a liquid fuel
missle motor. One of the liquid components was "red fuming nitric
acid" but I forgot the other component. It's been well over 40 years
ago, so cut me some slack!

If RFNA was one component, then the other probably was some form of
hydrazine -- probably unsymmetrical dimethyil hydrazine, which is
Nasty and Corrosive enough to make RFNA look positively friendly.

In the Warsaw Pact missiles, hydrazine was usually used as an ignitor
and the fuel was then switched to jet fuel (kerosene J1) that has a
higher energy content. Nitric acid was fuming since it contained 20
to 27% free N2O5. I believe it was stabilized with some kind of
chromium compound. Corrosion by nitric acid was not such an issue, it
was stored in pure aluminum that passivated itself. Diluted acid was
another story....

Jiri Placek
Boyertown, PA