I worked with some of the old China Lakers when I was at Grumman years ago, there all retired now but those guys could design anything. Best engineers I've ever worked with. If you give engineers the freedom to invent and limited restraint you can get some amazing results. You might need to have some money limitations tho cus those guys could burn up a budget real quick
They use to be. A lot of the military documentaries from the 1960s,70s, and 80s either served as technical training films or promotional films made by defense contractors. The "rock music" format of military documentaries started showing up in the late 80s. The dumbed-down ADHD "jump cut" style of military documentary showed up in the mid to late 1990s.
Problem with the walleye, at least on the F4, the display was on the radar scopes. The scopes were green screen DVST, Direct View Storage Tube. Which made the displays a little fuzzy and hard to differentiate items. In the late 70's the displays were replaced with CRT displays that displayed standard TV format. Black and white.
@@user-pz9ct8zi3d it was a dual gun DVST. Direct view storage tube. A gun produced ase circle, range rate circle, el strobe and horizon line. B gun bsweep, ppi, range strobe. It's been 35 years since I worked on them so I might have missed one. I am pretty sure tv displays from wall eye and maverick weapons were a gun. In late 70's the green DVST displays were replaced with digital monitors. First MSDG from Texas Instruments and then DSCG from Honeywell. Much better display and the range rate circle replaced with digital readout. Not they got cute with how they generated the el strobe and horizon line and they weren't recorded on the VCR they installed. Pilots were extremely unhappy.
@@user-pz9ct8zi3d much, early 60's to mid 70's. Computer was gears and resolvers. F4C/D hundreds of vacuum tubes F4E hundreds of transistors and a few tubes. C/D heavy transmitter weighed about 150 pounds, E transmitter weighed 50 pounds.
@@user-pz9ct8zi3d you can purchase a ride in a F4 from the Collins Foundation, they have the only flyable F4 in civilian hands. It will cost about $10,000.
My Dad worked at Corona then China Lake. Did not knew what he worked on til he was well into retirement. He never really spoke of such things. I was able to learn he was right in the middle of sidewinder and some other cool stuff after his passing.
My Dad also worked Corona/China Lake. We grew up knowing he could not talk about it, so we didn't ask.... but it sure would be cool to know what they did. They took those secrets with them.
It's awful how they cut the juicy technical details in 29:41. Overall great material but still they can shorten the loop-repeating talking style at the beginning and not cut the actual insight details like the mentioned moment.
Thats so crazy to see this documentary on RU-vid. I saw this years and years ago at the museum at china lake airforce base. It's still there on display right next to the walleye missle thats also on display. Thats my grandfather bill starting at 17:15 and it's unbelievably surreal seeing him talk about his work along with others to develop this weapon system. Thank you for finding this footage and uploading it to youtube it brings me happiness and peace that there are so many others that find joy in the education and entertainment this doc brings. Bill was a very kind and funny soul may he rest in peace love you grandpa bill.
1:09:20 The section regarding the Multi Linear Shaped Charge warhead was fascinating. As far as I know, this design is wholly unique to the Walleye, with the closest equivalents being the modern anti-ship missile payloads, such as the one found in the Kormoran missile. It features a Semi-armor piercing warhead with multiple EFP's on the body for breaching bulkheads and sealed compartments, spreading damage and making it harder to stop flooding. The army is also working on a similar design for a special Anti Materiel shell.
It was our Commander, Homer Smith of VA 212 aboard the USS Bon Homme Richard CVA31 that flew the first Walleye against a Vietnamese target in 1967. I know it was going to be used against a bridge but the rest was top secret. He was shot down, tortured, and killed during a later raid. I was his plane captain at the time.
To this day the Walleye launch and leave system that has brought us to todays SLAM systems continues to improve. And as was said, once locked onto the target, unless the system itself malfunctioned or was hit by AAA there was no Jamming it.
You have better documentaries on items covered by 2 million subscriber RU-vidrs. They spend 10 mins telling absolutely nothing about it except superficial info without covering any of the history. This is what smarter every day and all these other creators try to do and fail. Seriously good job
As a former mil pilot and amateur astronomer, the most fascinating story is how infrared astronomy started. The infrared tracking head from the AIM-9 Sidewinder ended up in the hands of the astronomer and of course he immediately attached it to the telescope. And so began IR astronomy with today's James Webb Space IR Telescope
A bit long for RU-vid, but well-worth the watch. The history of television as a consumer product was an interesting side story in the arc of the Walleye development. We got our first television in 1957, when I was six. I remember it well because it was a big deal at the time. We were the first of our friends to get a TV, so our house became a social center. Within two years, almost everyone had one. I also remember hearing the first public reports about "smart" bombs on CBS News and in Time magazine. I recall that the Air Force hated the name "smart" bomb, because the news media took to calling ordinary gravity bombs "dumb" bombs. They insisted on calling them guided munitions.
