The LBD-1 Gargoyle (later KSD-1, KUD-1 and RTV-N-2) was an American

air-to-surface missile An air-to-surface missile (ASM) or air-to-ground missile (AGM) is a missile designed to be launched from military aircraft at targets on land or sea. There are also unpowered guided glide bombs not considered missiles. The two most common prop ...

developed during World War II by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy. One of the precursors of modern anti-ship missiles, it was extensively used as a test vehicle during the late 1940s.

Design and development

Following the successful use of the German

Henschel Hs 293 The Henschel Hs 293 was a World War II German radio-guided glide bomb. It is the first operational anti-shipping missile, first used unsuccessfully on 25 August 1943 and then with increasing success over the next year, ultimately damaging or sink ...

and

Fritz-X Fritz X was the most common name for a German guided anti-ship glide bomb used during World War II. ''Fritz X'' was the world's first precision guided weapon deployed in combat and the first to sink a ship in combat. ''Fritz X'' was a nickname us ...

guided bombs in combat during 1943, a requirement was issued by the U.S. Navy that October for a guided weapon based on similar principles.Parsch 2003 Assigned as part of the Glomb ("glide bomb") project,Parsch 2005 the weapon was code-named "Gargoyle", and following the completion of design work in the summer of 1944, McDonnell Aircraft was awarded a contract for a test-and-evaluation production run of 400 Gargoyles in September, given the designation LBD-1.Ordway and Wakeford 1960 Intended for carriage by

carrier-based aircraft Carrier-based aircraft, sometimes known as carrier-capable aircraft or carrier-borne aircraft, are naval aircraft designed for operations from aircraft carriers. They must be able to launch in a short distance and be sturdy enough to withstand ...

, Gargoyle was of fairly conventional small-aircraft design, weighing when ready for launch, and fitted with a low-mounted wing and v-tail attached to a streamlined fuselage, in length, containing a armor-piercing bomb. An

Aerojet Aerojet was an American rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer based primarily in Rancho Cordova, California, with divisions in Redmond, Washington, Orange and Gainesville in Virginia, and Camden, Arkansas. Aerojet was owned by GenCorp. ...

solid-propellant rocket, of the JATO type and providing of thrust, was fitted to provide terminal boost to , and guidance was by radio command, the missile being tracked visually via a flare mounted in the tail section. The effective range of Gargoyle was when released at an altitude of .

Operational history

Gargoyle's armor-piercing capability and the fact that it could be carried by carrier-based aircraft allowed development to continue despite late-war rationalizations of missile projects, and following delivery of the first weapons to the Navy at the end of 1944 flight trials were begun in March 1945. Difficulties encountered during the test program meant that by July only five of fourteen tests were considered to be "satisfactory" by the Navy, and the first fully successful flight did not occur until July 1946. By then Gargoyle had been redesignated twice, to KSD-1 in October 1945 and in early 1946 to KUD-1 as a pure research effort. The aerodynamic design of Gargoyle was, however, considered to be satisfactory from an aerodynamic standpoint; however, with the end of the war, the contract was reduced first to 375 missiles, and then to 200, with the production run being completed by the summer of 1947. That fall the Gargoyle was redesignated again under the U.S. Navy's new missile designation system, first to RTV-2 and then to the definitive RTV-N-2 in 1948. Testing continued through December 1950, Gargoyle being used to trial equipment and procedures for the Navy's other missile programs at the

Marine Corps Auxiliary Air Station Mojave Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

,Jacobs and Whitney 1962, p. 69. before the program was finally terminated, the remaining RTV-N-2s being designated for scrapping.

Surviving aircraft

A Gargoyle that was donated to the

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the Nat ...

in 1974 is on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

References

Citations

Bibliography