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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1785.PDF
FLIGHT, 6 December 1957 Missiles 1957 . . . 875 Left, Vickers-Armstrongs 888 (Red Dean) launched by a Canberra; right, developing firing of the Vickers-Armstrongs Type 891 from an experimental launcher. In operational service the 891 will be fired from its carrying case ("Flight," September 13, p. 449). on this much-needed device had already beendone at the R.A.E., and Vickers were brought in to manage the programme with specificresponsibility for airframe design and evolu- tion of certain systems. Principal sub-con-tractors for guidance and control were E.M.I, and Smiths. In the following year work beganon a second major project, a pilotless bomber powered by a Rolls-Royce turbojet and withguidance by Ferranti. By 1952 the work had grown to such anextent that a Guided Weapons Department was formed at Weybridge. For five years thisdepartment has maintained a large and balanced team for the design, research anddevelopment of a complete weapon system, including environmental testing and flighttrials. Attached to the G.W. Department is a facility for the manufacture and developmentof pre-production rounds. It is worth com- menting that the company's engineers have,largely through force of circumstances, con- ducted a very great deal of research into suchfields as *einforced-plastic construction and printed circuitry, and they have also designedand built an analogue flutter simulator. Late in 1952, the Ministry of Supplyrequested Vickers to undertake the complete responsibility for a very advanced air-to-airweapon known as Red Dean. This missile was intended to be matched with advanced all-weather intercepter aircraft such as the "thin- wing Javelin development," and it accordinglycarried a high development priority and absorbed a major part of the available Vickersdesign effort. The Vickers project number was 888. As the drawing shows, the weapon has aclassical British configuration with a long cir- cular-section body carrying cruciform sets ofwings and controls indexed in line with each other. Compared with Firesrreak the weaponhas control surfaces of higher aspect ratio and greater area, and they are clearly mountedon an actuating ring passing around the rocket Vickers-Armstrongs Type 891 Surface-to-surface.Solid sustainer motor. Length, 32.25in; body diameter, 4.5in; wing span, 11 in; weight of weapon in carryingcase, with optical tracking sight and cable, 35 to 40 Ib. motor tube joining a solid sustainer charge toa propelling nozzle. Control fairings can be seen extending down the sides of the body inline with the wings and control surfaces. As far as one can gather, Red Dean is thelargest air-to-air missile to have reached an advanced stage of development. Its size indi-cates either that it has a relatively short range, poor guidance and an exceedingly large, war-head or, alternatively, a long range and very sophisticated guidance. Of these two alterna-tives the latter seems much more likely, in view of the fact that the missile was intendedto accomplish difficult all-weather intercep- tions. Vickers had reached an advanced stateof development in the summer of last year and had prepared all the ground gear, loadingtrolleys and checking systems. The weapon itself had completed an appreciable part of itsinitial air-firing trials, and was frequently seen under the wings of Canberras operating fromWisley. Nevertheless, it was decided to dis- continue development for several reasons, chiefof which was the cancellation of the develop- ment contract for its carrying aircraft. Can-cellation of Red Dean finally took effect in June of this year. About eighteen months ago the GuidedWeapons Department were in the unhappy position of watching all their officially spon-sored projects collapsing like a house of cards, and it was decided that the logical thing to dowould be to find a good project which could be embarked upon as a private venture. Anti-tank problems had already been examined at Weybridge, and the company decided todevelop a multi-purpose weapon capable of being carried by a foot soldier and used againstarmoured vehicles and possibly other "hard- skinned" targets. The philosophy governingthe development of this weapon was deter- mined by what a man on a battlefield can carryin one hand. It has clearly enforced upon the Vickers designers extremely simple guidanceand control, and the minimum warhead capable <Z u Vickers-Armstrongs Type 888 (Rod Dean) Air-to-air. Internal sustainer motor. Length, 16ft 1 in; bodydiameter, 12.5in; wing span,4Sin; span of control surfaces, 45 in. Weights and performance data restricted. of destroying the heaviest armoured vehicles.The Vickers infantry anti-tank weapon is known as Type 891 and its existence wasrevealed three months ago. The basic round consists of a conical nose housing various alter-native types of warhead (some of which are highly likely to have a hollow charge) deton-ated by a contact fuse. The rest of the body is a cylinder formed from wrapped metal sheet,and the rear part houses a rocket motor charged with a smokeless solid propellant supplied byI.C.I. Lift and control is provided by a cruci- form of wings, each of very low aspect ratioand apparently fabricated from solid reinforced plastic material. The rear part of each wingis hinged to control the flight of the weapon. The complete round is carried in a box, whichin production will probably be manufactured from glass fibre and will provide full protectionagainst rough usage. When the infantryman has found a target he opens the box, points itin the direction of firing and sights on the target through an optical viewer resembling apair of binoculars with a pistol grip. The viewer is attached to the weapon-box through a shortcable, and the round is fired by a trigger in the pistol grip. During the launching themissile is initially restrained by a lug engaged with a rail along the top of the inside of thebox, and thereafter is controlled by command guidance transmitted through a thin wire un-wound from a coil inside the box. The very small span facilitates steering the weapon downroadways, under telephone cables and through thinly wooded areas without hitting obstruc-tions, and the optical command guidance should be extremely accurate once the opera-tor has gained some experience. Development of the 891 is approximately50 per cent completed. The overall programme has moved exceptionally rapidly, partly owingto the experience of its designers and partly owing to the simplicity of the weapon system.Most of all, however, the rapidity of develop- ment has been due to the fact that the com-pany have had freedom of decision without disruption through incessant change of speci-fication. The weapon has not yet been adopted by the British Army, but is obviously beingplanned to meet all requirements for such weapons, and it should find a ready marketthroughout the world. Australia SINCE the vast Commonwealth of Australiaaccommodates the principal centre for guided- weapon testing outside the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R.,it is logical that that continent should undertake the development of a complete weapon system.The first such system which can be publicly referred to is an anti-tank weapon with theaboriginal name Malkara. Designed to a British Army requirement, the Malkara is being de-veloped at the Government Aircraft Factories in Melbourne (by essentially the same team asthat which produced the Jindivik) in associa- tion with other organizations and the Weapons
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