- Specifications
- References
- External links
{{more citations needed|date=November 2010}}| name= AQM-60 Kingfisher | image=Aqm-60a.jpg | caption=AQM-60 Kingfisher awaiting loading onto its B-50 mothership before a test of US air defenses. }}{{Infobox aircraft type | type= Target drone | national origin=United States of America | manufacturer=Lockheed | designer= | first flight=April 1951 | introduced= | retired= | status= | primary user= United States Air Force | more users= | produced= | number built= | program cost= | unit cost= | developed from=Lockheed X-7 | variants with their own articles= | developed into=
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The AQM-60 Kingfisher, originally designated XQ-5, was a target drone version of the USAF's X-7 test aircraft built by the Lockheed Corporation. The aircraft was designed by Kelly Johnson, the designer who later went on to create the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird and its relatives, such as the Lockheed A-12 and Lockheed YF-12.{{sfn|National Aviation Hall of Fame}} The X-7's development began in 1946 after a request from the USAF for a Mach 3 unmanned aerial vehicle for test purposes. This unmanned test craft eventually evolved into the Kingfisher, which was later used to test anti-missile systems such as the MIM-3 Nike Ajax, SAM-A-25/MIM-14 Nike Hercules, and IM-99/CIM-10.[1] The Kingfisher was capable of evading the vast majority of weapons systems it was used to test, despite the systems being designed to destroy hypersonic missiles in flight. This created a significant amount of embarrassment at the USAF, resulting in considerable political fallout, which led to the eventual discontinuation of production in 1959 and the cancellation of the project entirely in the mid-1960s.[2] The engine developed for the AQM-60 was later modified for use on a long range nuclear tipped ramjet called the CIM-10 Bomarc, which was used as a nationwide defense against nuclear bombers during the 1960s and early 1970s. An endurance variant of the same engine was produced in order to be used in the Lockheed D-21, which was designed to be launched off the back of a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird mothership or from under the wing of a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress nuclear bomber.[3] Specifications {{Aircraft specs
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|height m=2.1
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|gross weight kg=3,600
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|eng1 number=1
|eng1 name=Marquardt XRJ43-MA
|eng1 type=ramjet
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|eng2 number=2
|eng2 name=Thiokol XM45 (5KS50000)
|eng2 type=solid-fuel rockets
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|eng2 kn=222
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|eng2 note= for 5s (Boosters)
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|max speed mach=4.3
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|range km=210
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|ceiling m=30,000
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}} References 1. ^Area 51 - Black Jets: A History of the Aircraft Developed at Groom Lake, Bill Yenne 2014, p.95
2. ^{{cite web|url=http://www.456fis.org/LOCKHEED_X-7.htm|title=The Lockheed X-7|author=|date=|website=www.456fis.org|accessdate=12 April 2018}}
3. ^Goodall and Goodall 2002, p. 106.
- {{cite web|url=http://www.nationalaviation.org/johnson-clarence-leonard/|title=Johnson, Clarence Leonard - National Aviation Hall of Fame|website=nationalaviation.org|accessdate=12 April 2018|ref={{harvid|National Aviation Hall of Fame}} }}
External links{{commons category|Lockheed X-7}}- Directory of US Military Rockets and Missiles
- http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/m-60.html
{{Lockheed aircraft}}{{US missiles}}{{USAF drones}} 7 : Lockheed aircraft|United States special-purpose aircraft 1950–1959|Target drones of the United States|Single-engined jet aircraft|Ramjet-powered aircraft|Aircraft with auxiliary rocket engines|Mid-wing aircraft |