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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1359.PDF
FLIGHT, 13 September 1957 449 ON THE GROUND . . . Guided Weapons (continued) ridge. The power pack may be assembledinto a missile and left in store in a safe condition."The hydraulic pump is driven by the turbine through a speed-reduction gearbox. It is similar to the Type Series 10 pump also on display. A fuel-control valveis incorporated, sensing change in hy- draulic loading, it varies the fuel flow tothe combustion chamber, thus controlling the power output of the turbine. "The overall speed range is governedto within 5 per cent both on and off load. Provision is also made for test running ofthe unit, using an external air supply, up to full hydraulic pressure, with the unit fullycharged with fuel." The power pack exhibited was rated at20 hydraulic horse-power at up to 4,500 Ib/sq in, and had a weight of 16 lb. In thedevelopment stage are packs with outputs ranging up to 7.5 kW and with combinedhydraulic and electrical output. Sankeys of Bilston Prominent on thisfirm's stand was the big regeneratively cooled chamber for a 50,000 lb-thrustliquid-propellant rocket motor first ex- hibited by the M.o.S. about a year ago. Itis precision welded in heat-resistant steel, to R.A.E. requirements. Short Brothers and Harland, of Belfast,are likely to make a very large number of the simple device described as "a multi-purpose surface-to-air missile" (it has no name or published designation). Officiallydescribed as being used for research into guidance systems, it seems to have a solidtandem boost with cruciform fins and a cylindrical body with an ogive nose of sub-sonic—or just supersonic—profile. On the body are four superimposed fairings whichproduce a substantially square cross-sec- tion in the vicinity of the cruciform wings,which are pivoted to provide flight control. The wing trailing edges overhang the body,and the surfaces themselves are wrapped from sheet. Existing components wereused wherever possible, and development of the vehicle has been extraordinarilyrapid. One of the company's chief G.W. pro-grammes has been the design and manu- facture of GPV, a multi-purpose test andresearch vehicle which has already been fired in large numbers and is bringing ingreat quantities of data. When Short began this work they took over the RTV-2, whichin 1952 was the standard round for this purpose. Although the GPV looks ex-tremely similar to the RTV-2 it is in fact wholly redesigned, and has completely newinterior layout and systems. It has a fixed cruciform of wings, high aspect-ratio rearcontrols operated by electro-hydraulic ser- vos, four pairs of wrap-round boosts andan internal liquid-propellant motor. OVERALL LENGTH 15 5" OUTSIDE DIAMETER 7" TELEMETERING COMBUSTION CHAMBER PRESSURE TELEMETERING FUEL PUMP PRESSURE TURBINE AND EXHAUST CASING TANK /FUEL FILLER CAP / TANK POWER TAKE OFF 24.000 R.P.M. SPILL FUEL TANK ORIFICE PRESSURIZATION PIPE A diagram of the Phssey missile power pack, discussed in the accompanying text. On the company stand, Short displayeddetails of the GPV fuel system. Six metal bottles hold H.T.P. and a seventh is filledwith kerosine; the starter charge bursts the sealing disc and nitrogen pressure isapplied to free pistons, running on Dowty seals inside each cylinder, which expel thepropellants through a catalyst gauze and into the chamber. As an alternative to thissystem the GPV rounds can be fitted with a solid sustainer. Vactric This company manufacture awide range of small A.C. and D.C. machines for both aircraft and missileapplications, the majority of the A.C. units working in 400 c/s two-phase systems. Oneof the recent Size 11 motors has a syn- chronous speed of 8,000 r.p.m., but de-velops nearly full torque at much lower speeds so that loads may be permanentlycoupled. For use against M.o.S. spec. No. EL.1789, the unit can be potted and therotor run in stainless-steel bearings. Like most Vactric rotating machines it can befitted with a precision gear-head with a reduction of up to 360,000:1. Long renowned for their miniatureaccumulators, Venner displayed a variety of missile batteries. Several of these aresupplied dry and filled with electrolyte from a polythene ampoule; by this meansthe shelf-life is indefinite. Several pat- terns are dry-charged, so that injection ofthe fluid results in a charged cell. Much used are the SZ 6/12 series, witha double series/parallel output and flat volt- age characteristics up to 40 deg C. Tencells, moulded in polystyrene, weigh 23 oz, and have a capacity of about 4 amp-hr at20 A continuous rating. The DGW, appar- ently used in Fireflash, is a typical silver-zinc cell of 1.5 amp-hr capacity and weighing 1| oz, and the CGW provides0.75 amp-hr for a weight of f oz. A com- pletely sealed resin-pot h.t. unit had ter-minals at -30 and +20V, weighed 9\ oz and could provide 250 to 300 mA for upto 30 min; it had very flat output charac- Left, the Short sur- face-to-air missile for guidance research; left, below, a missile heat exchanger by Marston Excelsior; right, the Vickers- Armstrongs Type 981 infantry missile. teristics, like the SH.20, as large as a packof 20 cigarettes, which delivers no less than 125 A for up to 15 min at a nominal 1.5V. Although their G.W. strength, in per-sonnel, facilities and experience, is very great, Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) havenot previously been able to say very much about their work in this field. At thisS.B.A.C. show they were allowed to exhibit Type 888, a big air-to-air weapon for all-weather use (illustrated last week and sub- ject of a detail on page 446) and alsorevealed their neat Type 981 anti-armour weapon for infantry use. Resembling the French and Americanwire-guided missiles, but smaller, neater and—in production—cheaper than either,Type 981 is illustrated here in a drawing. It is packed in a container from which itis fired by a solid motor, guidance being effected by a simple optical controllerthrough which the user sights the missile's tracking flares. The guidance signals arepassed through the cable seen in the draw- ing and presumably through thin wires tothe missile. Total system weight, including case, is 40 lb. Vinten Although not strictly engagedin the G.W. business as such, this company make a range of cameras without which ourmissile programmes would be very severely handicapped. Some of these cameras arevery large, but one of the most important is the new, but widely used, 16mm high-speed cine camera. (The well-known rear view of a Firestreak just departing from itslauncher was originally a frame on colour film taken by one of these cameras.) The 16mm H.S.C. camera has been de-signed to meet very severe requirements. In addition to several other arduous fac-tors, it can withstand high accelerations, high temperature and severe vibration forprolonged periods, yet the whole equip- ment weighs but 5.7 lb and occupies 90cu in, both figures assuming the addition of a cassette for 50ft of film. Standardspeed is 100 frames per second.
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