# Guy on a Missile: What effect on the missile? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 15, 2024, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-on-a-missile-what-effect-on-the-missile/1000296 "2024-04-15T00:13:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2024, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-on-a-missile-what-effect-on-the-missile/1000296/21 "2024-04-15T16:20:43Z")
Do smaller things like this count as missiles, or should it be called a rocket? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/lf3Kyv_iaNs/hqdefault.jpg "TRUE LIES - YOU'RE FIRED - CLASSIC") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf3Kyv_iaNs) ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2024, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-on-a-missile-what-effect-on-the-missile/1000296/22 "2024-04-15T17:04:51Z")
Generally speaking, if it’s got a guidance/steering system of some sort, it’s a missile; if there’s no guidance/steering, it’s a rocket. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2024, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-on-a-missile-what-effect-on-the-missile/1000296/23 "2024-04-15T18:01:54Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > A fighter jet can take off while fitted with a massive quantity of external stores and can jettison all of those stores in flight, and maintain controlled flight under all of these conditions. Having Tony Stark clinging to one of your hardpoints might make a noticeable difference, but it seems unlikely to cause any sort of aviation emergency. The aerodynamic effects of those “external stores” are accounted for in flight controllability and drag, and of course both missiles and weapon/instrument/fuel pods are conformally shaped to minimize drag. A guy in a powered suit hanging off of a hardpoint is definitely going to affect stability and drag performance, although probably not enough to cause a large fighter jet to become uncontrollable at cruising speeds. The bigger question is what Iron Man was hanging onto on the belly of the aircraft; the F-22 is a largely composite airframe and all of the external skin is a carbon fiber/bismaleimide resin composite system that can bear the compressive and shear aeroloads but is actually fairly delicate in interlaminar tension, so if he was somehow adhesively or electrostatically ‘clutching’ the outer layer of the skin, he’d basically rip that off and likely cause a cascading structural failure as successive layers disbonded from one another. Or, if he dug the suit’s gauntlets in between panels he’s probably going to overstress those and tear them out. > [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Generally speaking, if it’s got a guidance/steering system of some sort, it’s a missile; if there’s no guidance/steering, it’s a rocket. This is the general convention with ‘tactical’ weapons but with larger craft that isn’t true. All non-airbreathing propulsion systems are based upon the rocket principle (internal heating of propellants under pressure that are then expelled from a nozzle for momentum transfer), but ‘missiles’ means they are weapons or weapon-carriers, and rockets are non-weapon vehicles used for experiments, targets, or space launch vehicles. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2024, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-on-a-missile-what-effect-on-the-missile/1000296/24 "2024-04-15T18:51:03Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > and rockets are non-weapon vehicles used for experiments, targets, or space launch vehicles. In the US military nomenclature system, @Machine_Elf’s distinction is the literal technical truth. > **[United States Department of Defense aerospace vehicle designation | Vehicle type symbol](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Defense_aerospace_vehicle_designation#Vehicle_type_symbol)** > > For rockets and missiles, the vehicle type symbol identifies the basic vehicle type and will be the final symbol in the mission part of the MDS. > [@](#): > > M - Guided Missile. Guided missiles are unmanned vehicles flying a path controlled by a guidance system. > > R - Rocket. Rockets are single-use unmanned vehicles without guidance after launch. At least in the context of US Air Force and Navy weapon systems, the distinction is guidance. Most aircraft rocket-propelled weapons are guided but within living history the USAF had a major weapon system which was unguided: the AIR-2 Genie. (Which really didn’t need guidance, because “close” is good enough when you’re packing a 1.5 kiloton warhead.) > **[AIR-2 Genie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIR-2_Genie)** > > The Douglas AIR-2 Genie (previous designation MB-1) was an unguided air-to-air rocket with a 1.5 kt W25 nuclear warhead. It was deployed by the United States Air Force (USAF 1957–1985) and Canada (Royal Canadian Air Force 1965–1968, Air Command 1968–1984) during the Cold War. Production ended in 1962 after over 3,000 were made, with some related training and test derivatives being produced later. > The interception of Soviet strategic bombers was a major military preoccupation of the late 1940s... Of course, the distinction is only in the context of this specific nomenclature system, so the broader use of missile (weapon system) versus rocket (non-weapon system) may be more appropriate for this discussion. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2024, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-on-a-missile-what-effect-on-the-missile/1000296/25 "2024-04-15T21:48:01Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Generally speaking, if it’s got a guidance/steering system of some sort, it’s a missile; if there’s no guidance/steering, it’s a rocket. As an aside, that’s the Western/US distinction. Everything is a rocket in Soviet/Russian/Chinese parlance, from a Katusha to an ATGM up to an ICBM. See [Strategic Rocket Forces](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Rocket_Forces) (USSR/Russia) and [People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Liberation_Army_Rocket_Force) (China), while the USAF operates [strategic missile wings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missile_wings_of_the_United_States_Air_Force). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-on-a-missile-what-effect-on-the-missile/1000296.md?page=1)