From The Archives: 40 Years Ago In Aviation Week

On the cover of Aviation Week & Space Technology’s Feb. 18, 1985, issue, Rockwell International technicians at the U.S. Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tullahoma, Tennessee, adjust control surfaces on a one-quarter scale mockup of the company's AGM-130 guided weapon system. 

The AGM-130 was a rocket-boosted version of the Air Force/Rockwell GBU-15 glide-bomb—a 2,000-lb. Mk. 84 bomb with a guidance system in an extended forward section and movable fins fore and aft. 

A long, cylindrical solid rocket booster, shown beneath the weapon itself, boosted the system to a speed near Mach 1 after release from the launching aircraft, giving the weapon a range of about 15 mi. from a low-altitude launch, compared with 5 mi. for the unpowered GBU-15. 

The AGM-130 eventually entered operational service in January 1999, and was retired in 2013, with 502 weapons produced. USAF photo by Phil Tarver, Arnold Engineering Development Center.

Read the full issue which includes a business flying and a fiscal 1986 aerospace budgets section (contents page). 

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