1959 photo via Charles Stuart of a C-131B testing a captive GAR-3A Falcon missile, later re-designated AIM-4F.

Narrative by Charles Stuart

Why am I sending a picture of a C-131 to a F-106 site????

This aircraft was used in the captive flight development of the GAR 3A/4A missiles for the 106. The aircraft was bailed to Hughes for this project. The picture was made summer 1959 over Malibu, CA. The flight was from the Hughes airstrip in Culver City, CA.

A captive GAR-3A is visible on the pylon under the nose. A F-102 radome is on the nose. A modified MG-10 radar from a 102 acted as surrogate MA-1 for these tests. This configuration was not intended to launch missiles, captive flight only. A launch test program was run concurrently at Holloman AFB, using F-106's.

Interesting little sidelight, a wide variety of aircraft targets were desired for the GAR 4A tests, in order to get IR signatures. Strategic Air Command aircraft were used whenever it could be arranged. Somewhere during this time some ADC type with live missiles was running an intercept on a SAC plane, presumably in SAFE mode. Murphy's law came into play and a missile or missiles were launched (you may have heard of this from other sources, I don't have any personal knowledge of the actual facts). ------- As a result General LeMay, head of SAC, sent out the word "no more captive runs on us by anybody". No amount of reassurance that the C-131 was not capable of launching would allow any more SAC targets for it.

The C-131 was used for other captive tests, including proximity fuze tests for the GAR-11/AIM-26.

Charles Stuart
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