Prof John Allen gave the annual John Siddeley Lecture at the President’s evening of the RRHT Coventry Branch last evening.
Now 89, Prof Allen highlighted some snippets from his long career as an engineer in the aero industry which included involvement in both Blue Danube and Blue Steel.
He was involved in a problem with Blue Danube that concerned weight disposition in the bomb. Unlike previous large free-fall bombs which had a mass of weight in the nose, Blue Danube’s nose was, basically, a streamlined fairing with very little weight. He recalled a test drop from a Victor (although he showed a pic of a Valiant) where the bomb was released, it adopted a nose-up attitude and flew back up into the bomb-bay with much associated clanging!!
He next worked at Avro in charge(?) of development of Blue Steel. He showed a slide of a projected piloted Blue Steel (I presumed without a warhead). I asked him later what speed might have been expected and he thought mach 4 to 4.5 – a rival for the X-15???
He mentioned that his archives are lodged with The Science Museum.
Roger Smith.
By: scorpion63 - 10th November 2009 at 12:47
The problem with weapons release on the Victor was the airflow across the bomb bay preventing the weapon separating cleanly, the problem was solved by a retractable spoiler which dropped into the airflow when the bomb doors were opened causing localised turbulence and allowing the weapon to fall away.
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November 10, 2009 at 8:57 am