Talk:RIM-8 Talos

message: Regarding the Talos launchers; the article lists the Galveston class cruisers as having a "Mark 7" launcher with only 29 missiles.  This is at odds with the only sources I have found on the subject, which specify a 46-missile magazine, and a launcher that is - at least visually - identical to the Mk 11 installation found on the Albany class and the Long Beach:
http://www.hazegray.org/navhist/cruisers/guided.htm
http://www.navsource.org/archives/04/1103/040103.htm
Janes American Fighting Ships of the 20th Century, Mallard Press, 1991
Also, in the main image for the article, the Talos is show on a launcher that I cannot identify, which appears to be land-based.  What is that?  Some kind of test rig?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.205.150.113 (talk) 04:01, 7 September 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: The answer to your question is that there were multiple launchers that were employeed as launchers for the Talos missile. The Mk12 launcher was the large installation fit to the Albany class and the USS Long Beach. The Mk7 was a earlier smaller version used in the Galveston class conversions. The Mk11 launcher is the twin arm Tartar missile launcher. The Mk11 launcher was beset by maintance issues and was replaced by the Mk13 launcher and later Mk26 launcher. The Mk12 and Mk7 look very similar above deck.--Two way time (talk) 05:52, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  What launcher is that? 

message: I removed the following from the article:
:It was only about 1.5 meters shorter (Mig 15bis length 33' 2" Talos length 38') than the MiG-15 fighter that it was designed to shoot down.USS Oklahoma City CL91 / CLG5 / CG5, retrieved 30 March 2009.
This statement is just confused (which is longer?), and the claim that the Talos "was designed to shoot down" MiG-15s is implausible, given that the MiG-15 served as an interceptor at this time — surely the Navy was more concerned with shooting down antiship strike aircraft?  Best just make the comparison based on the size data already used in the respective articles and leave it at that.  Tkinias (talk) 17:27, 6 July 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Point is, these missiles were big. Tour USS Little Rock up in Buffalo and it's amazing how much territory these things with their associated hardware took up.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.158.61.140 (talk) 19:51, 8 July 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  In re RIM-8 vs. MiG-15 

message: According to Navy/McDonnell/Bendix drawings I have the Talos RIM-8G through RIM-8J missile had the following dimensions:
Missile length = 254.366 inches
Missile body diameter = 28.000 inches
Missile wing span = 106.946 inches maximum
Booster length w/o fins = 132.041 inches
Booster length w/ fins 134.341 inches
Booster body diameter = 30.112 inches forward, 30.930 aft.
Booster fin span = 76.840 inches maximum
Note: These lengths are the mated lengths relative to the mating ring joining surfaces. Actually the booster was a bit longer than this - it had an arming mechanism and a mating ring release device that protruded forward of the mating ring into the nozzle of the missile when mated. The entire flight configuration missile+booster pair was 254.366 + 134.341 = 388.707 inches (9.873 meters).
I also have the SP1A/M1 data sheets for the Mk 11 Mod 2 booster that gives diameters of 30.125 inches (grain section) and 31.125 inches (nozzle section). The differences from the numbers above may be due to the fin mating surface which protruded slightly above the body surface. Total booster weight including fins is 4278 pounds. Maximum thrust is 128,700 lbf at 77°F. Total impulse is 596,000 lbf-sec at 77°F.
The absolutely best and most authoritative publication about the Talos missile is:
Johns Hopkins APL Technical Digest, April-June 1982, Vol. 3, No. 2.
It has 15 articles written by the people in the Bumblebee Project who designed Talos at the Applied Physics Laboratory. The articles have a few errors. On page 122 they state that the USS Oklahoma City CG-5 was decommissioned in 1980 and that Talos served in the fleet for 22 years. In fact the OK City was decommissioned 15 December 1979, so the missile was operational for 21 years. Two different articles provide slightly different numbers about the SPW-2 operation.
In the "Evolution of the Talos Missile (pages 117 - 122) William Garten and Frank Dean describe the various evolutionary steps in Talos design. On page 122 they state that the RIM-8H ARM version had a range of 120 nautical miles and the RIM-8J had a range of 130 nautical miles.
In "The Unified Talos" Frank Dean has a "Kinematic Performance Envelope" diagram for Talos that shows a range of 118 nautical miles at 72,000 feet with JP-5 fuel and 132 nautical miles at 58,000 feet with RJ-4 dimer fuel.
The USS Oklahoma City CG-5 was the last ship to carry Talos missiles. I think the Long Beach had the Talos system removed in 1978. The Galveston was decommissioned in 1970, the Columbus in 1975, Little Rock in 1976 and Albany and Chicago in 1980. However, Albany and Chicago offloaded Talos missiles sometime in 1978 or 1979. The Oklahoma City fired the last Talos missile launched from a ship in November 1979 on the way to decommissioning. Prhays (talk) 22:24, 14 March 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Talos specifications 

message: "Initial thrust was provided by a solid rocket booster for launch and a Bendix ramjet for flight to the target with the warhead serving as the ramjet's compressor."
What's that supposed to mean? The ramjet works because the solid rocket booster accelerated the rocket to the working velocity of the ramjet, where enough air enters the ramjet for operation. 62.117.21.156 (talk) 16:05, 16 February 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  compressor