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Bristol Aerojet
Bristol Aerojet (BAJ) was a joint venture between the Bristol Aeroplane Company of the United Kingdom and Aerojet General of the US begun in 1959 using the existing factory at Banwell near Weston super Mare, England. History Banwell aircraft factory 1941-59 Built in 1941 under the authority of the Minister of Aircraft Production, the works was operated by the Bristol Aeroplane Company to build and repair Bristol Beaufort and Bristol Beaufighter torpedo fighter-bombers and Hawker Tempest fighters. After the war the company built pre-fab houses and schools there until the mid-fifties, and then rocket-motor manufacturing required by the Cold War took over. Bristol/Aerojet technical collaboration Discussions with Aerojet of California USA took place aimed at exploiting the varied rocket-making skills of the two companies, and in 1959 the Banwell works became Bristol Aerojet (BAJ), with a board chaired by Sir Reginald Verdon-Smith of Bristol Aeroplane Company, with Dan Kimball leadi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bristol Aeroplane Company
The Bristol Aeroplane Company, originally the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company, was both one of the first and one of the most important British aviation companies, designing and manufacturing both airframes and aircraft engines. Notable aircraft produced by the company include the 'Boxkite', the Bristol Fighter, the Bulldog, the Blenheim, the Beaufighter, and the Britannia, and much of the preliminary work which led to Concorde was carried out by the company. In 1956 its major operations were split into Bristol Aircraft and Bristol Aero Engines. In 1959, Bristol Aircraft merged with several major British aircraft companies to form the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) and Bristol Aero Engines merged with Armstrong Siddeley to form Bristol Siddeley. BAC went on to become a founding component of the nationalised British Aerospace, now BAE Systems. Bristol Siddeley was purchased by Rolls-Royce in 1966, who continued to develop and market Bristol-designed engines. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chevaline
Chevaline () was a system to improve the penetrability of the warheads used by the British Polaris nuclear weapons system. Devised as an answer to the improved Soviet anti-ballistic missile defences around Moscow, the system increased the probability that at least one warhead would penetrate Moscow's anti-ballistic missile (ABM) defences, something which the Royal Navy's earlier UGM-27 Polaris re-entry vehicles (RV)s were thought to be unlikely to do. Chevaline used a variety of penetration aids and decoys to offer so many indistinguishable targets that an opposing ABM system would be overwhelmed attempting to deal with them all, ensuring that enough warheads would get through an ABM defence to be a reasonable deterrent to a first strike. The project was highly secret, and survived in secrecy through four different governments before being revealed in 1980. The system was in service from 1982 to 1996, when the Polaris A3T missiles it was fitted to were replaced with the Tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skyflash
The Skyflash, or Sky Flash in marketing material, was a medium-range semi-active radar homing air-to-air missile derived from the US AIM-7 Sparrow missile and carried by Royal Air Force McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantoms and Tornado F3s, Italian ''Aeronautica Militare'' and Royal Saudi Air Force Tornados and Swedish ''Flygvapnet'' Saab Viggens. Skyflash replaced the original Raytheon conical scanning seeker with a Marconi inverse monopulse seeker that worked with the F-4's radar. Monopulse seekers are more accurate, less susceptible to jamming, and able to easily pick out targets at low altitudes. It offered significantly better performance than the original seeker, allowing British Aerospace to dispense with upgrades to the warhead that were carried out in the US to address poor accuracy. Skyflash was tested in the US, but after trials against experimental monopulse seekers from Raytheon, the United States Navy elected to order a different monopulse-equipped version of the S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skua (rocket)
Skua is the designation of a British sounding rocket which was launched between 1959 and 1981 in 4 versions over 300 times. The Skua was developed by Bristol Aerojet Aerojet was an American rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer based primarily in Rancho Cordova, California, with divisions in Redmond, Washington, Orange and Gainesville in Virginia, and Camden, Arkansas. Aerojet was owned by GenCorp. ... and RPE Wescott. It consisted of a starting stage made up of several Chick rockets that burned for 0.2 seconds. They propelled the rocket 20 metres over the 5-metre-long launch tube. After that, the Bantam main stage ignited. The fastest jetstream velocity ever measured (656 km/h or 408 mph) was recorded by instruments onboard a Skua rocket above South Uist, Outer Hebrides, Scotland at an altitude of 47,000 m (154,200 ft), on the 13th December 1967.https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/77427-strongest-jetstream Skua 1 *starting stage ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Petrel (rocket)
The Petrel was a British sounding rocket. The Petrel 1 was launched, like the Skua 1, with 3 Chick booster rockets. The Chick motors were fitted into a Booster Carriage that also carried the two parachutes that brought it back to earth for re-use. The Petrel 1 was 3.34 m long, had a diameter of 19 cm and reached a maximum altitude of 140 kilometres. It was fired from a barrel launcher approximately . The Petrel was first flown on 8 June 1967 in South Uist. Since 1968, some 234 Petrels have been launched from sites in South Uist, Andeya, Kiruna, Thumba, Sonmiani and Greenland. Around 2/3 of the launches have taken place from South Uist. In 1977 an improved version, the Petrel 2, with a maximum height of 175 kilometres was used for the first time. The Petrel was also fired from ESRANGE at Kiruna in Sweden in 1971, and from the range on Andoya, an island off the Norwegian coast in 1973. One launcher was installed at Kiruna, while two were installed on Andoya. Both could be l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rapier (missile)
