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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1240.PDF
328 FLIGHT Vs® v^frq^p:*"" AT the end of World War 2 the chiefs of the British armedservices and their civilian counterparts in the Ministry ofSupply and the Air Ministry, War Office and Admiraltybegan long and earnest discussions with a view to the formulation of plans for Britain's future weapons. As is now well known,it was considered that our national economy would not support the development of a multitude of complex families of weaponssimilar to those projected in the U.S Ji. Instead, it was argued, calculated risks would have to be taken, and whole generationsof weapons ignored. The first major programme was reckoned to fill the period1947-1957, during which time it was hoped that no major war would occur. This ten-year development has given us the Victorand Vulcan and the first generation of British guided weapons. The latter are shortly to enter operational service, not muchlater than the date originally programmed nearly a decade earlier. Fairey One British missile, the Fireflash air-to-air weapon by theFairey Aviation Company, is already in limited service with the R.A.F. as a training and indoctrination weapon. The subject ofan extensive article in our issue of August 16, Fireflash is accelerated by a pair of jettisonable boost motors, but it has nointernal motor and thus is not subject to one of the major prob- lems associated with beam-riding missiles (irregular guidancecaused by the ionization in the rocket flame). Fireflash has been extensively developed and can be carried by most modernfighter aircraft. The long-span Supermarine Swift Mk 7 has Bloodhound, by the Bristol Aeroplane Company with semi-active homing guidance by Ferranti, presents a fearsome aspect in the eye of a camera carried by its target. The twin Thor ramjets can be seen above and below the rear fuselage. This particular Bloodhound was not fitted with an explosive warhead. Note the camera graticule been specially evolved to carry up to four of these weapons, andthis aircraft equips a special development squadron. de Havilland Propellers Hard on the heels of Fireflash is the appreciably larger—andone may therefore conclude, more effective—Firestreak developed by de Havilland Propellers. Firestreak is equippedwith a single solid-propellant motor, probably situated ahead of the heavy ring carrying the control surfaces and connected to thepropelling nozzle by a tubular duct. This motor gives exceed- ingly high thrust for a relatively short burning time. Firestreak is more than ten feet in length and has considerablebody-volume for the heavy warhead and the guidance, control and propulsion systems. Like the latest American air-to-airweapons Firestreak has infra-red guidance, which means that it tends to "home" on to sources of heat at a particular pre-selectedtemperature—such as the hot metal parts of the turbojet power- plants of an enemy bomber. A photograph taken during a recentvisit by Her Majesty the Queen to the R.A.F. Station at Leuchars revealed that the nose of Firestreak is of octagonalsection, being formed from eight flat triangular panels. Clearly the flat panels must be as transparent as possible to infra-redradiation of the agreed wavelength, and the Firestreak nose minimizes distortion and thus allows the scanner in the hominghead to "see" the target as clearly as possible. The design prob- lems attendant upon the manufacture of such a nose must havebeen immense. Even with very slight angles of attack or yaw the air-loads on the nose of a high-supersonic weapon canbecome enormous, and the material chosen must also withstand extremes of temperature and erosion, particularly when flyingthrough rain or hail. Firestreak's nose not only passes the weak infra-red rays from the target with minimum distortion but italso stands up to all service conditions in an admirable fashion. It is also worth noting that Firestreak cannot see its targetclearly when the nose is allowed to ice-over, and so considerable quantities of hot air have to be fed to the weapon to de-ice thenose before launching. Cold air is also probably required to cool the various electronic "black boxes" and special electricalsupplies are certain to be required during the pre-launching phase to prevent drainage of the weapon's own electrical capa-city. These services would, of course, have been incorporated from the start on any aircraft designed to carry Firestreaks. Forconversion purposes, a neat streamlined container has been prepared to house self-contained units capable of fulfilling allthese functions and this container can be readily attached beneath a suitably converted fighter without disturbing theinternal equipment of the aircraft in any way. Such a container could be seen beneath the Avon-Sabre shown launching Fire-streak in a photograph on p. 70 of our issue of July 19, 1957. The large heading photograph of the Firestreak and Canberrais remarkable in that it was taken with a still camera and is not a frame from cin6 film. The Canberra is one of the hacks usedby de Havilland Propellers at Hatfield for missile development (similar aircraft are visible on page 248 of our issue of March 2,1956). Firestreak is carried on racks under the wings, the weapon itself having a very elegant mounting comprising fourdiminutive feet which pick up in jettisonable shoes capable of attachment to a standard stores pylon. The Canberra is seento have a pointed nose embodying some form of radar or photo- graphic gear. Pencil-beam radar is unlikely, since it is almostcertain that Firestreak's homing head is locked on to its target before firing. One may conclude, therefore, that the Canberranose carries telemetering or camera equipment, since full A.I- radar would be far larger. Most important immediate application of Firestreak is theGloster Javelin all-weather fighter. It has just been revealed that production Javelins will carry four of the big de Havillandweapons, and a Javelin FAW.7 is expected to fly at next week s
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