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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 1081.PDF
FLIGHT International, 5 July 1962 29 a conical skirt on which are mounted four fixed fins carrying 'aerials. The first flight of a Topaze is likely to have taken place by the time this issue appears. Dragon CNET and Sud-Aviation produced Dragon by mounting a Belier atop a 16,5001b-thrust Stromboli motor, the largest of the three types supplied to them by Service des Poudres. Not only does this motor confer a very much higher acceleration but it also has a much longer burning time: 18 seconds, compared with only 4|sec for the Venus used on Centaure. Development of Dragon was completed late last year, and several have been test fired. Veronique First of the French ballistic rockets to be built after World War 2, Veronique has become a family of progressively more refined vehicles. All are characterized by having a single- chamber engine fed with nitric acid and any of several fuels by pressurizing the stainless-steel tankage. The design and manu facturing authority has always been the Laboratoire de Recherches Balistiques et Aerodynamiques at Vernon, a branch of the DEFA and administered by the Army. The first Veroniques were fired in the period 1950-1953, and carried loads of a little over 1001b to 40-45 miles. The second series were larger, with burning time of the 8,8001b-thrust motor increased from 32 to 45sec, while the original diesel-oil fuel was discarded in favour of furaline. This raised the peak of the trajectory to over 80 miles. The final series, of which at least 30 have been constructed, burn terebenthine fuel, and have reached altitudes of more than 140 miles. On one occasion a white rat was recovered after a successful flight. Teamed with a solid-fuel second stage, Veronique can lift 4401b payload to 1,550 miles. Eridan Sud-Aviation designed Eridan around the Service des Poudres Stromboli motor. The original single-stage vehicle was named Aigle, but this was never built. Eridan is essentially an Aigle boosted by a second Stromboli, and it meets a requirement for payloads of between 60 and 320kg (133 and 7051b). With a 6601b payload acceleration reaches 13g and speed rises to 5,600ft/sec at a height of 82,000ft. Daniel Little information is available on this three-stage vehicle. Prime responsibility rests with the Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aeronautiques (ONERA), and propulsion for each stage is provided by solid-fuel motors from SEPR. Successful firings were made in 1959 and 1961. Agate Likely to be a very useful vehicle, owing to its large pay- load and relatively low cost, Agate is built by SEREB around a single large polyurethane-type solid motor discharging through vectorable nozzles (probably four). The first two firings took place successfully from Hammaguir, Sahara, last November 13 and 17, and it was then stated that the complete instrumented nosecones were recovered "from a height of 64km" (40 miles). Pegase Most powerful of the Sud-Aviation family using Belier as a first stage, Pegase is boosted by two Stromboli motors in series. A major modification to the Belier upper stage is the addition of simple guidance, the first four seconds of flight being stabilized Two of the slender ONERA vehicles. Left, an Antares on its ramp launcher in the Sahara early in 1961. Right, a full- scale model of Berenice exhibited in Paris a year ago gyro-magnetically and the remainder being controlled by ground command. Peak altitude of almost 1.000km is attained in nine minutes. Flight testing is scheduled for later this year. Antares Another of the lofty ONERA multi-stage vehicles, this device has either three or four stages each with solid propulsion by SEPR. Prime function of Antares is research into kinetic heating and re-entry problems at Mach numbers of about 8. Some of the earliest re-entry firings involved ignition of the fourth First evidence of the CNET/Sud-Aviation programme for upper-atmos phere research with a family of related vehicles was this showing of early examples of Belier (left) and the two-stage Centaure in Paris last May VERONIQUE TOPAZE BELIER !^iDAN DRAGON CENTAURE
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