By Tommy H. Thomason

Thursday, June 11, 2009

On The Other Hand

At least two Skyhawk pilots scored air-to-air kills with unguided rockets: VA-76's LtCdr Ted Swartz, flying off Bon Homme Richard, knocked down a MiG-17 with a five-inch Zuni rocket on 1 May 1967; and 13 years later, Col Ezra Dotan reportedly bagged another one over south Lebanon. It must be noted that the A-4's gunsight was all but useless for this kind of engagement.

The picture is a doctored one, implying the A-4 was in level flight when it was really in a dive, but illustrates what the marketer of a folding-fin rocket would claim is a feature: most of the rockets flying straight out but at least a couple starting to diverge to create somewhat less than a full choke pattern. However, one hit with a five-inch Zuni would be even more devastating than one with a 2.75 inch Mighty Mouse like the ones shown here.

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