FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0330.PDF
As outlined below, the missile-firing submarines being developed for the Royal Navy will be of essentially British design; but this design will lean heavily on US Navy experience, and the ships themselves will incorporate a high proportion of American equipment. It is intended to order initially four or five such vessels, and to have the first on patrol in 1968. Displacement (presumably on the surface) is given as 7,000 tons (presumably long tons); hull and reactor will be of British design Missiles and Spaceflight BRITAIN'S POLARIS SUBMARINE Reproduced above is the first illustration of the type of Polaris- firing submarine which will be built for the Royal Navy. In view of the very early stage which this programme has so far reached, it is difficult to assess the significance of this picture. It was "pre pared by the manager of technical illustrator pools at the Admir alty," and has been issued by the COI for the British Information Services (Admiralty). At the same time, it is obviously intended only as a rough impression, for even the external appearance of these submarines may well change in the course of design develop ment. Essential elements of the design of these ships have now been agreed. Their overall configuration and layout will be based upon that of the SSBN fleet of the US Navy (in fact, the Admiralty artist has actually written on the conning-tower sail the legend "SSBN.01," which is a completely un-British nomenclature). There will be launch tubes for 16 Polaris A3 missiles, and the entire instal lation, together with the extensive fire-control and automatic check out systems, are virtually certain to be imported from the US. Prime contractors for these portions will thus probably be Lock heed Missiles and Space Company, Northrop Nortronics, General Electric Co, Hughes Aircraft and Interstate Electronics. In addi tion, submarine communications equipment (chiefly by Bell Tele phone Labs, RCA, IT&T and Sylvania), navigation (NAA Auto- netics and Sperry) and missile launch systems (Westinghouse Electric) are likely to be adopted with minimum change. The missiles, of course, will be imported complete except for warheads. On the other hand, the hull design appears from the sketch above to differ significantly from that of the present US ships. The most important superficial alteration is the relocation of the "wings" on the upper part of the forward hull. In the American ships this is where the officers have their wardroom, the wing being mounted on each side of the sail. Owing to their very high speed, often through sea-water at immense pressures, the design of such ships resembles in many respects the design of high-speed aircraft. The British artist has certainly given the RN submarine a hull shape even more finely streamlined than that of its American precursor. BENDIX LIQUID-INJECTION TVC During the past two years American research into thrust-vector control (TVC) of solid-propellant rocket motors has greatly accelerated. As outlined in Flight International for September 6 last, the original—and somewhat crude—jetevator concept has been largely superseded by the use of swivelling nozzles; and the latter are themselves now having to compete with still more attrac tive liquid-injection systems. Liquid-injection technology has in the past been largely classified, but Bendix Products Division, of South Bend, Indiana, have lately published a brochure describing their work in this field. As the small sketch indicates, the scheme involves the injection of a secondary fluid into the divergent nozzle of the thrust chamber at such a location that the main propulsive jet is thereby diverted in the desired direction. The injected fluid issues from one or more nozzles under high pressure, so that it penetrates well into the hot, fast-moving gas which forms the propulsive jet. In doing so it creates a strong Shockwave, through which the hot gas is deflected, and the now vaporized fluid helps to fill in the space between the deflected jet and the wall of the chamber. Details of performance are classified, but unofficial reports have suggested that deflection angles greater than 12° have been achieved without excessive consumption of the secondary fluid. For com plete vehicle control it must be possible to deflect the total thrust vector in any direction. This implies either the use of four or more injection nozzles spaced around the chamber, or the use of several chambers each capable of being deflected in a direction 90° away from the other three. In the design of a liquid-injection system the major variables include: choice of fluid; injection pressure; design of injection First photograph released for publication by the US Navy showing a test firing of the Subroc. Under development by Goodyear Aircraft and a Navy/industry team, the weapon is launched from a submerged submarine against an enemy submarine many miles distant :: ••" ••/"-• •• ':."~;::>:,'::.: :« - ..;.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
