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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0618.PDF
618 FLIGHT, 6 May 1960 Missiles and Spaceflight . . , cannot have a change of this magnitude," warned Mr Brown, "andimagine that basic policy can remain the same as though nothing has happened." Mr Brown did not go on to specify what changeshe had in mind, but it is reasonably certain that from Labour spokesmen in the future we shall not be hearing very much moreabout an independent nuclear deterrent for Britain. From the Government side, and from his position as theprevious Minister of Defence, Antony Head again unfolded his anxieties to the House. "I fear that Western defence policy todayis veering more and more towards undue reliance on atomic weapons. . . . Undue dependence on atomic weapons means thatsomething which is not a mortal threat, but a very serious threat, will result in inaction unless we have adequate mobile and well-equipped conventional forces." Though his best friends could scarcely tell Mr Sandys that hisparliamentary performance on this occasion ranked among his best, he did answer adequately the narrower question on whichthe debate had been based. If Blue Streak was to be cancelled then the decision could not have been made before even theUSAF had adopted Sky Bolt—if that is to be Blue Streak's suc- cessor. But what are the terms and what will be the cost? Howindependent shall we be? What will be left of the national house- keeping money for the development of aircraft? What is theprospect for a heavy supersonic aircraft? Is this to be part of a bargain with the USA? And how serious will now be the Britishparticipation in rocketry? "One of the saddest spectacles on the British scene at the moment," said Aubrey Jones, "is the Ministerfor Science, aware of the problem, given an impossible mandate, and patently at his wits end to know what to do about it." Is itreally the case that serious development of rocketry is impossible in this country unless it is tied to a military project? EIGHTFOLD SATURN TEST The first simultaneous testing of all eight Rocketdyne H-l enginesof the Saturn space booster took place at Huntsville, Alabama, on April 29, and was described by a NASA spokesman as a completesuccess. A thrust of approximately 1.3 million pounds—a record figure for a Western-world booster—was developed for a period ofless man ten seconds. SATURN SECOND-STAGE NEGOTIATIONS On April 26 the National Aeronautics and Space Administrationannounced that it would begin negotiations "immediately" with Douglas Aircraft Corp on its proposal to build the second stage(designated S-4) of the initial three-stage Saturn launch vehicle. The estimated cost of the development and production of ninesecond stages, including two spares, will be more than $65m. Powering the Saturn second stage will be a cluster of fourCentaur-class engines developing a total of some 80,0001b thrust. These will be supplied under separate contract by Pratt & Whitney.The third stage will be a modified Centaur stage driven by two of these engines, which use liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. Douglas proposes to build the Saturn second stage at SantaMonica, transport it by barge to a test site near Sacramento for static test-firing, and then ship it eastwards through the PanamaCanal. The first of the S-4 stages will be freighted by barge to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center at Huntsville for aheckoutand mating with the eight-engine first stage, and both stages will then be shipped by water to Cape Canaveral. WXGATTXCHMIMTHH ILKTHOWC PACK As noted below the most potent member of the Falcon family of air-to-air missiles is the GAR-11 (left). In the background are,fromleft,GAR-lD, GAR-2A and GARS. Data for these earlier Falcons were given on page 531 of our November 6, 7959, issue; GAR-11 is 7ft long, has a diameter of 11 in and weighs just over 2001b Clues to the Seacat guidance system are contained in this "exploded" drawing, just cleared for publication. Last week it was announced that Focke-Wulf have agreed to support the Short & Harland missile during an evaluation by the West German Defence Ministry NUCLEAR FALCON Towards the end of last month the US Air Force released the firstphotographs of GAR-11, their first nuclear air-to-air guided missile to go into production. As the photograph shows, it retainsthe same aerodynamic configuration as its predecessors, but is much fatter and weighs almost twice as much. Curiously, theexample shown has the blunt radome of the original GAR-1, whereas the pointed dielectric moulding carried by GAR-3 conferslower supersonic drag. It may well be that the operational version may be slightly different from the GAR-11 illustrated. Compared with earlier members of the Falcon family GAR-11is only an inch or two longer. The body is divided into four major portions, which are bolted together before delivery to a field unit.Doubtless magnesium alloys and reinforced plastics are extensively employed, as in earlier Falcons. The foremost 3ft are occupied bythe radar guidance system (one assumes that there will also be an IR-homing model). Then, at the point of maximum diameter,the nuclear warhead is installed, together with its complex arming and fuzing systems. Ahead of each of the four wings appear tobe a flush strip aerial, not present in earlier Falcons, and between one pair of wings are arranged three pairs of axial projectionswhich presumably form the zero-length mounting. Although supersonic drag is probably up by at least 50 per centcompared with that of previous models, the greatly increased cross-section of the body should enable the total impulse of themotor to be approximately double, and the range of GAR-11 may be in no way inferior. The new missile will be carried by theConvair F-102 and F-106, and should with little difficulty be accommodated by the Northrop F-89J and McDonnell F-101B.Deliveries from Hughes Aircraft at Tucson, Arizona, are now being made to Air Defense Command to supplement the earlierFalcons with conventional warheads and the Douglas-built MB-1 Genie (which, although nuclear, has no guidance system). A more advanced Falcon, with much greater range, is theGAR-9. This missile was being developed, together with the ASG-18 fire-control, for the F-108 Rapier; and when this aero-plane was cancelled last September the GAR-9 was continued but at a reduced tempo. In addition, a guided version of Genie isunofficially said to be under development; and, for the US Navy, Bendix are prime contractor for AAM-N-10 Eagle, the largestair-to-air missile in the world, with a range of the order of 100 miles. PLANS FOR AGENA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is to buy16 Agena-B vehicles from Lockheed Aircraft Corp, to be delivered over the next three years at a cost of approximately $50m. TheAgena units will be used as second stages together with either Thor or Atlas. The former combination will place 1,5001b inorbit around the Earth, while the Atlas-Agena-B will be capable of placing either 5001b in a 300-mile Earth orbit, or 8001b on a"deep space" mission. The first NASA Atlas-Agena-B launches, in mid-1961, will bedirected mainly towards lunar investigations. Beginning in late 1961, Thor-Agena-B vehicles will be used for a number of Earthsatellites including Nimbus meteorological satellites planned to succeed the Tiros series. The Atlas-Agena-B series replaces theVega programme which the space administration cancelled last December.
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