Velvet Glove missile

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 microwave radar proximity fuse fired the 60 pound warhead.

External links

Pictures of the only remaining Velvet Glove, at the RCAF Memorial Museum in Trenton, Ontario