LBD Gargoyle

Following the successful use of the German Henschel Hs 293 and Fritz-X 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, Gargoyle was of fairly conventional small-aircraft design, weighing {{convert|1500|lb}} when ready for launch, and fitted with a low-mounted {{convert|8|ft|6|in|adj=on}} wing and v-tail attached to a streamlined fuselage, {{convert|10|ft|1|in}} in length, containing a {{convert|1000|lb|adj=on}} armor-piercing bomb. An Aerojet solid-propellant rocket, of the JATO type and providing {{convert|1000|lbf|kN|abbr=on|lk=on}} of thrust,{{cite web|url=https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/missile-air-surface-gargoyle|title=Gargoyle Missile|date=26 September 2016|website=National Air and Space Museum|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|access-date=2017-12-23|archive-date=2019-07-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190721100526/https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/missile-air-surface-gargoyle|url-status=dead}} was fitted to provide terminal boost to {{convert|600|mph}}, 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 {{convert|5|mi}} when released at an altitude of {{convert|27000|ft}}.Yenne 2006, p. 24.

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,Friedman 1982, p. 201. 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,Jacobs and Whitney 1962, p. 69. before the program was finally terminated, the remaining RTV-N-2s being designated for scrapping.

File:20180328 Gargoyle Missile Udvar-Hazy.jpg

A Gargoyle that was donated to the National Air and Space Museum in 1974 is on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

{{Commons category|LBD Gargoyle}}

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|see also=

• Azon
• GB-1
• VB-6 Felix

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• List of anti-ship missiles

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• {{cite book|last=Friedman|first=Norman|author-link=Norman Friedman|title=U.S. Naval Weapons: Every gun, missile, mine, and torpedo used by the U.S. Navy from 1883 to the present day|year=1982|publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, MD|isbn=978-0-87021-735-7}}
• {{cite book|last=Jacobs|first=Horace|author2=Eunice Engelke Whitney|title=Missile and Space Projects Guide 1962|year=1962|publisher=Springer Science+Business Media|location=New York|isbn=978-1-4899-6967-5}}
• {{cite book|last=Ordway|first=Frederick Ira|author2=Ronald C. Wakeford|title=International Missile and Spacecraft Guide|year=1960|publisher=McGraw-Hill|location=New York|asin=B000MAEGVC}}
• {{cite web|url=http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app1/lb.html|title=LB Series (LBD, LBE, LBP, LBT)|last=Parsch|first=Andreas|date=9 March 2005|website=Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles, Appendix 1: Early Missiles and Drones|publisher=Designation-Systems|access-date=2017-12-23}}
• {{cite web|url=http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app1/rtv-n-2.html|title=McDonnell LBD/KSD/KUD/RTV-N-2 Gargoyle|last=Parsch|first=Andreas|date=4 February 2003|website=Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles, Appendix 1: Early Missiles and Drones|publisher=Designation-Systems|access-date=2017-12-23}}
• {{cite book|last=Yenne|first=Bill|title=Secret Gadgets and Strange Gizmos: High-Tech (and Low-Tech) Innovations of the U.S. Military|year=2006|publisher=Zenith Press|location=Minneapolis, MN|isbn=978-0760321157}}

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Category:Anti-ship missiles of the United States

Category:Air-to-surface missiles of the United States

Category:World War II aerial bombs of the United States

Category:World War II guided missiles of the United States

LBD

Category:Low-wing aircraft

Category:V-tail aircraft