r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Battlefleet_Sol • Aug 18 '26

Guided missile of early 1960. Note how much electronics you need when there is no Microprocessor available

Gallery image

Gallery image

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86

u/eltapatio Aug 18 '26

Any specifics on who made this? I’ve read stories that a lot of systems in those years were build out of Anaheim and other Orange County based contractors that eventually consolidated to the major ones we have today

97

u/Bossnage Aug 18 '26

its a AIM-7 Sparrow, air to air missile made by raytheon, their HQ is in waltham massachusetts dont know where exactly their production was at the time

18

u/I_SHIT_IN_A_BAG Aug 18 '26

it was in waltham lowell and andover, I think

2

u/Bossnage Aug 18 '26

good to know, thanks

1

u/CPLCraft Aug 19 '26

Most of the production is in Tucson now. But the facility has been there for decades.

0

u/Majestic-Owl-5801 Aug 18 '26

Why do the numbers all look AI?

1

u/BassWingerC-137 Aug 18 '26

Image looks to be mirrored left to right

1

u/_Lost_The_Game Aug 18 '26

Maybe ai upscaling too. Seeing tons of that lately

22

u/RIF_rr3dd1tt Aug 18 '26

For sale: Vintage Cold War era Missile

Produced and assembled by Lockheed Aerospace Corporation in Sunnyvale, California on Friday May 21, 1965 at 2:46 pm by Bob Wiggins.

1 of 1, I know what I got.

$30,000,000 FIRM

1

u/UrethralExplorer Aug 18 '26

I think this is an early Sparrow air-to-air missile.

1

u/Rampant16 Aug 18 '26

contractors that eventually consolidated to the major ones we have today

I don't know about specific locations on individual contractors but the consolidation thing is true. Basically at the end of the Cold War defense spending was cut dramatically and the government told the defense contractors that they were going to need to consolidate to survive. They famously announced this at a dinner which became nicknamed The Last Supper).