Sidewinder: Creative Missile Development at China Lake

by Ron Westrum

In the mid-1950s a small group of overworked, underpaid scientists and engineers on a remote base in the Mojave Desert developed a weapon no one had asked for but everyone was looking for. This is the story of how that unorthodox team, led by visionary Bill McLean, overcame Navy bureaucracy and other more heavily funded projects to develop the world's best air-to-air missile. Author Ron Westrum examines that special time and place--when the old American work ethic and "can do" spirit were a vital part of U.S. weapons development--to discover how the dedicated team was able to create a simple and inexpensive missile. Today, some forty-four years after its invention, Sidewinder is still considered the best America has. The result of twelve years of research, including hundreds of interviews, Westrum's study examines this unique military-civilian cult of creativity. McLean and his China Lake team produced an amazing array of technological and engineering marvels. Their powerful insights were coupled with outrageous creativity. In the intellectual pressure cooker provided by the isolation of the desert, the scientists dreamed and tinkered while test pilots such as Wally Schirra and Glenn Tierney took to the air, often risking life and limb to test the fledgling system. Westrum captures the guiding vision of McLean, the Caltech-trained physicist who intended to visit China Lake for two months but stayed for twenty-three years. An expert in group dynamics, the author shows why the team succeeded. He reduces arcane missile techno-babble to language both the specialist and lay reader will appreciate and enjoy, and he offers lessons useful for leaders and managers in and out of uniform. In a time of billion-dollar weapons development contracts, astronomical cost overruns, and defense acquisitions scandals, this revealing, highly readable tale about one of the most successful weapons in history should be of interest to everyone concerned about national security.

Genres: History, Aviation, Military History, Nonfiction, War, Engineering, Management

304 pages, Hardcover

First published August 15, 2013

Reviews

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sidewinder : Creative Missile Development at China Lake (2013) by Ron Westrum is a fascinating book about the development of the remarkable Sidewinder missile and a history of the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station. It’s a great tale of an engineering team doing remarkable work.

At the start of the jet age it became clear that the way to shoot at jets was with missiles and rockets due to the great speeds of jets. Radar guidance was seen as the most likely guidance system. Large engineering teams at Raytheon and Hughes were formed to start building guided missiles.

Meanwhile, at the Naval Ordinance Testing Station (NOTS) at China Lake as well as testing Naval weapons Dr William McClean, a physicist from Caltech looked at ways of using an Infrared (IR) Seeker. IR sensors of the time were very simplistic. McClean worked on a design with a single sensor and a rotating mirror in front of the detector. Ingeniously the change in position of the IR object in front then determined the deflection of the front fins of the Sidewinder missile. Using only a handful of vacuum tubes McClean and his team worked out a way to make a simple, cheap missile that was surprisingly accurate. They could even change the degree to which the missile would lead the target for a better intercept. The team also figured out a very clever way to have a rotating disc cause deflections of the back fins to stop the missile from rotating. The Sidewinder is a masterpiece of inspired design producing a simple effective device. It’s also interesting to note that the design for the IR seeker with the rotating mirror seems to have taken inspiration from seekers that the Germans were construction for the Blohm and Voss BV 143 glide bomb.

China Lake was not meant to be developing guided missiles. Instead they could develop fuses and for the first seven years of the development of the Sidewinder it was developed as a fuse. Only after the principles were shown and Naval officers who had great trust in McClean was the missile officially funded. McClean had a reputation for success that had started with his work during WWII and there were Navy Officers who greatly respecting him.

Testing of the Sidewinder was a long process. McClean selected top engineers and physicists from Caltech and other places and also was able to develop great technicians who were given a great deal of responsibility and whose insights were incorporated into designs. As well as empowering people and giving them a mission the ability for China Lake to rapidly test their designs was also crucial. Many of the people who made huge contributions to the Sidewinder and at China Lake are also mentioned.

The Sidewinder went on to beat IR versions of the AIM-4 Falcon and was put into service with the US Navy and US Air Force. The book looks at how the Sidewinder performed in combat. McClean thought that the missile would have an 85% success rate but in practice in Vietnam it was much lower. However, better pilot training and improvements to the Sidewinder led the missile having great success in the Falkland War and other places. The Sidewinder also performed better than other missiles did.

It’s remarkable how a government lab produced what was the first really successful guided missile and not a company. The book also describes how China Lake hasn’t maintained the level of engineering and scientific achievement that it first had as bureaucracy has weighed more heavily on it and the WWII generation aged out.

The book also describes other remarkable weapons systems developed at China Lake such as the GM-62 Walleye television guided bomb and the AGM-45 Shrike anti-radar missile.

Sidewinder is a fascinating book about the excellent Sidewinder missile and the team at China Lake that developed it. It’s well worth a read for anyone interested in engineering and science history.

[Bill Conrad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book that documented an amazing development process. I learned a lot about the key figures involved in developing the Sidewinder missile and about the politics surrounding government development in the 50’s. The main takeaway was how a small focused team can accomplish the impossible and beyond.

[Steve Fenton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a deep dive into China Lake and the development of the Sidewinder missile, but it serves as a way to explore how creative work ought to be approached. You're likely to recognise many of the situations, even if you aren't developing weapons.

[Joe Myers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible success story, nearly buried under weak writing.

[Duncan]

if you have never dove (dived? diven?) into the world of ballistics research history stop what you are doing immediately and google search "snark infested waters"