AIR-2 Genie

The AIR-2 Genie, first designated MB-1 and developed by Douglas Aircraft, was an unguided air-to-air rocket tipped with a 1.5 kiloton W25 nuclear warhead. It was meant to break up massed formations of Soviet bombers: because the blast radius was large the weapon needed no guidance, only a time-delay fuze, while the launching fighter's fire-control system handled targeting and firing. A solid-fuel motor took it to about Mach 3.3 in a two-second burn, and it flew roughly 10 kilometres in about twelve seconds. The United States Air Force carried it on the F-89 Scorpion, F-101B Voodoo and F-106 Delta Dart, and Canada flew it on CF-101 Voodoos under a dual-key arrangement until 1984. Over 3,000 were built, and a live round was fired only once, in the 1957 Operation Plumbbob test over Yucca Flats.