GAR-1/AIM-4 Falcon
| Type: | Air-to-air missile |
| Guidance: | Radar guided or heat-seeking homing |
| Warhead: | Conventional fragmentation |
| Propulsion: | Single solid fuel motor |
| Range: | 5-7 miles (8-11km) |
| Speed: | Mach 2 – Mach 4 (590 – 1,180m/s) |
| Length: | 6 feet (1.8m) |
| Diameter: | 6.4 inches (16cm) |
| Weight: | 126 pounds (57kg) |
| First Firing at White Sands: | 1952 |
The Falcon was the first air-to-air guided missile in the Air Force, and the first in the world to enter operational service. In 1947, the newly created US Air Force held a competition for a combination fire control system and guided missile to be installed on future interceptor aircraft. Hughes Aircraft won the competition for both systems, and was intended to be used against enemy bombers. The base model had a unit cost of $15,000 in the 1960s.
The Falcon would eventually be designated as the Guided Aircraft Rocket, or GAR. From the GAR-1 came an entire family of air-launched missiles. As a general rule at the time, odd-numbered GARs were radar-guided, while those that are even-numbered were infrared guided. However, it did not take long before missiles with both guidance methods were being tested. In 1963, the GAR missiles were redesignated under the AIM-4 series.
Promoters of the Falcon would cite three advantages over other air-to-air systems contemporary to the late-1940s. First, the Falcon could be launched far beyond the reach of an enemy bomber’s defenses. Second, that it could be launched on a climbing course from an interceptor that was far below the enemy bomber, which would save the time that the interceptor would need to reach bombers flying at high altitudes. And third, that the Falcon had an “extremely” higher probability of kill, even against maneuvering targets. Even if the first Falcon missed, its small size meant that interceptors could carry multiple missiles, either under the wings, under the fuselage, or internally.
The Falcon was a semi-active, radar-homing, short-range intercept missile. Launched up to five miles from the target, it was guided automatically by the radar seeker located in the nose. Flanking the nose were receiver aerials that looked like small fins. The Falcon had a Thiokol solid-fuel rocket motor and a high-explosive warhead. One of its biggest disadvantages was its lack of a proximity fuse, meaning that the missile required a direct hit on the target to explode. Later versions had an elevon, or additional fin, at the base of each fin for maneuverability.
The GAR-1 became operational with the F-89 Scorpion, F-101 Voodoo, and F-102 Delta Dagger interceptors in 1956, with approximately 4,000 produced. It would be assigned to units under the Air Defense Command in 1957. All operational GAR/AIM-4 missiles were retired from the Air Force by the late-1980s. At WSMR, 795 Falcon missiles were launched between 1955 and 1961.
