The Almost-Unbelievable True Story of the Sidewinder Missile

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View in Browser    The Almost-Unbelievable True Story of the Sidewinder Missile   How the first heat-seeking missile went from an unfunded side project to a worldwide military phenomenon. By: Alex Hollings The Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union ushered in one of the most dramatic arms races in history. As the two nations jockeyed for global supremacy, they posed such a threat to each other that deterring open conflict became a matter of survival. That meant building new and more capable weapons, and constantly matching or offsetting any technological advantage created by the other side.   Among the best examples of that balance: the Soviet Union's efforts to reverse engineer the world's first self-guided air-to-air weapon, America's AIM-9 Sidewinder missile.   In 1946, U.S. Navy physicist William B. McLean had a novel idea. His team had been toying around with lead-sulfide proximity fuzes that were sensitive to infrared radiation. McLean reasoned that if a proximity fuze could read infrared signatures to initiate detonation, it ought to be able to track an infrared signature as well. That evolved into the idea of a missile that could adjust course mid-flight to keep the target's heat signature reflected onto a sensitive photocell. The missile would, literally, seek heat. There was just one problem: Designing new weapons wasn't McLean's job.   To the researchers and engineers at the U.S. Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS) in California's Mojave Desert, McLean's interest in an infrared seeking rocket was downright wasteful. After all, any time his team devoted to his pet project was time taken away from their official responsibilities. But that didn't stop him. The office space McLean and his team occupied as they worked on the novel concept came to be known as "McLean's Hobby Shop," an intentionally derisive label for the unofficial effort. McLean paid for the effort through NOTS's discretionary funding and referred to his invention as an offshoot of his assigned work on infrared fuzes for the Navy. This is a free preview of Pop Mech Pro. Join now for less than $1 a week to read the rest of the story and more of Popular Mechanics' most in-depth, exclusive features.  JOIN NOW MORE FROM POP MECH PRO ADVENTURE READ NOW The Lost Art of Floating Logs Down the River SCIENCE READ NOW The Entire History of the Autopsy HOME READ NOW How to Build a Boat Follow Us Unsubscribe Privacy Notice PopularMechanics.com ©2021 Hearst Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Email Privacy, 300 W 57th St., Fl. 19 (sta 1-1), New York, NY 10019