Missile, Air-to-Air, AA-2 Atoll (Russian: Vympel K-13)

Object Details

Physical Description: Cylindrical, long with rounded nose; cruciform triangular, moveable fins beneath warhead, and stationary, cruciform clipped delta fins at base of missile with stabilizing rollerons on the corner of each fin; overall, painted white; glass nose for heat seeking component; yellow rubber protective cap over glass covered heat seeker head, though this cover is broken and fell off; body with mounting brackets and electrical connecters.
Summary: This is the Atoll, an air-to-air missile of the former Soviet Union. Atoll is the NATO code name for the Soviet K-13, a copy of the U.S. Sidewinder air-to-air, heat-seeking missile. Atoll originated in 1958, when a Sidewinder fired from a Taiwanese F-86 fighter in the Taiwan Strait lodged in an aircraft of the People's Republic of China but did not detonate.; China recovered the missile intact and turned it over to the Soviet Union, which copied the design, mass-produced the missile, and exported Atolls to its client states. The Atoll has the same basic dimensions as the Sidewinder but has been modified over the years and is still in use. This object was donated to the Smithsonian in 1993 by the U.S. Air Force.
Alternate Name: Atoll Missile

ca. 1961

Materials: Overall, metal; glass cover on seeker head in nose of missile; rubber protective cover for heat seeker head.
Dimensions: Other: 5 1/2 in. × 9 ft. 4 in. × 2 ft. 6 in., 105lb. (14 × 284.5 × 76.2cm, 47.6kg); Wing span diagonal 20.5"