Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!rutgers!att!cbnews!fiddler@Sun.COM
From: fiddler@Sun.COM (Steve Hix)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Sidewinder sensitivity
Message-ID: <3333@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 21 Jan 89 02:06:36 GMT
References: <3213@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Lines: 32
Approved: military@att.att.com


In article <3213@cbnews.ATT.COM>, nak@cbnews.ATT.COM (Neil A. Kirby) writes:
> 
> 	One of the technicians on a carrier was checking out the heat
>     sensor on a Sidewinder, mounted on an F-4.  The tech finished most of
>     his tests and then armed the missile and waved his cigarette around the
>     nose of the missile ( from a few feet away) and watched the little IR
>     eye to make sure it tracked the lit cigarette.  On a working missile it
>     tracks really nicely.

One of my physics teachers in college was one of the original developers
of the IR sensors that ended up in the Sidewinder.  (He worked on them
in a previous life at China Lake.)

The sensitivity of some of the early systems was quite amazing, and
they found some rather...unusual applications.  Like being slaved to
a water jet to deal with a particular administrator's noxious cigar.

Another incident was triggered when they noticed that a particularly
well-endowed secretary always seemed to have a slightly higher body
temperature than anyone else in the group...

Some anecdotes related to early missile research, including early IR
guidance development,  appeared in a small book entittled "Some Birds
Don't Fly".  If you happen to find it, it's worth reading.

> 	 Did this ever get to widespread use?  Doesn't sound safe to me,
>      but hey, I'm just a computer hacker.  Does the manufacturer say
>      anything about this?  Or was this merely an accident waiting to
>      happen?

Shouldn't be a problem as long as the warhead and motor aren't armed.