Rapier is a surface-to-air missile developed for the British Army to replace their towed Bofors 40/L70 anti-aircraft guns. The system is unusual as it uses a manual optical guidance system, sending guidance commands to the missile in flight over a radio link. This results in a high level of accuracy, therefore a large warhead is not required. Entering service in 1971, it eventually replaced all other anti-aircraft weapons in British Army service; both the Bofors guns used against low-altitude targets and the Thunderbird missile used against longer-range and higher-altitude targets. As the expected air threat moved from medium-altitude strategic missions to low-altitude strikes, the fast reaction time and high manoeuvrability of the Rapier made it more effective than either of these weapons, replacing most of them by 1977. Rapier was later selected by the RAF Regiment to replace their Bofors guns and Tigercat missiles. It also saw international sales. As of 2021, it was in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sea Cat
Seacat was a British short-range surface-to-air missile system intended to replace the ubiquitous Bofors 40 mm gun aboard warships of all sizes. It was the world's first operational shipboard point-defence missile system, and was designed so that the Bofors guns could be replaced with minimum modification to the recipient vessel and (originally) using existing fire-control systems. A mobile land-based version of the system was known as Tigercat. The initial GWS.20 version was manually controlled, in keeping with the need for a rapidly developed and deployed system. Several variants followed; GWS.21 added radar-cued manual control for night and bad-weather use, GWS.22 added a SACLOS automatic guidance mode, and the final GWS.24 had fully automatic engagement. Tigercat saw relatively brief service before being replaced in British service by the Rapier, while Seacat saw longer service until being replaced by Sea Wolf and newer technology close-in weapons systems. Seacat and Tigerc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Summerfield Research Station
The Summerfield Research Station is a development and production site for solid rocket motors in the United Kingdom officially formed on 1 September 1951 by the Ministry of Supply. It was set up on the grounds of a former World War II munitions factory just south of Kidderminster, southwest of Birmingham. It opened on 1 January 1952 and remains in use . Previous UK rocket motors, like those on the RP-3, used Cordite as their propellant, formed into a solid using various binders and then moulded into cylinders with internal cavities to control the rate of burn. While the US adopted the UK concept of shaped cavities, the UK adopted the US double-base powder, which was the basis for contemporary US rocket designs and offered higher energy. The combination of these two features formed the basis for military rockets until the introduction of aluminum-boosted propellants in the 1960s. Since its formation, the site has produced rocket motors for many UK weapons systems. Among its early s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sea Slug (missile)
Seaslug was a first-generation surface-to-air missile designed by Armstrong Whitworth (later part of the Hawker Siddeley group) for use by the Royal Navy. Tracing its history as far back as 1943's LOPGAP design, it came into operational service in 1961 and was still in use at the time of the Falklands War in 1982. Seaslug was intended to engage high-flying targets such as reconnaissance aircraft or bombers before they could launch stand-off weapons. It was only fitted to the Royal Navy's eight County-class destroyers which were designed around the missile system. Seaslug was only fired in anger once as an anti-aircraft missile, from during the Falklands War, but missed its target. Later improvements meant that it could also be used against ships and ground targets. It was planned that Seaslug's medium-range role was to be supplanted by a very long-range missile known as Blue Envoy, but this was passed over in favour of a new medium-range system, Sea Dart. Sea Dart entered service ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bristol Bloodhound
The Bristol Bloodhound is a British ramjet powered surface-to-air missile developed during the 1950s. It served as the UK's main air defence weapon into the 1990s and was in large-scale service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the forces of four other countries. Part of sweeping changes to the UK's defence posture, the Bloodhound was intended to protect the RAF's V bomber bases to preserve the deterrent force, attacking bombers that made it past the Lightning interceptor force. Bloodhound Mk. I entered service in December 1958, the first British guided weapon to enter full operational service. This was part of Stage 1 upgrades to the defensive systems, in the later Stage 2, both Bloodhound and the fighters would be replaced by a longer-range missile code named Blue Envoy. When this was ultimately cancelled in 1957, parts of its design were worked into Bloodhound Mk. II, roughly doubling the range of the missile. The Mk. I began to be replaced by the Mk. II starting in 1964. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Wimpey
George Wimpey was a British construction firm. Formed in 1880 and based in Hammersmith, it initially operated largely as a road surfacing contractor. The business was acquired by Godfrey Mitchell in 1919, and he developed it into a construction and housebuilding firm. In July 2007, Wimpey merged with Taylor Woodrow to create Taylor Wimpey. Wimpey was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1934. History Early years The business was founded by George Wimpey and Walter Tomes as a stone working partnership in 1880 in Hammersmith.White, p. 2 The company built the first Hammersmith Town Hall in 1896, and went on to lay the foundations for the first "electric tramway" in London in the late 1890s. The company also built the White City Stadium complex which included a series of pavilions and gardens for the Franco British Exhibition of 1908 as well as an 80,000-seat Olympic stadium for the 1908 Olympic Games. The Mitchell Era George Wimpey died in 1913 at the age of 58. His ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Ordnance
Royal Ordnance plc was formed on 2 January 1985 as a public corporation, owning the majority of what until then were the remaining United Kingdom government-owned Royal Ordnance Factories (abbreviated ROFs) which manufactured explosives, ammunition, small arms including the Lee–Enfield rifle, guns and military vehicles such as tanks. It owned some 16 factories; and employed about 19,000 staff. Royal Ordnance plc was bought by British Aerospace (BAe) in April 1987, which became BAE Systems in 1999. The name Royal Ordnance was retained for almost another twenty years; and the sites retained their former names, either as ''Royal Ordnance'' or later ''RO Defence'' sites. The Royal Ordnance name was dropped in 2004 and after having traded as Land Systems, the division is now known as Land UK. History Royal Ordnance Factories The Royal Ordnance Factories (ROFs) can trace their history back to 1560 with the founding of the Royal Gunpowder Factory (RGPF) at Waltham Abbey, Essex. This ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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