Bomarc on the Line

For 20 years, the name Boeing has been synonymous with big bombers, from World War II's 6-17 to today's 650-m.p.h. B-52. Last week Boeing won a $7,109,195 Air Force production contract--and the promise of more--for a new aircraft calculated to give any bomber crewman the shakes. The craft: Boeing's deadly Bomarc guided missile, whose mission is to knock down atom-bomb-carrying planes like Boeing's own 6-52.

The first long-range missile interceptor in the U.S. arsenal, Boeing's Bomarc looks much like a jet fighter minus the pilot's cockpit. Its 47-ft. fuselage (longer than that of a Sabre jet) packs a pair of Marquardt ramjet engines and an Aerojet rocket booster (see above) that push the missile along at 1,500 m.p.h.. give it a range of 250 miles v. 50 miles for Nike Hercules antiaircraft missiles. Once launched from a trailer-like "transporter-erector," an electronic guidance system flies the Bomarc, seeks out the enemy formation until it gets close enough to trigger a high-explosive, or nuclear, warhead. Boeing has been working on an answer to high-flying atomic bombers ever since the first 6-52 designs took shape in the late '40s. The first Bomarc was flown in 1952, has since been perfected in dozens of tests against high-flying drones; the Air Force now calls its accuracy "superior." With B-52 production slowed down, at least temporarily, the new Bomarc should give Boeing a cushion against the trend to more missiles and fewer manned planes in the U.S. defense budget. Said Boeing President William McPherson Allen: "From now on, Bomarc will increasingly become one of our major concerns."

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