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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1729.PDF
893 GUIDED MISSILES 1956 FLIGHT" COMPILATION FACED with the task of producing a survey of the world's guided missiles, a writer is caught between security on theone hand and science fiction on the other. To be of any value a survey must be reliable, and we have used the utmost endeavours to ensure the accuracy of the surprising number of words which fill the subsequent pages of this issue.None of the information has been gleaned by cloak-and-dagger methods; and the fact that the American section fills over 60 per cent of the total reflects the transatlantic value of publicizing one's product. Altogether the survey iscertainly the most complete yet attempted anywhere, and it portrays the products of an embryonic industry which is already one of the world's largest. GREAT BRITAIN WHAT has sometimes been described as "the first guidedmissile" was developed by the late A. M. Low for theRoyal Flying Corps in 1915-1918 (as related in our issue of October 3, 1952). It was a rudimentary experiment, but by theearly 1930s the techniques of radio control were sufficiently advanced for 550 de Havilland Queen Bee target aircraft to bestandard Service equipment. As early as 1927-9 the radio-con- trolled Larynx (powered by a Lynx and fitted with a warhead)had been succesfully tried out by the R.A.F. in Iraq. In 1945 Germany was the dominant missile nation; later know-ledge has shown how fortunate it was that she was beaten before her missiles could play a really major part. Nobody can deny thatGerman work taught us much; but their defensive missiles were all aimed at employment in a "piston-engined" war. Britaindecided to take a remarkable gamble, and one which applied to all weapons of war. No new conflict, it was argued, would breakout before 1957 or thereabouts. In the intervening dozen years all effort would be applied to the development of advanced weapons.Thus it would be possible to avoid expenditure needed by interim equipment that would quickly become obsolete. It is this gamble which explains the absence of a Britishcounterpart to the Sabre or B-47; and it explains why we have no Nike or Terrier or Sparrow or Falcon. It also partly explains whyso little of our guided-weapon work has been made public. No useful purpose would be served by publicizing developmentswhich, although of immense long-term importance to our security, could bear little fruit for a period of years. The heading illustration shows the Nike battery at Lorton, Virginia. It cannot be over-emphasized that what we have attemptedto do in the past dozen years amounts to a giant's stride into unknown regions. The dominating single factor has, of course,been the advent of nuclear devices of frightful destructive power. No longer is it sufficient to knock down enough enemy bombersto make raids "uneconomic." Today, one raid may be decisive; so every bomber must be destroyed before it even approachesour shores. Offensively, also, the guided weapon is revolutioniz- ing warfare on land and sea. In 1946 the Ministry of Aircraft Production merged with theMinistry of Supply; and the R.A.E., Farnborough, began to assume general direction of missile research, including firing trialsat what was then G.W.T.W. (Aberporth, Cardigan) and rocket testing at the R.P.D., Westcott, Bucks. It was in this year thatmeetings were held to map our missile programme. Apart from some knowledge of supersonic aerodynamics, rocket motors andGerman experience, there was nothing on which to base the work. Fact-finding was a primary task. Many firms inside and outsidethe aircraft industry were brought in, and teams were sent to the R.A.E. to pick up a rudimentary knowledge of what was to bedone. By 1949 the foundations had been laid. It had been decided tolet contracts for numerous test vehicles, each aimed at finding out certain facts, proving certain items of -•quipment, establish-ing correct procedures or making available necessary data. Start- ing with simple ballistic rounds and aerodynamic test vehicles,there later were the large and capable RTV-1 and -2, MTVs, CTVs, GPVs and RJTVs—and more besides. Such a schemehas undoubtedly paid off, and it has not only proved economical but has greatly accelerated the development of the real weapons.Primarily, the test Vehicles have given the British guided- weapon industry a bed-rock of knowledge which is scarcelyinferior in most essentials to that enjoyed by the far more
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