This piece originally ran in the March 2020 issue of EAA Sport Aviation magazine.
Project Gorgon was a decade-long (1943-1953) development program by the U.S. Navy to develop both air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, as well as effective control and guidance technologies. The project produced a dizzying array of designs, combining early turbojets, pulsejets, and rockets with unusual airframe shapes.
The two models in our museum collection represent a Gorgon IIA, a design for a rocket-powered air-to-air missile, and a Gorgon IIIB, a jet-powered air-to-air missile later built as the KDN-1 target drone. These appear to be either wind tunnel articles or display models and date to 1945-46. Both were donated by legendary Aerocar designer Molt Taylor, EAA 14794, who worked on Project Gorgon during World War II.