GAM-71 Buck Duck
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The GAM-71 Buck Duck was a decoy missile that was developed by Convair in the late 1950s.
In the early 1950s, Convair studied the concept of a small decoy missile to be carried inside the bomb bay of a Convair B-36 bomber. This decoy was to be launched by the B-36 in enemy air space to confuse and saturate air defense systems. Convair actually built a prototype using company funds, and in August, 1954 the US Air Force awarded an official development contract for the Buck Duck decoy under project MX-2224. The vehicle was subsequently designated GAM-71, and the name was sometimes shortened to plain Duck. Glide tests of XGAM-71 prototypes launched from a modified B-29 Superfortress began in February 1955.
The GAM-71 was a small missile with straight wings which could be folded for stowage in the B-36's bomb bay. Reference sources quote an XLR85 liquid-fueled rocket engine as propulsion without giving further details. However, since other contemporary decoy missiles (GAM-72/ADM-20 Quail and SM-73 Goose) used turbojet propulsion, and because one source mentions a report that the GAM-71 used in fact a small turbojet engine, it is at least possible (but in no way certain) that "LR85" is an error for "J85". The Buck Duck used radar reflectors to simulate the radar return of a B-36, and had a range of 370 km (230 miles) at a speed of Mach 0.55. Initially it was planned that one bomber in a formation carries the full load of seven GAM-71s, but using a mixed load of two decoys and a reduced bomb load on all B-36s would have been also possible.
