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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 2347.PDF
354 FLIGHT International, 3 September I The complete three-stage Europa I vehicle assembled in the launcher- test tower at Hatfield. The tower has recently been extended in height in order to accommodate the 104ft vehicle TESTING EUROPA I Last week Hawker Siddeley Dynamics Ltd invited the Press to their test site at Hatfield, Herts, to see the Europa 1 three-stage launch vehicle of the European Launcher Development Organ- ization assembled for vibration testing. Europa 1, which was described in this journal on June 11 last, consists of the British Blue Streak first stage, the French Coralie second stage and a German third stage; the initial satellite payload and fairings is expected to be Italian, the down-range guidance is Belgian and the long-range telemetry is contributed by the Netherlands. Blue Streak was originally a military ballistic missile, and the launcher test tower at Hatfield was erected in 1958 to support this programme. Both the military Blue Streak LRBM and the modified first stage of the ELDO launch vehicle have been statically tested in this tower since 1959, and last September 5 this journal reported a unique series of dummy launch trials. In the same issue we reported the intention of the British, French and German Governments to assemble a complete Europa 1 vehicle in the LT tower in order to establish its vibration characteristics. Components of the vehicle have been gathered at the test site since last December. The Coralie second stage arrived from Nord-Aviation in France at the end of April; the inter-stage separation bay was then placed on the ground and check-mated with the second stage. The third stage arrived from Entwick- lungsring Nord at Bremen on June 23, and it was thereupon mated on the ground with the second stage. Finally the three stages were assembled in the tower, on July 23 and July 30, and topped by a representative satellite mock-up and payload fairing made by Hawker Siddeley Dynamics. Spaceflight and missile Although some parts of it are fabricated from materials unsu able for flight, the Europa 1 now under test is not a "battleshij model but a truly representative flight-weight airframe. The thru chambers of the two Rolls-Royce RZ.2 rocket engines of the fii stage are simulated by steel drums having the same weight ai moment of inertia, and these are coupled up to a hydraulic gir balling control system, using a ground power source, in order put the thrust chambers through programmed series of gimballii motions. These motions serve to vibrate the structure of tl complete three-stage vehicle, and in order to allow the Europa freedom in flexure it is suspended from the top of the tow by four steel ropes pinned to the launcher attachments at the tc of the propulsion bay. The complete vehicle is instrumented wii strain-gauges and accelerometers stationed at intervals of the ord of 6ft, in order to enable complete polar diagrams of deflection ar stress to be plotted at each station. The vibration mode of any ballistic vehicle is profoundly affecte by whether or not the tanks are filled, and this is particularly t\ case with a slender vehicle having balloon-type tanks (of 0.019i stainless steel throughout most of the first stage of Europa 1). 1 the Blue Sreak in the LT tower real kerosine is used, but the liqui oxygen is represented by sodium dichromate, an inert fluid ( similar specific gravity and sloshing characteristics. Sodiui dichromate is also used in both the upper stages, simulating th nitrogen tetroxide fuel. In the case of the German third stage th diaphragm between the fuel and oxidant tanks is perforated and th single fluid is used as a compromise. In the Coralie stage water i employed instead of the hydrazine oxidant. Tests are being run with the upper stages filled and with the Blu Streak at all propellant levels from filled to empty. The resultinj deflection-mode patterns will be automatically plotted, and th instrumentation adjusted to refine the precise locations of the node (stations where acceleration is zero). These data will then enable tb In order to fit a representative nose to the Europa vehicle no* under test, HSD constructed a mock-up satellite and fairing
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