Republic-Ford JB-2: Difference between revisions

Republic-Ford JB-2
Photo of the Republic/Ford JB-2 at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
Role	Pilotless flying bomb Type of aircraft
National origin	United States
Manufacturer	Republic Aircraft Willys-Overland Ford Motor Company
First flight	October 1944
Introduction	1945
Retired	1950
Primary users	United States Army Air Forces United States Air Force
Number built	1,385
Developed from	German V-1 flying bomb
Variants	MGM-1 Matador

The Republic/Ford JB-2 "Loon" was a U.S.-made copy of the German V-1 flying bomb.

Developed in 1944, and planned to be used in the United States Invasion of Japan (Operation Downfall), the JB-2 was never used in combat. After World War II, the JB-2 played a significant role in the development of more advanced surface-to-surface missile systems.

In July 1944, three weeks after German V-1 "Buzz Bombs" first struck England on June 12th and 13th, American engineers at Wright Field, fired a working copy of the German Argus As 014 pulse-jet engine, "reverse-engineered" from crashed German V-1s that were flown back to the United States from England for analysis. The reverse engineering provided the design of America's first mass-produced guided missile, the JB-2.

By 8 September, the first of thirteen complete JB-2s, reverse engineered from the material received at Wright Field in July was assembled at Republic Aviation. However Republic had it's production lines at capacity for producing P-47 Thunderbolts, so it sub-contracted the airframe manufacturing to Willys-Overland. Ford Motor Co built the engine, designated as the IJ-15-1, which was a copy of the V-1's 900-lb. thrust Argus-Schmidt pulse-jet. Guidence and flight controls were manufactured by Jack and Heintz Company of Cleveland, Ohio, and Monsanto took on the task of designing a better launching system, with Northrop supplying the launch sleds. ^[1]

The initial production order was 1,000 units, with subsequent production of 1,000 per month. However that figure as not anticipated to be attainable until April 1945. Production delivery began in January 1945, but the U.S. Army Air Forces canceled further production when World War II ended. Republic and Ford built 1,385 JB-2s for the Army and Navy. ^[1]

This was the first unmanned guided missile in America's arsenal. The first launch of a JB-2 took place at Eglin Army Air Field in Florida in October 1944. In addition to the Eglin group, a detachment of the Special Weapons Branch, Wright Field, Ohio, arrived at Wendover Field in Utah in 1944 with the mission of evaluating captured & experimental rocket systems, including the JB-2. Testing was from a launch structure just south of Wendover's Technical Site. The launch area is visible on Google Earth. Parts of crashed V-1s and JB-2s are occasionally found by Wendover Airport personnel.^[1]

The end of the European War in May 1945 meant a reduction of the number of JB-2s to be produced, but not the end of the program. It had already been dismissed as a weapon against Nazi Germany, as the strategic bombing concept was implemented and by 1945 the number of strategic targets in Germany was becoming limited. However, the JB-2 was envisioned as a weapon to attack Japan, especially in view of the anticipated high casualties expected in the planned invasion of Japan during Operation Downfall.^[1]

The use of Atomic Weapons in August 1945 against Japan led to the cancellation of Operation Downfall. However, the offical U.S. Air Force Fact Sheet on the JB-2 states that just before the end of the war, an aircraft carrier en route to the Pacific took on a load of JB-2s for possible use in the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands. The name of the carrier has never been identified. In addition, according to one Eglin AFB history, an unidentified USAAF unit in the Philippines was preparing to launch JB-2s against Japan, but the Atomic Bombings negated that mission. ^[1]

The U.S. Army Air Force continued development of the JB-2 as Project MX-544, with two versions: one with preset internal guidance and another with radar control. Several launch platforms were developed, including permanent and portable ramps, and mobile launching from beneath the wings of Boeing B-17G or Boeing B-29 bombers. Testing continued from 1944 to 1947 at Eglin to improve launch and guidance.

The U.S. Navy developed a submarine-launched version, KUW-1 Loon, later called LTV-N-2, which were carried on the aft deck in watertight containers. The first submarine to employ them was the SS-348 Cusk which successfully launched its first Loon on February 12, 1947, off Point Mugu, California.

After the United States Air Force became a fully independent arm of the National Military Establishment (later renamed to the Department of Defense) on September 18, 1947, research continued with the development of unmanned aircraft and pilotless bombers, including the already available JB-2 and the sub-sonic, 500 mile range XSSM-A-1 which had been specified in December 1945. The contract for developing the XSSM-A-1 was awarded to the Glenn L. Martin Company of Baltimore, Maryland and was known as the MX-771 project. The XSSM-A-1

The USAF Air Materiel Command reactivated the JB-2 as Project EO-727-12 on 23 April 1948, at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, the former Alamogordo Army Air Field. The JB-2 was used for development of missile guidance control and seeker systems, testing of telemetering and optical tracking facilities, and as a target for new surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles (ironically fulfilling the former V1's codename Flakzielgerät - anti-aircraft targeting device). The JB-2 project used the North American Aviation NATIV (North American Test Instrument Vehicle) Blockhouse and two launch ramps at Holloman: a 400-ft, two-rail ramp on a 3 degree earth-filled slope, and a 40-ft trailer ramp. The 40' trailer ramp was the first step toward a system which would eventually be adapted for the forthcoming Martin MGM-1 Matador, first operational surface-to-surface cruise missile built by the United States. The program at Holloman was terminated on 10 January 1949 after successful development of a radio guidance and control system that could control and even skid-land a JB-2 under the control of an airborne or ground transmitter.^[1]

The Air Proving Ground Command used JB-2s in a series of tests in the late 1940s and 1950s. In the spring of 1949, the 3200th Proof Test Group tested launching JB-2s from the wings of B-36 Bombers at Eglin AFB.^[2] About a year later, JB-2s were tested as aerial targets for experimental infrared gunsights.^[3]

In the summer of 1992, military crews uncovered the well-preserved wreckage of a JB-2 at a site on an Air Force-owned section of Santa Rosa Island. Most crash sites on the barrier island were little more than flaky rust, but after the find, officials were planning further searches.^[4]

• National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio
• U.S. Air Force Armament Museum, Eglin AFB, Florida
• Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, McMinnville, Oregon
• (Engine only, operational) Planes of Fame air museum, Chino, California[1]
• A JB-2 is on open-air display at the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry in Wasilla, Alaska.
• Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT), Auckland, New Zealand
• Hill Aerospace Museum, Hill AFB, Utah has an original JB-2, "Wendover Willie" [2]

• National Museum of the USAF JB-2 LOON Fact Sheet
• Mindling, George, and Bolton, Robert, 'U.S. Air Force Tactical Missiles 1949-1969 The Pioneers', 2008, Lulu Press

• Early History and Evolution of cruise missiles, JB-2 Loon development and testing at USAF 38th Tactical Missile Wing website
• V-1 "Buzz Bomb"/JB-2 Flying Bomb Fact Sheet at Hill Air Force Base website