File:F-89 Northrup Scorpion front cockpit (4415814011).jpg

Here's the pilot's station for an F-89. The ejection seat is missing, and probably some of the instruments

(Museum volunteers were asked by the USAF to remove all glow-in-the-dark instruments with radium dials and store them all together in a shipping container some years ago. WHY? Doesn't having all the radium in one place make it more dangerous, from a practical as well as a security aspect?)

You can make out the shape of a mock-up or practice round Genie missile on the wing pylon. The Genie was the world's first nuclear air to air weapon, or at least the first acknowledged widely. Clearly it could take out a bomber formation without having to be precisely aimed at a specific part of a specific airplane.

I believe the Genie had a command detonated war-head. When it was observed or computed to he at the proper location relative to the target, one of the air-crew would set it off. One live Genie was fired and detonated over an unpopulated area, but there was no target. I regret I don't have a good reference on the whys and wherefores of MB-1 Genie rockets.

A second interesting fact about Genies is that they had a powered range of so many miles (6 I think it was) and an effective range of considerably more- it wasn't a turning and burning, weapon, it flew off in a straight line and exploded with kilotons of force. So it was launched and flew very far, very quickly, coasting after engine burn-out. As MB-1 says, it was ballistic

In the old SPI "Airwar" game, there was a scenario for F-89s firing Genies at Mothra or a dragon or some such, which is where I first encountered the relatively low powered range....

At least one long-range mode for the AIM-54 Phoenix missile was to be fired toward a location where a target was expected to arrive. The Phoenix would pull up and blast through the stratosphere (makes sense- less air, go faster, and the potential energy of altitude can be converted to kinetic energy to get close to the target by simply putting the nose down. So you fly to a point in the sky, turn on your little personal radar and dive at whatever you might find there.