Blue Streak was to be Britain's Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM).
1959 Development was managed by de Havilland Propellers, with major subcontracts let to de Havilland Aircraft, Rolls-Royce and Sperry.
The missile was to be launched from a unit that could be accurately rotated in azimuth, On top of the launcher were four release-gear arms, which held the missile securely in all wind conditions during the fuelling and pre-launch countdown. The four arms were pulled away to release the missile by an electro-hydraulic system which ensures that release occurs at all four points at the same instant. Design and construction of the launcher was by Morfax Ltd, of Mitcham, Surrey.
A key element of the project was the development of the re-entry head in which the warhead would be encased. A smaller test rocket called Black Knight was designed by for this purpose.
Most of the design work for the missile was carried out in de Havilland's London offices in Conquest House, Theobalds Road and in Welkins House, Charterhouse. At de Havilland's Hatfield factory large test stands were built to develop vehicle and ground mechanical systems including the release gear. At their Stevenage factory the erecting shops were extended to accommodate the manufacture of the missile, while the rocket engines were manufactured at Rolls-Royce's Derby works.
At the Rocket Propulsion Establishment, Westcott, an existing stand was converted for the test firing of RZ-1 engines. This engine was a very close copy of the Rocketdyne S3 engine, which was used in the United States' Atlas, Jupiter and Thor missiles. A mutual technical assistance agreement was signed between Rolls-Royce and Rocketdyne in August 1955 and the S3 was developed into the RZ-2 used by Blue Streak.
1960 After the cancellation of the Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile project, Blue Streak was used as the first stage of the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) rocket Europa I.
Blue Streak flew successfully many times from Woomera, Australia for the ELDO programme.
See Also
Sources of Information
- [1] English Heritage