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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0268.PDF
268 FLIGHT, 26 February 1960 Missiles and Spaceflight . . . with it?" The Minister replied: "The expenditure in the first casewill be modest, but as the programme develops I have no doubt that it will increase. I did not like the hon Member's disparagingremarks about the Royal Society." MISSILE-WARNING SITE SELECTED In our issue of January 29 we published an account of the USAF 'system of ballistic-missile early warning (BMEWS), and noted that such an installation was likely to be erected on the moor atFylingdales, Yorks. An official announcement to this effect was made by the Air Minister, George Ward, on February 17. He said: "The station will be commanded and operated by the RAF. Theinformation it obtains will be available simultaneously to opera- tions centres in the UK and USA. SACEUR will receive thewarning generated by the system; and the UK will also have access to information provided by the other stations [one in Green-land and one in Alaska.—Ed.]. The US will provide and install the radars . . . and pay for the communications required to linkthe station to the rest of the system. The UK will provide the land, erect the buildings and provide communications required tolink the station with our own authorities. For the first five years . . . technical spares will be provided by the US Government, andon-site maintenance will be borne by the UK . . . capital cost to this country is expected to be about £8m, and to the US about£35m." The installation will take two to three years to complete. Answering questions, the Minister said that the station wouldrequire four square miles of land, would be manned by about 50 officers and airmen, some of whom would be from the USAF, andthat it was hoped to achieve "a good deal more" than four minutes' warning time—"enough to get a substantial part of the bomberforce into the air." The Minister did not answer one Member who asked whether the BMEWS will "look one way, or ... west-wards against any possible Atlantic submarine attack." The fol- lowing day he said that the station could detect rockets "on anytrajectory"; but the installation does in fact "look one way," as is obvious from the description in our January 29 issue. This striking sequence shows the interception of an Honest John artillery rocket by a Raytheon Hawk semi-active homing weapon. Both are US Army missiles. The strike was achieved at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, at an altitude of some 8,000ft and slant range of -.... < •..-..-.. JO miles, on January 29 PERSHING ON VIEW During his visit to the Air Force Missile Test Center at CapeCanaveral on February 10 President Eisenhower was shown a Pershing on its pad, and was briefed on its expected performance.Pershing, a selective-range ballistic missile under development for the US Army by Martin's Orlando division, had not previouslybeen seen in public. Although the Army Ballistic Missile Agency have always main-tained an unbroken series of projects for strategic missiles, Pershing's development could not be started until early last year,when the Secretary of Defense once more permitted the Army to sponsor missiles with a range greater than 200 miles. As we notedin our Missiles 1959 issue last November 6, Pershing_ marks a departure from the traditional army "arsenal" concept in that itsdevelopment has been entrusted to private hands from the beginning. Although the Secretary of Defense has allowed the Army toexceed 200 miles' range he is enforcing a weight limit of 10,0001b (apparently dictated by political motives). Within this limitPershing is expected to have a range of 500 miles with a nominal warhead, and possibly 700 miles with later propellants. Martin have produced an attractive two-stage weapon, the firststage having a large solid-propellant engine and controllable delta fins. At the appropriate point stage-separation takes place and thesolid charge of the second stage fires. (There has been much argument recently over whether the reduced weight of titaniummotor casings justifies their additional cost.) Near the required velocity the upper part of the motor chamber is vented by thedetonation of explosive plugs which seal four ports, and the result- in? sudden fall in interior pressure cuts ofF combustion precisely. The inertial guidance system is by Bendix Eclipse-Pioneer, andany of a variety of nuclear warheads may be carried beneath the Jupiter-derived nosecone. Just visible in the photograph is theThompson Products transporter/erector, which comprises a rigid chassis and upper manacle ring reminiscent of that of Thor. Thevehicle is designed for cross-country performance. A note on Pershing's development was given on this page on February 5. A team from Tokyo University plans to test-fire a two-stage rocketweighing 1-2 tons from Michkawa Beach, Akito Prefecture, between March 27 and 29. A report from New Delhi claims that a number of Indian techniciansare at present in Britain learning to operate the Bloodhound weapon system. The report suggests that Bloodhounds will be purchased by theIndian Government. A new picture-relay technique which will, it is claimed, make possibledie transmission of photographs from aircraft or satellites to ground stations without loss of detail, has been developed by CBS Laboratories,J division of the Columbia Broadcasting System. Norway will probably launch sounding rockets lo investigate; iheAurora Borealis as the first stage of her space-research programme, according to Dr Finn Lied, a director of the Defence Research Institute. Nike-Ajax units of the Dutch Air Force assigned to NATO are to bestationed in Germany, near Miinster, Rheine, and Hesepe-Voerden. A new aerospace technology department has been established atLockheed Aircraft Corporation's Georgia Division. Hypersonic ramiet aircraft, boost-glide missiles, orbital vehicles and re-entry devices areamong the systems to be studied. First photograph to be released of Pershing, the US Army's forthcoming selective-range ballistic missile. As noted in a news item above, the big solid-propellant reolacement for Redstone was inspected at Cape Canaveral by President Eisenhower earlier this month
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