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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1118.PDF
220 A Blue Streak on its hand- ling frame, about to leave the de Havilland Aircraft plant at Stevenage Europe's Heavy Launcher —WITH BLUE STREAK AS THE FIRST STAGE By the Technical Editor TODAY it increasingly appears to be a perilous decision forany technologically advanced nation to elect to take no partin the exploration of space. Previous writers have seen parallels in the exploration of our own globe, the way in which man haslearnt to navigate the seas and the atmosphere, and other areas in which it appeared that sufficient money, sweat, courage and persis-tence might win rich prizes. Spaceflight is a unique activity: it promises substantial cash returns, it is singularly important to anation's prestige, and it is one field above all others in which any accomplishment gradually filters down to the ultimate benefit of allindustries. In comparison with terrestrial flight it appears fantastically expen-sive. Many taxpayers may feel that any spaceflight expenditure could be better spent on schools, hospitals and similar benefits toall mankind. It is difficult not to incline towards the plausible argument that research for the improvement of all technologiesshould be undertaken directly; in other words, if an industry wants a better closed-loop servomechanism, why try to obtain it as aby-product from space exploration ? Such considerations have been debated by scientists, politicians and engineers throughout Europeduring the past year; and their conclusion is almost certain to be an agreement to embark on an international heavy-launcher pro-gramme. Until now nearly all space exploration has been carried out bytwo nations, working independently. They have been able to accom- plish so much because of their immense technological strength; butthe European nations have a greater population than either the USA or the Soviet Union, and most of them are competent in all fieldsof advanced technology. Together they should be capable of doing anything the two giants can do, and space exploration must be oneof their first major challenges as a team. In this special issue of Flight it is appropriate that a descriptionshould be presented of Europe's first heavy launcher. Such hard- ware is among the most expensive of all man's creations; and mostof it goes up and never comes down again (or burns up on re-entry, which amounts to the same thing). It follows that its design, manu-facture, inspection and test must be such as to achieve standards of component reliability unattempted in less exotic vehicles. Anyengineer will appreciate that the way to reliability is to use and develop one design ad infinitum, and never to alter it unless abso-lutely necessary. The last thing one should do is to embark on a new design. This being so, it would appear that the obvious course of actionfor any nation wishing to place a satellite in orbit is to approach one of the giants and say "please, may we have one of your highly developed launch vehicles?" But this would prevent that nationfrom acquiring the essential experience which can be acquired only by doing. And, as these words are written, it appears almost certainthat the nations of Europe are going to "get their feet wet," as British industry would say. Initially (i.e., 1961 to beyond 1966) they are going to get theirfeet wet with a three-stage vehicle of essentially conventional and conservative design. The first stage will be the Blue Streak, origin-ally designed in Britain as a military weapon. The second stage will be French, and although it will lean heavily on experience gainedwith Veronique it will be a largely new design. The third stage is just a gleam in eyes of many nationalities. The European heavy launchermay well appear with several different upper stages, either brought in by new countries or because it is in this region that high-energypropellants are most rewarding. It is impossible to say much about non-existent upper stages; butthis journal is proud to reveal quite a lot about the first stage. Prev- iously classified as a military secret, the design of Blue Streak is suchthat it should provide a solid foundation on which Europe can build a spaceflight programme. It is not quite the vehicle which wouldtoday be drawn on a clean sheet of paper to fulfil the same function; but it exists, and its ground equipment and installations exist, andit is doubtful that any newer first stage could ever show an overall economy. Blue Streak was originally a long-range ballistic missile. During 1954 the Ministry of Supply formulated a specification suited tothe requirements of RAF Bomber Command and various overseas commitments, and the basic figure seems to have been a range ofabout 2,500 to 3,000 miles with a thermonuclear warhead. The missile was to be capable of deployment in underground silos,and the use of cryogenic propellants was accepted. By April 1955 the industrial team had been chosen: de Havilland Propellers, primecontractor; de Havilland Aircraft, airframe; Rolls-Royce, pro- pulsion; and Sperry Gyroscope, inertial guidance system. From the outset it was agreed that propulsion would have tobe effected by engines broadly similar to those developed carefully over many years by the Rocketdyne division of NAA, and in August 1955 Rolls-Royce announced a technical agreement with the UScompany. Preliminary studies with the airframe indicated that complete trajectory freedom would be impossible with a light-alloystructure able to withstand only some 250"C, and the additional 400°C allowed by the use of stainless steel appeared well worth while.The de Havilland designers therefore decided to employ balloon tankage, of the type pioneered by Convair (now General Dynamics/Astronautics) with the Atlas ICBM; and, although not announced
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