AIM-4 FALCON: As Bad As Its Reputation Suggests?
The Hughes Falcon has a poor reputation. General Robin Olds famously remarked that it wasn't called a 'hittile' for a reason. And its true that compared to the Sidewinder, the AIM-4D performed quite poorly over Vietnam.
But take any weapon out of context and out of role and you can quite quickly find flaws. This video gets into the history and the true capabilities of the Falcon family, which for good or ill, was one of the most influential weapon systems of the Cold War.
Sources:
Information on the Falcon is quite sparse. This outstanding article is therefore of great use to anyone seeking to understand its history: https://www.ausairpower.net/Falcon-Ev...
Likewise, the ever-interesting F-106 homepage gives useful information on the 'Super' Falcon variants: https://www.f-106deltadart.com/weapon...