F4D Skyray NOTS Project Pilot

Pascal GARAT
👍 👍 👍 Go, Go, Go!!!!

Christopher Dworjan
Soon enough I'll get started on this one. Definitely a very unique piece of history.

Clifford Keesler
Looks interesting.

Christopher Dworjan
It was an early effort ( 1958 ) by the Navy at NOTS China Lake to get a satellite into space. Unlike the Army and Air Force efforts that used modified ballistic missiles, or the NRL with Vanguard, Project Pilot used all off the shelf rockets. The first stage was just the small HOTROC rockets used on the SUBROC rocket-boosted torpedo. To get the package off the ground, they used the F4D in a zoom climb. Six attempts were made to put a two pound satellite in orbit, and though weak signals were detected by a tracking station in New Zealand, none of the launches were considered successful and the entire project remained classified until 1994.

Clifford Keesler
Awesome.