A vertical empire history of the British rocketry programme /
C.N. Hill.
- second edition.
- London : Imperial College Press, (c)2012.
- 1 online resource (viii, 379 pages)
Includes bibliographies and index.
Acknowledgements; Chapter 1: Introduction; Places; The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) at Farnborough; Rocket Propulsion Establishment (RPE) at Westcott; Spadeadam; Woomera; High Down; Political and Administrative Matters; Politics; The Air Ministry; The Ministry of Supply; Ministry of Defence; The Treasury; Politicians; Officials; Firms; Money values; Chapter 2: Rocket Motors; Rocket Motors in the UK; Snarler and Screamer; Delta; HTP; Hydrogen; Ion Motors; Solid Fuel Motors; Chapter 3: Rocket Interceptors; An Overview; Designs in Detail; The F138/SR53; Facts and Figures. The P177Chapter 4: Blue Steel; Chapter 5: Blue Streak -- The Origins; The Warhead; A Solid Fuel Design?; The Missile Design; Chapter 6: Blue Streak -- The 'Underground Launcher'; Chapter 7: Blue Streak -- The Cancellation; BND(SG); Origins of Skybolt; Unpopularity of Blue Streak; Chapter 8: BSSLV; A Liquid Hydrogen Stage; Blue Streak with a Centaur Upper Stage; Chapter 9: The European Launcher Development Organisation -- ELDO; The Political Failure of ELDO; Chapter 10: Europa; The Launches; F1; F2 and F3; F4; F5; F6/1; F6/2; F7; F8; F9; F10; F11; Improving Europa; Europa III. Chapter 11: Black KnightChapter 12: Black Knight and the Re-entry Experiments; Black Knight Launches; BK01; BK03; BK04; BK05; BK06; BK08; BK09; BK07; BK13; BK14; BK17; BK15; BK16; BK18; BK11; Project Dazzle; BK19; BK20; BK21; BK23; BK24; BK25; Summary of Black Knight Launches; Crusade and the 54-inch Black Knight; How Successful was Black Knight?; Was Black Knight Good Value for Money?; Chapter 13: Black Arrow; The Flights; R0 -- 28 June 1968; R1 -- 4 March 1970; R2 -- 2 September 1970; R3 -- 28 October 1971; The Cancellation; Black Arrow Improvements; Chapter 14: The 'Might Have Beens' A Black Knight IRBMCould Britain Have Launched an Astronaut into Orbit?; Alternative Histories; Chapter 15: Conclusions; Could the UK Once Again Become Involved in a Launcher Programme?; Appendix A: Original Documents; History of the Saunders Roe SR53 and SR177; K11 Underground Launcher; Use of Spadeadam for Space Firings; Space and the Future of The European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO); Appendix B: A Black Knight Launcher?; Appendix C: Timeline; Further Reading; Archives; Index.
A Vertical Empire provides a description of the British rocketry and space programme from the 1950s to 1970s, detailing the Medium Range Ballistic Missile Blue Streak and its conversion to a satellite launcher as part of the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO). This extensively revised second edition includes material only made available in the past ten years and the text is supplemented by numerous photographs, sketches and statistics. The all-British satellite Black Arrow is described, as well as the research rocket Black Knight, the Blue Steel missile and the rocket powered inches.