The Velvet Glove was a semi-active radar homing air-to-air missile designed by CADRE (today DRD Valcartier) and produced by Canadair starting in 1953. 131 Velvet Gloves had been completed when the program was terminated in 1956, largely due to the design being overtaken by developments in the United States, as well as concerns about its ability to be launched at supersonic speeds from the Avro Arrow then under design.
Small scale work on what would become the Velvet Glove started in 1948 at CADRE, and by 1951 the plans were advanced enough to put forth the design as armament on the Avro CF-100 Canuck fighter that was then entering service with the RCAF. Canadair was selected as the manufacturer, and Westinghouse was commissioned to build the radar guidance unit.
In 1952 ground-launched testing started at the Picton Range, a small test site set up outside Picton, Ontario near the RCAF base at Trenton, Ontario. Air-launches from a CF-100 started in 1954, with the aircraft flying from Trenton to fire over Picton. The site was later used to launch models of the Arrow for aerodynamics testing. Testing of the Velvet Glove then moved to an operational setting at Cold Lake, Alberta.
The final missile design was about ten feet long and just under a foot in diameter. It used four fins at the tail for steering, and was guided by a semi-active radar homing device in the nose, located behind a conical nose cone. An advanced microwaveradarproximity fuse fired the 60 pound warhead.
External links
Pictures of the only remaining Velvet Glove, at the RCAF Memorial Museum in Trenton, Ontario (http://www.friendsofcrc.ca/Index/Milestones/Velvet%20Glove/Velvet%20Glove.html)
In the post-war era CARDE was researching supersonic flight, and Bull suggested the use of a "sabot" type artillery gun to shoot models to supersonic speeds instead of using an expensive supersonic wind tunnel.
The system was built and used for research on CARDE's VelvetGlovemissile, but when this project was cancelled in 1956 the system fell out of use.
Bull then moved on to hypersonics research in the field of ballistic missile defense (Anti-ballistic missiles, or "ABMs"), primarily the study of infrared and radar cross-sections for detection.
The VelvetGlove was a semi-active radar homing Semi-active radar homing, or SARH, is a common type of missile guidance system, perhaps the most common type for longer range air-to-air and ground-to-air missile systems.
The name refers to the missile itself being a passive detector, while an offboard radar provides a signal for the missile guidance system to "listen to" when it reflects off the target.
Small scale work on what would become the VelvetGlove started in 19481948 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar).
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