In reply to the item on the Hawk Guerrilla Combat Team kit from the early 1960s, I thought he and others might be interested in a short history of this US programme.
Zero Length Launch involved mounting a rocket engine under a normal jet fighter, and simply blasting the aircraft in to the air. The rocket motor would then be jettisoned, and the aircraft would fly its normal mission.
The idea was to get aircraft in to the air as quickly as possible, and allow them to be dispersed away from airfields that would be under attack in the opening stages of World War Three. To make deployment easier, the aircraft and launching ramps would be mounted on heavy trucks. But you still needed a normal runway for landing.
Experiments using fixed ramps were conducted by the United States Air Force in the 1950s, involving the Republic F-84 Thunderjet (as modelled by Hawk), the North American F-100 Super Sabre, and the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter.
The tests were successful, but the system was not adopted for service use. Having small groups of jets scattered all over the countryside would have posed plenty of problems in command and control, and supply, as well as field security.
First up, the original entry on the Hawk kit.
MOONBASE CENTRAL: Hawk Guerrilla Combat Team Thunderjet (projectswordtoys.blogspot.com)
Next, here are a few references.
Wikipedia entry for ZELL.
Zero-length launch - Wikipedia
Several film clips of ZELL in action, including this documentary, which includes a German Starfighter, and a Soviet version using the MiG-19.
Cold War Tactics | ZERO LENGTH LAUNCH - YouTube
Episode 3 of the US TV series Steve Canyon, Operation Zero Launch, is based around the ZELL trials, using the F-100 Super Sabre. The colour is poor, but the film is great.
Steve Canyon TV 1958 colorized s01e03 "Operation Zero Launch" - YouTube
I do not think I would like to be aboard an aircraft launched this way either.
Paul Adams from New Zealand
Thats fascinating stuff Paul!
ReplyDelete