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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1241.PDF
30 August 1957 329 '•?H Firestreak, the standard air-to-air weapon of the k.A.F. and Royal Navy, leaves a Canberra during development trials by de Havilland Propellers. S.B.A.C. Show with four Firestreaks under its broad wings.The weapon is likely to go into squadron service next year and should enormously enhance the killing power of Fighter Com-mand. Compared with corresponding American weapons Firestreak is larger and has wings of very much greater area. Itcan be concluded, therefore, that it carries a particularly effective warhead, and its lower wing loading (compared with suchweapons as Sparrow or Sidewinder) should allow the British weapon to pull nearly twice as many "g" and make it quiteimpossible for any aircraft to avoid being intercepted when once the Firestreak has locked-on. Vlckers-Armstrongs According to a recent announcement, Vickers-Armstrongs(Aircraft) are likely to exhibit at the forthcoming display an air- to-air weapon bearing the appellation "Red Dean" (presumablya code-name of the same genre as "Sea Slug"). Twelve months ago a daily newspaper commented upon the cancellation of con-tracts for a Vickers air-to-air weapon by describing the design as "too complicated"; in fact, the missile had been prepared tomeet the needs of future supersonic all-weather fighters, such as the "thin-wing Olympus Javelin," and cancellation of this air-craft naturally resulted in elimination of the requirement for its weapon—or, at least, that is the official view. Vickers haveacquired substantial experience with various guided-weapon programmes, and their exhibition of Red Dean apparentlyindicates their willingness to produce such weapons for export. Bristol The remainder of our first-generation weapons are anti-aircraft missiles designed for launching from surface sites or naval craft. Possibly the first such weapon to come into servicewill be the fearsome-looking Bloodhound developed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, with guidance by Ferranti and pro-pulsion by Bristol Aero-Engines. Now in production for the R.A.F. as the standard anti-aircraft missile for home-defenceBloodhound is an extraordinarily interesting weapon with a number of exceptionally fine qualities. Its long and slender fuselage houses a mighty warhead andsemi-active guidance system, the extreme nose—apparently of ogive form—obviously having to accommodate a dish-typescanner and receiver for the radiation reflected from the target. Further aft the main bulk of the body must be occupied bykerosine tanks, the fuel being fed by air-turbine-driven pumps (similar to those exhibited at the 1956 S.B.A.C. Show and illus-trated on page 490 of our issue of September 14 last) to the twin ramjets—presumably of the Thor type—which are mountedabove and below the rear fuselage. Thor has a diameter of 16in and is one of die most highly developed high-supersonic air- breathing engines in the world, with a Mach capability whichprobably approaches 3. Starting and light-up reliability is now virtually perfect and the fuel system of Thor has been describedas better than that of any other ramjet. For launching purposes Bloodhound is fired by four wrap-round motors, strontiumflares being used to ignite the main engines. Unlike all odier contemporary British missiles Bloodhounddoes not have a cruciform wing, but flies like an aeroplane with a single lifting surface in the horizontal position. It thereforemanoeuvres by roll-and-steer (unless it has been found possible to generate sufficient lift from the nacelles of the ramjets toprovide adequate lateral acceleration), die horizontal tail controls acting as elevators and ailerons. The guidance system is of thesemi-active homing type in which a ground radar illuminates the target while the missile homes on to the reflected radiation.At present an H.E. warhead is used, but it has been officially stated that in future versions of die weapon a nuclear warheadwill be employed. Throughout the design of the whole weapon- system great efforts have been made to improve simplicity andreliability, and to allow die weapon to fit into any kind of defence environment irrespective of die control and reportingsystem which might already be in use. English Electric A counterpart to Bloodhound is the Thunderbird anti-aircraftweapon developed by the English Electric Group. Thunderbird has been developed through several phases and has emerged asan effective and attractive weapon-system which is already in bulk production for die British Army and the R.A.F. for usein all parts of the world. Of classic "British" configuration, Thunderbird has a cruci-form of wings and control surfaces, indexed at 45-deg to each other, mounted on a cylindrical fuselage with a conical noseand a boat-type tail, die whole assembly being boosted by four large wrap-round motors mounted around die rear part of diebody. The sustainer motor is a rocket, bodi liquid-propellant and solid versions being in use. Thunderbird is already well known and has several timesbeen described in our pages. At die recent Paris Salon a work- ing model showed an early version of the Thunderbird system,involving an underground store in which single rounds could be mounted on a large launcher running on a short length of railedtrack. The launching ramp itself was hydraulically powered in elevation up to 90 deg, and a turn-table was built into theend of die track to provide azimudi variation. Such an arrange- ment has now been superseded by more mobile systems notdependent on a fixed ground installation. Every part of Thunderbird has been specially developed for arduous servicein difficult climates and it has already been found exceedingly Fireflosh, already in service with the R.A.F. as a training and indoctrination weapon, is seen below immediately after being fired from a Hunter.
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