"Considerably more deadly than larger munitions" Yeah because it practically knocked on the door and said 'Terribly sorry to bother you but I'm here to demolish your building.'
I love the combat videos of TV guided weapons. There's something sinister about the way that missile is approaching it's target, getting closer and closer until the video feed ends and the screen turns to "snow". From the current perspective TV guidance may seem antiquated since they can be relatively easy jammed and don't work in adverse weather and in low light condition, but they were the game changers and the start of the smart bomb/missile revolution. I salute all these smart and brave men that developed, tested and used Walleyes.. As far as today's videos of missile and bomb strikes are concerned, they are of lower quality than the WW2 combat footage. Most of the current videos are done by the thermal or IR cameras. It's maybe for the better. Nobody likes to see people getting blown up in pieces in 4K. But then again, maybe we would like to see that...
We had a 7 inch TV with 11 inch magnifier and on Friday nights all the neighbors would come over to watch the fights, when the only channel in Cincinnati was channel 5.
"How are they picking out these targets?" They sent President Johnson a target list of 100 targets, HIS choice (personally) was half-way down PAGE THREE of the target list (47). God loves when the ROE's are like that, did my USN tour in the 80's (welcome to Beirut, Lebanon) and we got stuck behind those too. Sent in four a-6's with bomb-loads (that ONE Intruder could have carried), and lost two air-craft (and three crew dead) because of this!
I have a photo in the lab at work with a A4E on her way back to the carrier with me re holes and missing fairings than can be counted with one walleye still attached to the pylon. Would love to find out the details and history of that mission.
Amazing pioneering engineers and pilots at the cutting age. I was shocked to see the aviator patch of 67 with smart bombers on it, nearly 30 years before all the hoo-ha during the gulf war about smart bombs and putting weapons through doors and windows. These guys were doing it yesrs before!😅
Question: When they say 500lb, 1000lb, etc., are they talking about the amount of explosive in the device or are they referring to total weight of the ordnance? Anybody know the answer? I prefer the truth, however lying is also acceptable.
Unless they're specifically referring to a warhead the weight is usually the total weight of the weapon, so in this case warhead plus case plus guidance package.
One of The first were the fritz in 1940's in germany . Jamming of radio control signals led to a wire with electrical signal connecting the ju88 drop plane to the tv guided glide bomb .
I imagine some secret presentation, similar to the one given to JFK, of the next gen ground braking missile, being prepared for Biden at Point Mugu or Area 51, next summer. But for the last 30 years Presidents were more keen on taking tours through defense contractor's assembling facilities, with a "proud" CEO of the company telling the President how they've hired 20 young engineers and 30 additional "high paying" jobs for the lower educated staff. Of course this is followed with a presentation of the new 3D printer that will reduce the cost of new missile development. But when this future missile finally transferes from the R&D to manufacturing, the price suddenly doubles due to "unexpected" problems arising. Defense contractors are blood sucking leaches but on the other hand they remain one of the few high tech companies that develop and produce almost everything in the US. When Lockheed transfers their F-35 plant from Fort Worth to Wuhan, claiming it will lower the price of the aircraft by 4% (and therefore earning additional 20 billion for the shareholders), is the moment we can turn the lights of in America and dissolve in peace and order.
We launched F/A-18s from Barbers point Hi. for HCAX in 98 or 99 I think. They had Walleys loaded on the last day to sink the target ship. Incidentally, AC #5 came back from a flight without its centerline drop tank. If I recall, the ordnance wouldn't drop. Maybe it was a Walleye, but the pilot selected emer jet and pickled everything off. We had joked that the walleyes were left over from Vietnam days. The drop tank made a reappearance around 2003 or so when it washed up on a guys beach in Japan. Theres pics online and you can clearly read "Cowboys" on it. Fun days.
Carpet bombing could drop a string of bombs a mile long along beside a line of buildings and release gases and chemicals enough to push air out of the way and suffocate people and leave buildings intact .
I worked for about 12 years around aircraft armament in the air force (not American). I came in at about the time of Desert Storm. "Smart bombs" were coming into mainstream service but for everybody that meant laser guided. Now there is GPS. To my great shame I did not know about the Walleye. I had heard of it mentioned in the Vietnam war, I knew it was camera guided and the limitations. But I didn't know it was self-guiding. And had a bigum warhead. Now I know that the first images I saw of smart bombs in the Gulf War were camera foootage from a Walleye going through a window.
Actually quite a few of Desert Storm PGM hits were one of 13 hits using SLAM. The SLAM used the IIR seeker from the IIR MAVERICK, the AWW-13 data link from WALLEYE II, and the rest was from the HARPOON. Worked like a charm. Company I worked for made the simulator for training the users.
