Jet Bug

One of the hardest problems in training jet fighter pilots is providing suitable targets for air-to-air gunnery practice. Towed sleeve targets are poor opposition. They are too slow to simulate enemy bombers or fighters, and they cannot be maneuvered. A pilot trained for such sitting ducks is likely to get a shock if he comes against enemy pilots in jet planes like his own.

This summer the Air Force will evaluate a new jet target, the Ryan Firebee, which it hopes will help solve the problem. The Firebee is an ugly little pilotless airplane, built like a potbellied bug with swept-back wings. It is only 17 ft. 3 in. long, and its wing span is 11 ft. 2 in. But its belly contains a real jet engine with 1,000 Ibs. of thrust, which gives it maximum speed at sea level of 610 m.p.h. At 40,000 ft. it can fly for an hour and 20 minutes at 575 m.p.h. This is not quite the performance of modern jet fighters, but.it is close enough to give the manned jets a strenuous workout.

Instead of a pilot, the Firebee carries a collection of electronic "black boxes" that do almost as well. It can fly under automatic controls, or it can be flown by radio from a distance. It can make a gunnery run on a real airplane as if a human pilot were on board. It can buzz in curves like a June bug, giving the pilot who tries to attack it a simulated dogfight. When posing as a bomber, it can carry radar-reflecting devices that make it look like a large airplane on the radarscope.

When the flight is over, the Firebee is not lost. At a radio signal (or when something goes wrong mechanically), a small parachute pops out of its tail, dragging a larger parachute. The Firebee floats down slowly enough to land undamaged.

Besides its primary use as a target for fighters, the Firebee has other potential uses, according to the Ryan Aeronautical Co. It would provide an excellent target for antiaircraft guided missiles, which have been trying their electronic tricks on slow-flying drones or even floating parachutes. Such tests are no tests, says Ryan. A missile should not be trusted for defense against enemy bombers unless it can hunt down and destroy an airplane at least as fast as the Firebee. No U.S. missile, says Ryan, has proved this yet.

Designed to be a fast and versatile target, the Firebee has developed into something like a guided missile. Ryan offers it as a cheap, fast bomb carrier. It can be dropped from a bomber, launched by a catapult or tossed into the. air by an auxiliary rocket. Instead of carrying a bomb, it can take a fast tour over enemy lines, return to its starting point and land by parachute. Strips of film from an automatic camera will tell an Army commander in a few minutes what the enemy is up to.

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