Cannonball (missile)

The Cannonball Missile also known as the D-40 was designed by the Applied Physics Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University under a United States Navy contract in the early 1950s.

[2] In 1952 the US Army Chief of Ordnance funded the project for development as an anti-tank missile.

[3] The D-40 is a "spherically" shaped missile about 24 inches (61 cm) in diameter and had a maximum range around 3,000 yards (2.7 km).

While the six “tangential rocket nozzles” stabilized the missile by controlling the pitch, roll, and yaw.

[3] The development of the "D-40B" focused on reducing the missiles weight and increasing the range.

An illustration of a Cannonball missile in flight, from the US patent. [ 1 ]
Internal components of the Cannonball missile. [ 1 ]