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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 1755.PDF
27- '53 Ult lla 12fI 61a 18 «t 31 Mft4in 40 42 970 EUROPA 1 . . The complete Europa I vehicle and its principal dimensions. Stage /— Britain's Blue Streak—is shown in a large cutaway drawing on pages 972-973; Stage 2 is illustrated in detail opposite, and Stage 3 on page 974 1 Satellite hiring 2 Satellite 3 Satellite injection system 4 Fairing separation 5 Satellite separation 6 Satellite mounting ring 7 Access panels (8) 8 Aerozine tank 9 Equipment bay 10 Strong ring 11 N2O, tank 12 Helium bottles (2) 104It 13 Vernier motors (2) 14 Single main thrust chamber 15 Third-stage separation 14 Explosive bolts (8) 17 Inter-stage joint 18 Pressurization system 19 N2O. tank 20 UDMH tank 21 N,O, feed pipes 22 Inter-bay ducting 23 Transition skirt 24 Thrust structure 25 Thrust chambers (4) 26 Explosive bolts (16) 27 Second-stage separation 28 Separation bay 29 Efflux doors 30 Telemetry aerial 31 Electrical ground connections 32 Access doors (6) 33 Equipment bay bulkhead 34 Equipment bay 35 WREBUS aerials 36 Lox tank pressurization pipe 37 Anti-slosh baffles 38 Lox tank 39 Anti-vortex inlet to lox stand pipe 40 K-tank frames 41 K tank 42 Lox stand pipe , 43 Access to upper base struc- ture 44 Anti-vortex to K feed pipes 45 Low-pressure feed pipes 46 Main beam and thrust brackat 47 Turbopumps 48 Gaseous-nitrogen system 49 High-pressure feed pipes 50 Turbine exhaust 51 Thrust chambers 52 LN-GN heat exchanger 53 First-stage fuelling probes 54 Lox-GO heat exchanger 55 Tank to propulsion-bay joint 56 Launching pins 57 Equipment fairing 58 Propulsion-bay heat shield <g> Iliffe Transport Publications Ltd 1964 FLIGHT International, II June 1964 to 9ft by the simple fact that the transport aircraft which would be available could not accept a greater diameter. In the case of the separation bay and tank (and in the latter the problem is accentuated by the lox at — 183°C) the outside surface of the skin reaches temperatures of the order of 500°C and 230°C respectively, due to the friction heating of the air. It was necessary to use stainless steel, which retains its strength under these temperature extremes and can be welded with great reliability. Systems The d.c. power is 2,100W, obtained from silver/zinc cells housed in 12 battery boxes distributed throughout the vehicle. 920W provide power to a single 400c/s inverter and three 2.4kc/s inverters which give a total of 475VA as a.c. power output; d.c. power required by other units is l,180W. Steering of the vehicle in flight is accomplished by gimballing the motors by means of hydraulic actuators. Each thrust chamber can be deflected through 7° in the pitch and yaw planes, giving the necessary manoeuvrability called for by the autopilot system. After 20sec from take-off the pitch programme unit gives the signal which causes the vehicle to tilt slowly to an angle of 30° to the hori- zontal. This is accomplished by altering the synchro datum of the pitch space gyro, which with other gyros operating in the roll and yaw planes forms the basis of the Space Gyro Unit. Three rate- gyros located on the outside of the tank provide feed-back signals on rate of turn. When the turn-over manoeuvre is complete the vehicle continues until the engines are cut after 156sec. The ballistic trajectory is then continued until impact. Behaviour of the vehicle is monitored by the telemetry link with the ground recording stations. Measurements from the transducers located throughout the vehicle are transmitted via a dual telemetry system operating at 249Mc/s and 465Mc/s. The latter transmitter is duplicated against failure. The WREBUS break-up system is also duplicated and, should the flight path diverge from the planned trajectory, the explosive charges on the vehicle tank are triggered by command from the ground via one of four receivers of the system. The explosive charges are also designed to operate automatically on the vehicle re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. Blue Streak is powered by two Rolls-Royce RZ.2 engines, each capable of producing 150,0001b thrust. Each engine pack consists essentially of the combustion/thrust chamber, a propellant pump driven by a gas turbine, and an auxiliary drive to the hydraulic pump which operates the motor position actuators. The propellants are loaded from the ground storage tanks via self-sealing probes, located in blisters at the rear of the propulsion bay, and supply cut-off valves are operated by means of fixed and adjustable level sensors in the tanks. Whilst on the launcher, pressurization of both tanks is achieved by a ground gaseous nitrogen supply, but the vehicle-borne systems come into effect just prior to launch. These make use of the hot efflux from the gas turbines of the propellant pumps, which are passed through heat exchangers to gasify lox for pressurizing the lox tank and liquid nitrogen for pressurizing the K tank. The liquid nitrogen is stored in a double-shell sphere in the propulsion bay, and is expelled by means of gaseous nitrogen supplied from storage bottles. Gaseous nitrogen is also used to operate most of the valves in the propellant and pressurization systems. Development Testing The success of a flight trial of a large rocket should not be considered as an isolated achievement, but more as the culmination of a long series of trials not only of the complete vehicle, but of separate systems and components as well. The development testing of Blue Streak in the United Kingdom is carried out at the Hatfield Test Site, 25 miles north of London, and at the Spadeadam Rocket Establishment in Cumberland. The Hatfield site is essentially equipped to allow development of the vehicle propellant and pressurization systems, and all ground equipment associated with transportation, erection and launching. The main facilities consist of two flow test towers. One houses heavy-duty tanks to simulate the vehicle, and is used to flow-test propellant and pressurization components. The second tower accommodates a development vehicle utilized for tests on the pro- pellant and pressurization system, and enables turbopump runs to be made. In addition, a number of test cells are used for the development and qualification of individual components. Also at Hatfield is the launcher test tower, equipped with a complete launcher base and release mechanism. This fiMy
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