Wasn't it a Walleye (and a sidewinder from a parked phantom across the deck) under John McCain's A-4 that set off that huge fire on Forestal in the 60's?
No. On the day of the accident, VA-46 aircraft (McCain’s squadron on Forrestal) were all carrying 1,000 pound AN-M65 bombs of WWII vintage that were received aboard the ship the day before. They were observed by many of the ordies as rusty and old, the composition B explosive filler was unstable, and the casings were beginning to seep paraffin phlegmatizing agent. The older composition B gets, it increases in explosive power by as much as 50% by weight. The casings were very thin skinned (evident by the 1min 36sec cook off time on the Forrestal). In other words, those bombs had no business being on the ship. The newer Mark-series Mk-83 bomb were in short supply throughout the fleet, and they were filled with composition H6 filler which was designed to burn instead of detonate when exposed to high heat, and the casings were thicker which gave the bomb a lower cook off rate.
Several early version og walleye fell into north vietnamese and hand over to soviet and china.the chinese reverse copy the seeker and integrated it into c601 anti ship missile.
The Chinese and Russian government have to paid back China Lake and their co operations for licence for making each copy AGM 62 walleye that a fact of international trade financial banking nobody loss.
So your a ground based bad guy. Little while plane drops a big bomb like thing. You see white bomb thing basically fly to the bridge your standing on. Boom!
The good old days when the military itself had top notch scientists and weapons developers that could develop and produce new weapon systems without the primary goal of making profit for the shareholders. Nowdays the military can't replace a flat tire without the input, presence and the special tooling of the contractors. Although AGM-62 was produced with the help and input from Martin Marietta, the Navy developers from China lake were the main guys on the job.
You're always fighting several enemies: the 'declared' enemy, other agencies, budgets and red tape. It's not about accomplishing a common goal, it's about others interfering and enforcing their 'rules' - as rules are sacred and take away any personal accountability.
What walleye did that wasn't really mentioned was that you could destroy a target with a couple of aircraft that might have taken a squadron with dumb bombs. Fewer men and aircraft sent in harms way.
Absolutely fantastic. A truly historical document of advanced weapon development. As always, it is the result of highly capable and dedicated individuals who sacrifice themselves in the pursuit of perfection.
Whilst Spacex et al are very impressive, let’s never forget these giants who with little more than a slide rule and the back of a napkin redefined the norms 50 plus years ago
@@MegaBaddog Credit for what? Von Braun said himself that they'd have never got a missile off the ground before the end of the war if it wasn't for the benefit of Dr Robert Goddard's research. Modern rocketry was pioneered in America well before the war, look into it and you'll find that out.
@@memezoffuckery3207 How exactly is that Mr Jealous? Where's the rockets from the company you started? Where's your contract with NASA? Frauds don't get contracts with NASA to lift payloads into space and develop vehicles they'll land on other planets.
1. Scottish air force is not a thing 2. They where there for IR imagery and had nothing to do with the air on there part 3. They where civilians wanting the imagery tech for commercial use
The poster didn't. It's over a decade old. Worth thanking the poster for putting it up. But it's pointless watching a "documentary" if you don't understand the context
@@fsxflyer253 Been there, done that, with US Army (Res.). I was Field Artillery Ofc. But I was curious what kind of gray matter the Navy would want for those who wish to don the red shirt. In retrospect, what I should have pursued in military career, is a Warrant Commision, for Limited Duty Warrant Officer. Being Commissioned Unrestricted Duty was just too stressful. Eval and OERs hanging over . Two promotion passed overs and its pack your bags. Then you have to worry and fight for C3I class seats at Leavenworth, War College dissertation. Advanced training schools. Security background checks. Surety tests for sensitive material custody qualls. All that for priveledge of having shiny rank and O-Club, and having 1st name being Sir. I would have been happier as a Warrant.
why did they do all the work to get this on a A4 scooter, an old , single pilot analog plane that was already difficult to fly(navigate, overhead)," Why didn't they do this on the F4 that had a WSO/RIO?
The A-4 was cheap and available for them to test fly the weapon from. It was also intended as a fire and forget weapon, needing a backseater to guide it in would have defeated the purpose of it.
@@IO-hh2fz But it wasn't entirely fire and forget ! the TV guidance could be done by the pilot. Furthermore the acquisition part required the pilot looking through the TV which means he wasn't looking at his avionics and airplane. The A4 was already known to be difficult just for navigation, big time F14 pilots who trained on it, said it was a hard airplane for such things.
@@FallenPhoenix86 Sure, but the A6 and F4 were already around during the Vietnam war, and they had the analog pilot, and a RIO/WSO who had his hands free for weapons
