FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0621.PDF
FLIGHT, 10 May 1957 623 Thoughts on British Missiles Notes on Policy in the Guided Weapon Field By THE TECHNICAL EDITOR FOR several years past officially authorized information onour guided-weapon programmes has been conspicuouslyabsent. The bulk of the material that was available a few months ago comprised unofficial assertions by British writers or"leaks" by the Press of other countries. This journal's "Guided Missiles" issue of December 7 lastincluded an appraisal of the world's aspirations and achievements in this great field; but the overall British contribution to thepicture could be discerned but dimly. This was to some extent because at that time we did not, as a nation, know fully what wewere about. Since February much has happened that—for good or ill, and probably for equal proportions of both—will shapethe pattern of our defence efforts for the next decade. It is now possible to collect a number of new facts which,when wrapped up with appropriate explanation and comment, should throw new light on what we have been trying to do inthe guided-weapon field and what we have succeeded in accom- plishing. Altogether the picture is far from discouraging. In theDecember 7 issue mentioned above was published comment on the government statement, made early in 1956, that British missileprogrammes were then "approximately three years behind those of America in the overall field." It was given as the writer's opinionthat this was "a rather sweeping contention that could be chal- lenged." This opinion is strengthened by the fact that one maynow refer to the three most important British programmes for operational missiles. Altogether, by restricting our advance to a relatively narrowfront—in comparison with the U.S.A., that is—our policy of missing out whole generations of weapons, and advancing inmassive leaps seems to be largely paying off. This leap-frog doctrine has governed everything that we have tried to do in thedefence field since the end of World War 2. One calculated risk after another has allowed us to jump over the B-47/Sabre/Mig-15generation of aircraft and to by-pass the Nike/Terrier/Falcon generation of guided weapons. There is, however, one very important long-term factor whichany nation indulging in "big leaps" would do well to watch closely. There comes a time in every field of complex techno-logical development when it is no longer possible to "gate-crash" from outer darkness to a world-beating concept allied with areasonable time scale. Any nation which wishes to make a DC-8-rival capable of beating the time-scale of Douglas mustfirst have made a Comet or similar first-generation aeroplane. By the same token, any nation which decides to make an inter-continental ballistic missile capable of rivalling in timing those of the U.S.S.R. and U.S.A. must first have made ballistic missilesof simpler character. This belief has nothing to do with informa- tion embargoes under the McCarron Act; it is a straightforwardassertion that, although one can sometimes miss out one genera- tion of weapons in an effort to save money, one can hardly everafford to miss out two. It is for this reason that one welcomes our decision to buy ballistic missiles from the U.S.A.; but more ofthat anon. Strategic weapons of the IRBM/ICBM type are discussedtowards the end of this account, in the section headed "Surface- to-surface." The "air-to-surface" section is preceded by a sectiondealing with surface-to-air developments (i.e., ground-launched anti-aircraft weapons), and the first section is a dissertation onair-to-air missiles. The latter are generally short-range weapons of modest size. Although frequently of very advanced concep-tion, they pose rather fewer design problems than do ground- fired weapons, and, as far as the R.A.F. is concerned, will be thefirst type to go into service. Air-to-air. Earliest of all British guided weapons to be releasedin public—in both senses of the phrase—was the air-to-air missile known as Fireflash, by the Weapon Division of The Fairey Avia-tion Co., Ltd., Heston, Middlesex. As is now well known, it is a beam-rider. Boost to high supersonic speed is effected by upperand lower solid-propellant motors, which jettison at burn-out leaving a clean "dart" which can coast for several miles beforeits power of manoeuvre drops below the acceptable minimum. As it has no internal sustainer motor—a fact which renders italmost unique among currently known missiles—its rearward- Roaring out from its launching aircraft goes Firestreak, by de Havilland Propellers. Fins and wings are indexed diagonally. facing aerials can "see" the fighter's guiding beam perfectly,without interference from a rocket-motor flame. Moreover, the fact that the whole missile body is devoted to warhead, guidanceand control, means that the warhead size may be larger than the dimensions of the body might suggest. Nevertheless, it is atpresent regarded by the R.A.F. solely as a training and indoctrina- tion weapon. It is in full production for allocation to a unit orunits equipped with the Supermarine Swift Mk 7 missile-carrier, of which a number are currently flying in Anglesey and elsewhere.Fireflash can also be carried by the Hawker Hunter—an effective combination which is available for export—and (official pro-nouncements notwithstanding) may yet be placed in accelerated production for the R.A.F. should the need arise.Until last autumn Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft), Ltd., at Weybridge, Surrey, were prime contractors to the Ministry ofSupply for a very advanced air-to-air weapon system intended to be applied to future twin-engined all-weather and day fighters ofthe R.A.F. and Royal Navy. Little security leakage had occurred on this weapon when its development was cancelled. Cessationof development was due solely to the fact that one of the chief applications—which, by inference, one can deduce to have beenthe supersonic development of the Javelin—fell before the economy axe. Elimination of the big Vickers weapon left only one publiclyannounced contractor in the field of British air-to-air missiles for future bulk service. That such a situation should be deliberatelycreated reflects two things: trust in the ability of the firm con- cerned to deliver the goods on time and remarkable success withthe development of the weapon concerned. That weapon was first illustrated last week; it has been given the Service name of Fire-streak, and is a product of de Havilland Propellers, Ltd. In last week's issue we printed a statement by the prime con-tractor for Firestreak which oudined the genesis and past history of the weapon and described the considerable resources ofde Havilland Propellers at such locations as. Hatfield, Lostock, Farnworth, Stevenage, and Lakefield. As we pointed out in anappendix to that statement the company bear a weighty respon- sibility, for any severe failure on their part would have repercus-sions on the development of such vital aircraft as the later marks of Javelin, the Sea Vixen and the P.I series, each of which includesFirestreak in its weapon system. Firestreak is a markedly larger weapon than its counterpartsin die U.S.A. Rather than greater range, this is likely to denote a heavier warhead—a major factor affecting the lethality of theweapon at any miss-distance. Body diameter is roughly 9in and overall length a little over 10ft. For comparison, the correspond-ing dimensions of Fireflash are 6in and 7ft 6in, for Sparrow 6in and 8ft 4in, for Falcon 6in and 6ft 6in and for Sidewinder5in and 9ft 2in. The American missiles need very good guidance, since their warheads are small. The British missile seems to havethe best of both worlds, with good guidance, a proximity fuse and a fearsome warhead. Propulsion is by a solid-propellant internal motor giving veryhigh thrust for a short time. So that the missile trim shall remain correct during the period of burning, the charge is probablysituated near the e.g., suitable pipes being provided to join the
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
