AIM-47 Falcon

• Is Missile — yes • Name — AIM-47 Falcon • Origin — United States • Type — Air-to-air missile • Used By — United States Air Force (testing) • Designer — Hughes Aircraft • Design Date — 1957-1966 • Propellant — Solid fuel rocket • Spec Label — XAIM-47A • Engine — Lockheed XSR13-LP-1 • Weight — 818 lb • Length — 12 ft • Diameter — 13.5 in • Wingspan — 33 in • Speed — Mach 4 • Vehicle Range — 100 mi • Filling — 100 lb • Guidance — Semi-active radar homing, terminal infrared homing • Detonation — Proximity fuse • Launch Platform — Lockheed YF-12, North American XF-108 Rapier

In the early 1950s, the United States Air Force developed requirements for a high speed, high performance interceptor aircraft, originally called the LRI-X. In 1957, Hughes won the contract to supply the weapons system for this aircraft. This system consisted of the GAR-X missile and the YX-1 radar and fire control system. The original missile design had a range of 15 to, and could be equipped with a conventional warhead or a 0.25 kiloton version of the W42 nuclear warhead. When the North American XF-108 Rapier was announced as the winner of the LRI-X contest in April 1958, the Hughes entries were redesignated GAR-9 and AN/ASG-18 on the same day. The F-108 was canceled in September 1959, but the Air Force decided to continue development of the missile system with both warheads. During its development, the capabilities of the new missile grew tremendously. Growing much larger, the missile's range was extended to 100 mi, using the Aerojet-General XM59 solid-fuel motor. The SARH seeker was a powerful system of its own, with the resolution to be able to lock onto a 100 sqft target at 63 nmi. Some consideration was given to the addition of a passive infrared homing seeker to improve terminal performance but that would have required the missile to grow by 180 lb and two inches in diameter, making it too large for the F-108's weapon bay. The W42 nuclear version was dropped in 1958 in favor of a 100 lb high-explosive design. Problems with the motor during development led to the brief consideration of using a storable liquid-fuel rocket design, but was replaced instead by the Lockheed XSR13-LP-1 solid rocket. This lowered the top speed from Mach 6 to Mach 4. In this form, the GAR-9 started ground firings in August 1961. For air-launch testing at supersonic speeds the Republic XF-103 had originally been proposed as a test platform, but this aircraft was canceled before reaching the prototype stage. Instead, B-58 Hustler s/n 55-665 was modified to house the AN/ASG-18 radar in a large protruding radome that gave it the nickname "Snoopy", and in-flight launches started in May 1962.

In 1960 Lockheed started development of the Lockheed YF-12 interceptor, as a lower-cost replacement for the F-108. The GAR-9/ASG-18 were moved to this project. The F-12 would have featured four flip-open internal weapons bays on the chines behind the cockpit, one of these filled with electronics. The F-12B bays were too small for the GAR-9, so the GAR-9B was developed with flip-out fins to reduce its diameter. It weighed 365 kg. Test firings of the GAR-9A from the prototype F-12As resulted in six kills from seven launches, the lone miss due to a missile power failure (there were several non-guiding test launches as well). The missile was renamed AIM-47 in late 1962 as part of the transition to common naming for aerospace vehicles across the U.S. Department of Defense in 1962. The last launch was from a YF-12 flying at Mach 3.2 and an altitude of 74400 ft at a QB-47 target drone 500 ft off the ground. In 1966, the F-12 project was canceled just as the F-108 had been. Another project which expressed an interest in the design was the XB-70 Valkyrie, a bomber which could have carried the AIM-47 for self-defense. This aircraft was also canceled after Soviet deployment of effective high-altitude surface-to-air missiles made high-altitude attacks on the Soviet Union impractical. Hughes had built 80 pre-production AIM-47 missiles.