SM-64 Navaho
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The North American SM-64 Navaho was a supersonic intercontinental cruise missile project built by North American Aviation. The program ran from 1950 to 1958. The first step, the X-10, was a flying subscale machine to proof the general arrangement and control technologies for step two. The X-10 was powered by two small turbojets and had retractable landing gear for take off and landing like a conventional jet. Step two, the G-26 as a nearly full-size test machine that was lauched vertically by a liquid-fuel rocket booster and at the correct speed and altitude, it would fly on the power of its two ramjets. The G-26 made a total of 10 launches from Launch Complex 9 (LC-9) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) between 1956 and 1958. Launch Complex 10 (LC-10) was also assigned to the Navaho program, and one Navaho was launched from this site in 1956. The final operational version, even larger with an appropraitely larger rocket booster, was never flown but major elements were built and the rocket booster technology went on to be used in other missles.
The Navaho consisted of two parts, a liquid fueled booster rocket and a cruise missile that carried the warhead, powered by a ramjet engine. The booster rocket accelerated the cruise missile to nearly Mach 3, where the ramjet engines were ignited and the booster was jettisoned. Successful launches were flown down-range through the Caribbean Islands, turned around, and landed at the Skid Strip landing field at CCAFS. The inertial guidance system employed the first solid-state digital computer ever developed in the U.S., and was later used as the guidance system on the first U.S. nuclear powered submarines.
The program was ultimately cancelled after five failed launches out of the 11 total launches caused its sponsors to shift funding to the more promising SM-62 Snark and the intercontinental ballistic missiles Atlas and Titan.
The Soviet Union had been working on parrallel projects, The Myasishchev "Buran" and Lavochkin "Burya" and a little later, the Tupolev Tu-123. The first two types were also large rocket-boosted ramjets while the third was a turbojet-powered machine. With the cancellation of the Navaho and the promise of ICBMs in the stratigic missle role, the first two were cancelled as well, though the Lavochkin project, which had some successful test flights, was carried on for R&D purposes and the Tupolev was reworked as a big, fast reconnaissance drone.
The missile is named after the Navajo Nation and is in keeping with North American Aviation's habit of naming projects with code names starting with the letters "NA".
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[edit] Specifications
[edit] General characteristics
- Length: 67 ft 11 in (20.7 m)
- Wingspan: 28 ft 7 in (8.71 m)
- Wing area: ft² ( m²)
- Weight: 64,850 lb (29,420 kg)
- Powerplant: 2× XRJ47-W-5 ramjets; 15,000 lbf (67 kN) thrust. 2× XLR83-NA-1 rocket boosters; 200,000 lb (890 kN) thrust.
[edit] Performance
- Maximum speed: Mach 3
- Maximum speed: 2,000 knots (3,700 km/h)
- Combat range: 3,500 miles (6,500 km)
- Service ceiling: 77,000 ft (23,000 m)
- Rate of climb: ft/min ( m/min)
- Wing loading: lb/ft² ( kg/m²)
- Thrust/weight: 0.46:1
[edit] Armament
- Nuclear warhead
[edit] Operators
United States: The United States Air Force cancelled the program before accepting the Navaho into service.
[edit] External links
- Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles: North American SM-64 Navaho, by Andreas Parsch
- http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/navhog26.htm
