Fairey Stooge Fairey Aviation ' s Stooge was a command guided surface - to - air missile ( SAM ) development project carried out in the United Kingdom starting in World War II . Development dates to a British Army request from 1944 , but the work was taken over by the Royal Navy as a potential counter to the Kamikaze threat . Development was not complete when the war ended , but the Ministry of Supply funded further development and numerous test launches into 1947 , assisting in the development of more advanced successor missiles . Development . During World War II a number of efforts were started to develop surface to air missile s as it was generally considered that flak was of little use against bomber s of ever - increasing performance . While the Germans developed a number of systems in an attempt to deter Allied bombing , the overwhelming air superiority held by the Allies meant that the prospect of developing similar weapons was largely ignored as unnecessary . This changed when the Kamikaze threat spread in the later half of 1944 . This led to the British Stooge and Brakemine efforts , and the US Navy ' s SAM - N - 2 Lark . The British Army had already ordered early studies on these weapons . According to a common account of its development , possibly apocryphal , Fairey was asked to carry out some basic research on these plans by a Royal Navy request , but instead presented a revised design of some depth . The Ministry of Supply ( MoS ) signed a contract for development of the system in 1944 . The ending of the war in August 1945 led to a lower level of urgency , but the MoS continued funding as a development project . Description . The Stooge was essentially a small subsonic aircraft with straight wings and a conventional tail layout . The missile looked substantially similar to a smaller V - 1 with the engine removed from the top . The missile fuselage was long and in diameter , with a main wingspan of , and a tail span of . Ready for launch , it weighed . The rear part of the fuselage was taken up by four air - to - ground " Swallow " solid fuel rocket s . The thrust and burning time could be controlled by varying the size of a venturi nozzle . At the missile reached speeds of , but was normally tested at a thrust level of which gave a much slower cruising speed . For launch , four additional RP - 3 3 - inch solid rockets were strapped in pairs to either side of the fuselage , under the horizontal stabilizer . These produced for 1 . 6 seconds , launching the missile off the long launching rail at an acceleration of 8g . As the booster rockets gave the missile a tail - heavy center of gravity , a cup - shaped counterweight was fitted to the nose . At booster burnout , the missile having reached a speed of over , the boosters and counterweight were ejected and the main rockets fired . Like many early missiles of the era , the Stooge was boosted to the approximate altitude of the attacker and then flown onto an intercept course . Flare s located in fairings on the wing tips provided a bright source for the operator to track visually . After launch the missile levelled off and a simple gyroscope - controlled autopilot , located in the forwards portion of the fuselage , kept the Stooge flying in a straight line . Control of first the elevators and then , 3 seconds later , the ailerons were released to the operator - the delay necessary for the gyro control to stabilise first . Using radio control , the operator would fly the missile into a position in front of the target , and then adjust the path in order to collide with the target . Control was via the ailerons and elevator , there was no rudder . Flight testing . The first prototypes , with fixed controls , flew after seven months from the start of development at the end of World War II . Development continued with a number of test firings at the Rocket Experimental Establishment at RAF Aberporth ( today ' s ParcAberporth ) at Aberporth , Wales . It is believed that around twelve Stooges were constructed by Fairey , the most successful of the test launches being that of the sixth missile , achieving an altitude of and a range of before the flight was terminated by range safety , the missile having passed out of sight of the operator . Although the programme failed to yield an operational weapons system , experience gained from the testing of Stooge assisted in the development of the Fairey Fireflash air - to - air missile .