Project Gorgon

Project Gorgon encompassed a family of experimental missiles—air-to-air, air-to-surface, and surface-to-surface—built by the U.S. Navy’s Naval Aircraft Modification Unit from 1943 to 1953. Because the underlying technology was not yet mature, none of the Gorgon missiles ever entered active service; instead, they served as testbeds for advancing guided-missile control and guidance systems.

The program originated in the late 1930s, when Commander Delmer S. Fahrney proposed an “aerial torpedo” to intercept bombers. The Navy’s Bureau of Aeronautics studied the idea in 1940, but it was not until May 1943—when practical jet and rocket engines became available—that the Gorgon project formally began, based at the Naval Aircraft Modification Unit (later the Naval Air Development Station) in Pennsylvania.

The initial Gorgon design called for a turbojet-powered missile weighing about 660 pounds, capable of 510 mph, intended to destroy bombers or transport aircraft. Guidance options considered included television (with a camera in the nose and radio commands), active radar homing, and infrared homing. By October 1943, delays in developing suitable small turbojets and aerodynamic studies led to two parallel designs: the canard-configured Gorgon II and the conventional-aircraft-style Gorgon III. Each was to have three engine variants: ‘A’ (rocket), ‘B’ (turbojet), and ‘C’ (pulsejet).

The turbojet-powered IIB and IIIB were never built due to engine limitations, though a small number of target drones derived from the Gorgon III were produced. The Gorgon IIIC was later changed to a twin-rocket configuration. In May 1945, the ramjet-powered Gorgon IV, an air-to-surface missile, was added.

The Gorgon IIA first flew successfully in March 1945 and was noted as the first jet- or rocket-powered radio-controlled aircraft to fly in the United States. However, guidance-system limitations—project officer Molt Taylor worried that human operators could not process information fast enough at the missiles’ speeds—and other technical problems meant that by late 1945, after World War II ended, production contracts for air-launched Gorgon variants were shifted to pure technology demonstration and development, which was generally considered successful.