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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0566.PDF
568 FLIGHT More About British Guided Missiles ... the twin-ramjet test vehicle. With the help of information from theRoyal Aircraft Establishment and on the foundation of experience derived from a collaborative agreement with the Boeing Airplane Com-pany, the company put in hand an intensive programme of research and flight trials. "In July 1951 the first objective of the development programme wasreached: a vehicle was fired and telemetry readings showed that its engines produced ihrust approximately equal to the drag of the vehicle.A short while later, another test firing achieved the further success of being the first British-designed and built ramjet missile to give positiveacceleration in supersonic flight. "Since those early days the Bristol effort in the ramjet-powered guidedweapon field has been considerably expanded. An extension to Bristol Aero-Engines' test plant is now approaching completion. In this plantvery-high-altitude conditions will be simulated by enclosing the test engine in a steel drum in which a partial vacuum will be maintained bya battery of steam ejectors. "Ferranti have built up research and development facilities com-parable in manpower to those at Bristol. In their laboratories, after extensive research, they have designed and developed the radar andelectronic circuits, servo-mechanisms, gyroscopes and other highly specialized equipment whicn control tne weapon in its flignt. . . . "Ferranti leads the field in printed electronic circuits, a techniquewhich has proved of great value in solving the crucial problem of reliability, on which the success of guided weapon defence so largelydepends." From the Air Estimates it seems that the Bloodhound is thechosen surface-to-air weapon for R.A.F. use; English Electric's competing weapon (also, as already stated, now ordered in quan-tity) is not mentioned and may be presumed to have been adopted by the Army. We pubnsned a brief illustrated description of Bobbin, the twin-Thor test vehicle, in our issue of March 29 last. It is likely that Bloodhound will be of generally similar size and configuration.Like the English Electric weapon, it can be quickly and easily split into interchangeable sections and components. Bristol havestressed that their whole system—launchers, control radar, the missile, propulsion and guidance, and test gear—is simple andreliable and "could be adopted by many other countries and used within their existing defensive organization." de Havilland: "de Havilland Propellers, Ltd., of Hatfield, may nowstate that they have mastered the problems of the design and develop- ment of an air-to-air guided weapon which employs a system of infra-redtarget homing. This weapon, named Firestreak, has been chosen and ordered for the Royal Air Force: it will be fitted as standard equipmentto certain of the most important British fighter aircraft. [P.I and Javelin.—Ed.] An organization for the production of Firestreak hasalready been built up in the north and south of England, and several thousand technical staff and manufacturing personnel are now engagedupon this work. "When de Havilland Propellers began work, their aim was to developa weapon with a guidance system which would enable it to engage high-speed bomber aircraft at great heights: the infra-red system waschosen after careful comparative study. The infra-red system possesses qualities of great range and sensitivity, and is immune from the jammingwhich it is possible to employ against conventional radar weapons. The system employs a detector eye sensitive to the infra-red rays emittedfrom an aircraft: this eye, once it has locked on to the target, feeds information into the control system to ensure that the weapon continuesto travel in the correct direction, no matter what manoeuvre the target may perform. "The components of Firestreak fall into six main sections. Theseare the guidance, control and fusing systems, the power supply, the propulsion motor and the warhead: they are housed within an aero-dynamic body tube fitted with four wings and four control fins. The parent fighter carries Firestreak on an under-wing launching shoe; weapons may be fired singly or in pairs, and provision is made forjettisoning. The ancillary equipment required in the parent aircraft has been designed and developed by de Havilland Propellers in parallelwith the main Firestreak project. "When de Havilland Propellers took the decision to enter the guided-weapon field, they did so with a background of electronic, hydraulic and precision engineering gained over many years in the design, develop-ment and manufactuie of aircraft propellers. This provided the nucleus of technical direction upon which a completely new team was built.Starting from a handful of engineers under the technical lead of Mr. G. C. I. Gardiner, technical director and chief engineer, an organiza-tion of many hundreds has been built up. This staff, together with the manufacturing personnel, now totals several thousand engaged upon thisproject alone. . . . The first members of the guided-weapon team were Mr. G. H. F. Brown, Mr. R. N. Hadwin, and