SM-64 Navaho

The North American SM-64 Navaho was a supersonic intercontinental cruise missile project built by North American Aviation for the US Air Force. Its final design was meant to carry a nuclear weapon to the Soviet Union from bases in the United States, cruising at about Mach 3 at 60,000 feet. The project began in 1946 as a short-range boost-glide weapon derived from the V-2 rocket, and the range requirement grew repeatedly until the design became a large ramjet-powered cruise missile launched by a rocket booster. The faster and higher-flying SM-65 Atlas ballistic missile, which used rocket technology developed for Navaho, filled the same role, and Navaho was cancelled in 1958 without entering service. Its legacy was substantial: the airframe led to the AGM-28 Hound Dog, its guidance system was used on the first Polaris submarines, and its booster engine design descended into the engines of the Atlas, Redstone, Thor, Jupiter and Saturn rockets.