British Missile Reported Unable To Work In Rain

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28314, 27 June 1957, Page 13

British Missile Reported Unable To Work In Rain

(Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, June 26. Britain’s latest guided weapon, the air-to-air de Havilland Firestreak, is useless under the weather conditions Russia would probably choose for a sneak H-bomb attack, the “Daily Mail” air correspondent reported today.

It will not work in cloud or heavy rain. This fact, carefully kept from the British public, had . been known to the Soviet Air Force for more than two and a half years, claimed the correspondent. Worried defence planners were still trying to find a way of overcoming the problem.

The Firestreak, named for the first time in the last defence White Paper, was chosen by the Air Force as its main air-to-air weapon.

In December, 1954, an American aviation magazine revealed . that the weapon was of a type which homed on the infra-red rays given off by the heat sources of a bomber.

The correspondent said it was a scientific fact that a missile using the heat-bombing system would not work against any aircraft travelling in cloud or heavy rain. It could therefore be assumed this applied to the Firestreak.