Mr. J. Mullin, who hadbeen until then respectively chief designer, chief vibration engineer and chief dynamicist of de Havilland Propellers, Ltd. When the Ministry of Supply awarded the company a developmentcontract for a turbo-alternator, a compact form of electrical power sup- ply, which was required by other companies engaged on the developmentof guided weapons, the company were encouraged to expand their equip- ment resources and to recruit further senior technicians. Key membersof the team who joined at this time included Dr. G. H. Hough, now the systems engineer, Mr. C. de B. White, who is today the chief trialsengineer, and Mr. F. J. Costigan, who came to the company with previous knowledge of guided-weapon design, and is now chief designerof air-to-air weapons. "Subsequently a contract was received for the development of aninfra-red homing-head, on which early work had already been carried out by the Ministry of Supply Radar Research Establishment. Theguided weapons team expanded rapidly and the provision of additional factory space, manufacturing capacity and techniques was expanding atan equal rate both at Hatfield and in Lancashire. "A development contract for a complete guided weapon was awardedin the light of the successful completion of the work on the turbo- alternator and the homing head. The main design requirement wasthat the weapon should be reliable and easy to handle in service. At an early stage of the work, therefore, de Havilland Propellers decidedto design and manufacture all components of the weapon themselves, with the exception of the propulsion and explosive units, which couldbe produced by existing facilities within Government establishments. Although many of the problems required specialist knowledge, it wasfelt that the basic skill existed within the company, and thus the diffi- cult and complex problems of co-ordinating design and developmentbetween several different companies spread throughout the country could be avoided. This decision contributed largely towards achievingthe final results in the shortest possible time. "The first flight trials were begun under the direction of Mr. Whiteat the Royal Artillery range at Larkhill. After initial trials to check boost separation a number of weapons were fired with the turbo-alternator installed to check the performance of the power system under the high stresses occurring during flight. Although the weapons were,for reasons of safety, destroyed in the air after a flight of a few seconds, adequate information on the performance of the specific system undertest could be transmitted to the ground receiving station in that time. "Weapons containing both power and control systems were fired nextto check the response of the control system to pre-arranged signals. The final stage before a fully guided round could be fired was to checkthe performance of the homing head in flight when locked on to a target but not controlling the flight path of the weapon: as in the previousphase all data during flight was transmitted to the ground by telemetry. "At last, with full control and guidance systems linked together, thefirst complete Firestreak was fired at Larkhill. The launching was carried out at night. Firestreak was fired at a target several miles distantfrom the launching site: this target took the form of a large wire frame which carried heaters to simulate the radiation from an aircraft. . . .The eager team of observers, which included Mr. Gardiner and Mr. White, found that Firestreak had scored a direct hit. . . . "An extensive re-equipment programme was commenced at themain Lostock factory to make ready for the full flow of production. A large quantity of new machine tools and equipment, suited to thenew and exacting standards demanded for weapon manufacture, was purchased. "The first air trials began during the middle of the ground-launchingtests. Trials were carried out over the Aberporth range, initially to test that the weapon could be jettisoned safely. The aircraft used wasa [two-seat.—Ed.] de Havilland Venom, flown by Mr. D. de Villiers, then chief test pilot of de Havilland Propellers. The first round launched from under the wing of an aircraft wasfired from the Venom standing on Pendine Sands, near the Aberporth range. The nose of the aircraft was pointed out to sea and jacked up,and an anti-blast door was fitted over the undercarriage. Mr. de Villiers and Mr. White entered the cockpit and adjusted their safety straps.Mr. White pressed the firing button, and the missile left the aircraft successfully. No damage or marking was sustained by the aircraft. "The way was now clear for flight firing trials to begin, and aweapon was fired from the Venom flying over the Aberporth range. This was merely a trial launching: no target was employed. The Continued on page 570) Firestreak, the R.A.F. air-to-air missile by de Havilland Propellers, undergoing functional checking on the overall-test console. Electric and compressed-air lines make the weapon alive while the box over the "business end" injects intelligence. (The roundels on these missiles have been known to produce the facetious comment, "All right, it's one of ours")
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