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Rocket Propulsion Establishment
The Rocket Propulsion Establishment at Westcott, Buckinghamshire on the site of the former RAF Westcott has made a number of notable contributions in the field of rocket propulsion, including input on the rocket design for the Blue Streak missile and the propulsion systems on Chevaline. It was also known as the Guided Projectiles Establishment and PERME Westcott (Propellants, Explosives and Rocket Motor Establishment, Westcott). For many years this establishment was regarded as so secret that it was not marked on Ordnance Survey maps, although it was present, from necessity, on maps for the use of pilots. History The establishment was set up in April 1946 under the Ministry of Supply. In the initial years a team of German scientists worked at the site, and examples of German weapons were on-site for study. These included the V-1 flying bomb; V-2; Feuerlilie F-55 subsonic missile; Messerschmitt Me 163B rocket-propelled interceptor; Rheintochter-1 anti-aircraft missile; Ruhr ...
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Westcott, Buckinghamshire
Westcott is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the unitary authority area of Buckinghamshire, England, about west of Waddesdon. The Toponymy, toponym is derived from the Old English for "west cottage". The Church of England parish church of Veneration of Mary in Roman Catholicism, St Mary the Virgin was designed by the Diocese of Oxford, Oxford Diocesan architect George Edmund Street, G.E. Street and built in 1867. It is a Listed building#Categories of listed building, Grade II* listed building. In the 20th century Westcott was the site of the Rocket Propulsion Establishment, which was on the former RAF Westcott airfield to the west of the main village. This has since been closed down, and the area is called the Westcott Venture Park. BAE Systems maintains a presence on the site (BAE Systems Environmental) which advises on the decommissioning of military sites. G.E. Street also designed the parish school. It is now Westcott Church of England School, a mi ...
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Royal Aircraft Establishment
The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), before finally losing its identity in mergers with other institutions. The British Army Balloon Factory was established on Farnborough Common in the early 1900s. By 1912 it had come under civilian control and was the Royal Aircraft Factory (RAF) In 1918 it was renamed Royal Aircraft Establishment to prevent confusion with the newly created Royal Air Force. The first site was at Farnborough Airfield ("RAE Farnborough") in Hampshire to which was added a second site RAE Bedford (Bedfordshire) in 1946. On 1 May 1988 it was renamed the Royal Aerospace Establishment (RAE) before merging with other research entities to become part of the new Defence Research Agency in 1991. History In 1904–1906 the Army Balloon Factory, which was part of the A ...
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Waxwing (rocket Motor)
Waxwing was a British solid rocket motor used for apogee kick as the 3rd (upper) stage of the Black Arrow satellite launch vehicles. It was also known as Black Arrow-3. Waxwing was used to successfully place the Prospero X-3 satellite into low Earth orbit on 28 October 1971, Britain's only satellite launched on an indigenously developed launch vehicle. Before being separated from the Black Arrow launch vehicle, it would be spun on a turntable using six radial 'Imp' solid rocket motors to spin stabilise the satellite. This means that any discrepancy in thrust in any direction would be cancelled out. The Waxwing motor is now out of production. Another possible use of Waxwing was to increase the velocity of test re-entry vehicles on Black Knight during tests for the Blue Streak missile. However, this is disputed by other sources. Design and development Design was by the Rocket Propulsion Establishment (RPE) at Westcott and it was manufactured by Bristol Aerojet, with four unit ...
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Black Arrow
Black Arrow, officially capitalised BLACK ARROW,Gibson and Buttler 2007, . was a British satellite expendable launch system. Black Arrow originated from studies by the Royal Aircraft Establishment for carrier rockets based on the earlier Black Knight rocket; the project was authorised by the British government in late 1964. Development of Black Arrow was largely performed by the prime contractor, the British aerospace company Saunders-Roe, and later undertaken by Westland Aircraft as the result of a merger. Both the first and second stage engines were produced by Bristol Siddeley at their factory in Ansty, Warwickshire. Assembly of the first and second stages was carried out at East Cowes on the Isle of Wight. Once manufactured, each Black Arrow vehicle was transported by ship to Australia prior to being launched from the RAAF Woomera Range Complex. Black Arrow was a three-stage rocket, fuelled by RP-1 paraffin (kerosene) and high-test peroxide, a concentrated form of hydr ...
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Listed Building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Historic Environment Division of the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland. The classification schemes differ between England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland (see sections below). The term has also been used in the Republic of Ireland, where buildings are protected under the Planning and Development Act 2000, although the statutory term in Ireland is "Record of Protected Structures, protected structure". A listed building may not be demolished, extended, or altered without permission from the local planning authority, which typically consults the relevant central government agency. In England and Wales, a national amenity society must be notified of any work to ...
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English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Listed building, listed ruins, and architecturally notable English country houses. The charity states that it uses these properties to "bring the story of England to life for over 10 million people each year". Within its portfolio are Stonehenge, Dover Castle, Tintagel Castle, and the "best-preserved" parts of Hadrian's Wall. English Heritage also manages the London blue plaque scheme, which links influential historical figures to particular buildings. When originally formed in 1983, English Heritage was the operating name of an executive non-departmental public body of the Her Majesty's Government, British Government, officially titled the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, that ran the national system of heritage prot ...
