In the 1950s, the United States planned to combine the huge bomb load of the B-52 bomber with the high-speed flight capability of the B-58 bomber to create a new large strategic bomber, later the B-70 "Valkyrie", which planned to fly at an altitude of 21,000 meters at 3 times the speed of sound, ignoring the interceptors and anti-aircraft guns of the time.
However, as the situation changed after the opponent was equipped with the SA-2 high-altitude anti-aircraft missile, the Americans believed that the missile would carry a nuclear warhead, and the B-70 relied on the speed and altitude advantage to no longer exist, so they proposed to design a defensive air-to-air missile for the bomber, that is, the Lenticular Defense Missile Missile Program launched in 1958, referred to as LDM.
The envisaged air-to-air missile will be able to withstand acceleration of 60 to 250G, can reach a high speed of Mach 7, and can make rapid directional changes, in short, this is an unconventional high-performance missile. Designers completed preliminary studies and wind tunnel tests at the Air Force Equipment Center and the Arnold Engineering Development Center, believing that the design was feasible, and Cornwell was awarded a development contract in 1959 to begin further development of the missile.
Unlike conventional cylindrical missiles, this missile was designed in the shape of a disc with a wedge-shaped longitudinal profile, which was chosen because it was considered to have the best maneuverability at the time, and the overall mass of the missile was evenly distributed.
The missile weighs about 230 kg, has a thickness of 230 mm, a diameter of 1.8 m, a warhead weighs 25 kg, the projectile body is made of magnesium alloy, the flight power of the missile is 2 Thiokol M58A2 solid fuel rocket engines (also said to be 3 sets), a single output of 10200 pounds of thrust, can allow the missile to reach a flight speed of more than Mach 6.5, the maximum flight altitude of about 23600 meters, the combat distance of 133 km.
The missile adopts a more complex flight guidance method, the missile is stored in the bomber in the revolver bullet nest type bomb bay, when launched, a single missile is lowered to the launch position through the columnar structure, and then rotated horizontally to a suitable angle to launch, and the maximum horizontal rotation angle of the launch mechanism is 180 °. The missile will be ejected at the beginning, ignited after a safe distance, and fly along a pre-programmed path at the beginning of the launch, this process is set according to the target attack path, at this time it does not have combat capability, when the front of the missile is cylindrical heat-seeking seeker will begin to work, before it works There is another thing is to abandon the protective cover that plays a protective role.
At this time, the seeker begins to work to find the target, the weapons officer in the bomber can adjust the search direction of the seeker through the equipment, once the target is found, the missile will automatically lock the target, the weapons officer no longer controls the missile, and the next thing is that the missile itself relies on 6 small rocket engines to adjust the flight attitude until it hits the target or eventually loses the target.
This particular air-to-air missile was given the name Pye Wacket, the name of a cat in a movie at the time, Bell Book and Candle, one theory being named by a secretary from the project office who had seen the film, and the other being named by Colonel Stewart, who had been exposed to the project.
The Pye Wacket missile program is developed in three phases, the first is feasibility exploration, the second phase is the development of related equipment, and the third phase includes the skid launch test of the missile and the more complex design of intercontinental missiles and space vehicles. It can be seen that at that time, the United States planned to expand the project to a larger scope.
It is widely believed that the Pye Wacket missile was not physically made, only some models for wind tunnel testing, etc., but a small number of people believe that the United States has built a physical object around 1960, due to high confidentiality and no public recognition, no matter how the project was abandoned in the early 60s, because in 1960 after the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft was first shot down caused a huge sensation, the Americans believe that the B-70 single aircraft penetration capability without radar stealth capability is insufficient, so they abandoned research and development work. The supporting air-to-air missiles naturally have no need to develop.