Fireflash
Sign in to saveFireflash was the United Kingdom's first air-to-air guided missile to see service with the Royal Air Force. Constructed by Fairey Aviation, the missile utilised radar beam riding guidance. Fireflash had relatively limited performance and required the launching aircraft to approach the target from a limited angle astern.
Wikidata facts
- Image
- Fireflash missile.png
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- Commons category
- Fairey Fireflash
- service entry
- 1955-01-01
- service retirement
- 1958-01-01
- total produced
- 300
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~8 min read
Article
13 sectionsContents
- Development
- Red Hawk
- Pink Hawk and Blue Sky
- Testing and service
- Description
- Operators
- Survivors
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Citations
- Bibliography
- External links
Fireflash was the United Kingdom's first air-to-air guided missile to see service with the Royal Air Force. Constructed by Fairey Aviation, the missile utilised radar beam riding guidance. Fireflash had relatively limited performance and required the launching aircraft to approach the target from a limited angle astern.
The approximately 300 production Fireflash missiles were mostly expended as a training weapon to familiarize RAF pilots with missile firing. It was declared operational very briefly in 1957, thus becoming the RAF's first operational air-to-air missile, but was quickly replaced by the de Havilland Firestreak the next year.