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LEROS
Leros (), also called Lero (from the Italian language), is a Greek island and municipality in the Dodecanese in the southern Aegean Sea. It lies from Athens's port of Piraeus, from which it can be reached by a nine-hour ferry ride or by a 45-minute flight from Athens. It is about from Turkey. Leros is part of the Kalymnos regional unit. It has a population of 7,992 (2021). Geography The municipality has an area of . The municipality includes the populated offshore island of Farmakonisi (pop. 21), as well as several uninhabited islets, including Levitha and Kinaros, and had a 2021 census population of 7,992, although this figure swells to over 15,000 during the summer peak. The island has a coastline of . It is known for its imposing medieval castle of the Knights of Saint John possibly built on a Byzantine fortress. Nearby islands are Patmos, Lipsi, Kalymnos, and the small islands of Agia Kyriaki and Farmakos. In ancient times it was considered the island of Parthenos ...
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Nammo
Nammo, short for Nordic Ammunition Company, is a Norwegian- Finnish aerospace and defence group specialized in production of ammunition, rocket engines and space applications. The company has subsidiaries in Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and the United States. The company ownership is evenly split between the Norwegian government (represented by the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries) and the Finnish defence company Patria. The company has its headquarters in Raufoss, Norway. The company has four business units: Small and Medium Caliber Ammunition, Large Caliber Systems, Aerospace Propulsion, and Commercial Ammunition. History Nammo was founded in 1998 by Raufoss (Norway), Patria (Finland), and (Sweden). The in Lapua, Finland, is also part of the Nammo group as . In 2005, the present joint ownership between Patria and the Norwegian government was established. In 2007, Nammo acquired th ...
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Skylon (spacecraft)
Skylon was a series of concept designs for a reusable single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane by the British company Reaction Engines Limited, using SABRE, a combined-cycle, air-breathing rocket propulsion system. The vehicle design is for a hydrogen-fuelled aircraft that would take off from a specially built reinforced runway, and accelerate to Mach 5.4 at altitude (compared to typical airliner's ) using the atmosphere's oxygen before switching the engines to use the internal liquid oxygen (LOX) supply to accelerate to the Mach 25 necessary to reach a 400 km orbit. It would carry of cargo to an equatorial low Earth orbit (LEO); up to to the International Space Station, almost 45% more than the capacity of the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle; or to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). The relatively light vehicle would re-enter the atmosphere and land on a runway, being protected from the conditions of re-entry by a ceramic matrix composite skin. Whe ...
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SABRE (rocket Engine)
SABRE (Synergetic Air Breathing Rocket Engine) was a concept under development by Reaction Engines Limited for a hypersonic precooled hybrid air-breathing rocket engine. The engine was designed to achieve single-stage-to-orbit capability, propelling the proposed Skylon spaceplane to low Earth orbit. SABRE was an evolution of Alan Bond's series of LACE-like designs that started in the early/mid-1980s for the HOTOL project. Reaction Engines went into bankruptcy in 2024 before completing the project. The design comprised a single combined cycle rocket engine with two modes of operation. The air-breathing mode combined a turbo-compressor with a lightweight air precooler positioned just behind the inlet cone. At high speeds this precooler would cool the hot, ram-compressed air, which would otherwise reach a temperature that the engine could not withstand, leading to a very high pressure ratio within the engine. The compressed air would subsequently be fed into the rocket combu ...
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Reaction Engines Limited
Reaction Engines Limited (REL) was a British aerospace manufacturer founded in 1989 and based in Oxfordshire, England. The company also operated in the USA, where it used the name Reaction Engines Inc. (REI). REL entered administration on 31 October 2024. Both REL and REI ceased operations and laid off the bulk of their staff. History and personnel In 1989, Reaction Engines was founded by Alan Bond (lead engineer on the British Interplanetary Society's Project Daedalus), Richard Varvill and John Scott-Scott (the two principal Rolls-Royce engineers from the RB545 engine project). The company conducted research into space propulsion systems, centred on the development of the Skylon re-usable SSTO spaceplane. The three founders had worked together on the HOTOL project, funding for which had been withdrawn the previous year, in 1988. In 2015, BAE Systems agreed to buy a 20% stake in the company for £20.6m as part of an agreement to help develop Reaction Engines' Synerg ...
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Hansard
''Hansard'' is the transcripts of parliamentary debates in Britain and many Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), a London printer and publisher, who was the first official printer to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, Parliament at Westminster. Origins Though the history of the ''Hansard'' began in the British Parliament, each of Britain's colonies developed a separate and distinctive history. Before 1771, the British Parliament had long been a highly secretive body. The official record of the actions of the House was publicly available but there was no record of the debates. The publication of remarks made in the House became a breach of parliamentary privilege, punishable by the two Houses of Parliament (UK), Houses of Parliament. As the populace became interested in parliamentary debates, more independent newspapers began publishing unofficial accounts of them. The many penalties implemented by the governmen ...
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