Air Launched

In this album are the nuclear-armed, air-launched missiles not covered in the other albums in this section of the Gallery. These include the Bullpup, Falcon, Genie, Rascal, Skybolt, and the planned replacement for the ALCM: the Long Range Standoff (LRSO) missile. Also covered are some of the squadrons whose personnel maintained these weapons, and a few flying squadrons whose patches depicted the missiles or images alluding to them. You’ll see Dennis the Menace riding a Falcon AIM-4, the USAF’s first operational guided air-to-air missile, and several versions of the patch for the nuclear-armed version, the AIM-26 Falcon. The GAM-63 Rascal was the USAF’s first nuclear-armed standoff missile, and the GAM-87 Skybolt was designed to carry the same warhead as was deployed on Minuteman II missiles. There are quite a few patches pertaining to the MB-1/AIR-2 supersonic Genie missile, which we also deployed in Canada, supported by USAF personnel stationed at Canadian Forces fighter bases. Patches pertaining to more than one missile (e.g., both ALCM and ACM) are here also, as well as systems that were used in conjunction with them (i.e., the Common Strategic Rotary Launcher (CSRL). Finally, there are a number of LOADING patches specifying the positions of those wearing them for which we could use more information.