Talk:Blue Streak missile

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Blue Streak was not a continuation of Black Knight. Black Knight was an entirely different vehicle intended to investigate the problems of the re-entry body containing a nuclear warhead coming back into the atmosphere.

Also, the use of liquid fuel was irrelevant to the cancellation. The missile was intended to be housed in an underground silo capable of withstanding a one megaton blast one mile away. The cost of these silos plus the political sensitivity of their siting was the principal reason for the cancellation.

Nicholas Hill

CNHill@aol.com

[edit] Launch history

User Spidercorp has added a full launch history of Blue Streak which is presumably correct as far as it goes, but it does not include the sattelite launch mentioned in the line above, and so cannot be complete. Man with two legs 22:04, 4 February 2007 (UTC) Man with two legs 18:28, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Proposed merger

The following discussion is archived. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.

I have proposed that Blue Streak Satellite Launch Vehicle be merged into this article. This is because it seems to be about a series of proposals which are not notable enought to sustain their own article, and relate closely to this article. --GW_Simulations_{User Page | Talk} 16:47, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

I agree that the merger makes sense. The launch vehicle shares the history of the missile and thus there is a lot of commonality between the the two articles. Bringing them together into a coherent whole describing the Blue Streak missile and satellite launch vehicle seems the best approach to me. MarkPos 20:39, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Well, I think that's long enough. No objections noted, so I'm going to go ahead and merge. --GW_Simulations_{User Page | Talk} 21:04, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.

[edit] Times & Politics

The times quoted for 'go' to launch are not accurate. The missile could be kept pre-cooled and then fuelled and launched within two minutes or so. Ice formation on the LOX tank, which after all was only 14 thou thick FSM1 stainless at the top end did not seem to be a problem.

Talking of this project without mentioning the office politics by which it was surrounded paints a very uneven picture. It's a bit like talking about Florence Nightingale without mentioning the Crimean Was. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Drg40 (talk • contribs) 17:37, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Well, go ahead and improve it then. Can you provide sources? BTW, I've put a title in for this section so it can be distinguished from the merge proposal above --GW_Simulations_{User Page | Talk} 21:01, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Ah. My big mouth. I was only a section leader, trial engineer at Spadeadam so what I saw with my own eyes and what I can now prove are two entirely different things. MInd you any piece of equipment that goes from 0 to 30,000 rpm in 30mS (the engine turbines on the RZ2 Mark 3) had, and has, my rapt attention. My job was to operate the Engine Control Panel during static firing so I can still recite more facts and figures about the RZ2 than it is good for an old man to know!

"For much of the period the British Goverment declined to be part of ELDO, so the organisation consisted of the Dutch, Belgian, Italian, French and German governments and Hawker Siddeley Dynamics Ltd. (the successor company to de Havilland Propellers Ltd.). When Kourou was agreed as the equatorial launch site, the French felt it particularly important that the British govenment should be involved. Subsequent to this re-arrangement the British again attempted to withdraw, feeling that this would cause the collapse of ELDO, only to discover that the contract required them to make significant contribution to the costs of the development of Kourou, and the French and others intended to proceed without Blue Streak." (This meeting, where the Brits announced their withdrawal and the French invited them to read the contract was (according to the French) supposed to have been one of the funniest pieces of "one-upmanship" of all time)

Throughout the period while the British government failed to be directly involved with ELDO, they nonetheless attempted to exercise detailed control. For example; a representative of Farnborough attempted to halt the static firing of F4 at Spadeadam in the last few moments because his copy of the break book for F1 had an entry for the removal of the autopilot for the vehicle, but the matching entry for the replacement of the equipment was not properly signed. Such a hold at that time would have cost a great deal of money and, in front of the national press, been something of a PR disaster. Also, by this time, F1 was not only a heap of junk mostly buried in the Australian desert, but it manifestly had had an autopilot fitted, after some delay and frantic phone calls the count-down continued. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Drg40 (talk • contribs) 13:28, 30 January 2008 (UTC)