Sidewinder Missile

A client of mine is interested in obtaining a pair of lifesize non-functioning replicas of the AIM-9 missile for display on his L-39. I'm thinking of fabricating them from aluminum and would like them to appear as realistic as possible. Maybe a third one would look pretty cool hanging in my shop. I've found lots of photos and a few drawings but not exactly the level of detail I'd like. Considering the length of time they've been around and the wide distribution, it seems like some detailed drawings must be in the public domain somewhere. I'm aware that there are several variants but I'm not particularly fussy about which one I build.

I'll also need to replicate (or purchase) the hanger hardware to mate with the "hard points" on the L-39.

The Minnesota Air Guard Museum has an F4D with several of them hanging on it that I could measure and photograph but the museum is closed for the season (Winter).

Any ideas?

 

That was easier than I expected.

Now if I could find some of the harder to make parts on the surplus market.

 

Nuthin' to hide here.

Back in the 70s my friend Ky Michaelson brought a treasure home from one of his trips to the So Cal surplus yards where he bought fittings and hardware for building rocket cars. It was an AIM-47 missile. Nearly complete but without the rocket motor or warhead. He mounted it on a post in his front yard (I know I have a picture of it here somewhere) where it stood for probably 20 years. One day he got a visit from the Men In Black who gave him some story about how it was a prototype missile from the YF-12 Interceptor program that should never have been released to the public and they wanted it back. They were pretty insistent that it was a matter of National Security even though it was not a flyable weapon and had been in Ky's front yard for decades. He negotiated some kind of deal with them and they took it. Around the same time the Minnesota Air Guard Museum lost their Blackbird because the CIA thought that the plane (actually an A-12 variant) would look good at their headquarters museum. It's possible that they were on a mission to scoop up collectible artifacts for some other military museum.

 

Here's a picture from around 1981 of the missile in Ky's front yard.
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