Black Knight (rocket)
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Black Knight was a British research
ballistic missile A ballistic missile is a type of missile that uses projectile motion to deliver warheads on a target. These weapons are powered only during relatively brief periods—most of the flight is unpowered. Short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) typic ...
, originally developed to test and verify the design of a
re-entry Atmospheric entry (sometimes listed as Vimpact or Ventry) is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. Atmospheric entry may be ''uncontrolled entry ...
vehicle for the Blue Streak missile. It is the United Kingdom's first indigenous expendable launch project. Design work on what would become the Black Knight launch vehicle commenced in 1955, being performed by the
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), bef ...
(RAE) and British manufacturer
Saunders-Roe Saunders-Roe Limited, also known as Saro, was a British aerospace and marine-engineering company based at Columbine Works, East Cowes, Isle of Wight. History The name was adopted in 1929 after Alliott Verdon Roe (see Avro) and John Lord took ...
. Saunders-Roe was the principal manufacturer for the Black Knight at its facility on the
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. On 7 September 1958, the first Black Knight was launched at Woomera in Australia. Between 1958 and 1965, a total of 22 launch vehicles were fired, none of which having suffered any major failures. After 22 launches, the Black Knight programme came to a close. The success of the Black Knight as a cheap and successful test vehicle led to many studies being performed into further derivatives of the vehicle, including its adaption to serve as an
intermediate-range ballistic missile An intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) is a ballistic missile with a range (aeronautics), range between (), categorized between a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) and an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Classifying ball ...
(IRBM) and as a
launch vehicle A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistage ...
, including one proposal, which was based on the Blue Streak missile and the Black Knight, known as the
Black Prince Edward of Woodstock (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), known as the Black Prince, was the eldest son and heir apparent of King Edward III of England. He died before his father and so his son, Richard II, succeeded to the throne instead. Edward n ...
. Technology and experience gained on the Black Knight programme would contribute to the subsequent
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 Blac ...
expendable launch vehicle An expendable launch system (or expendable launch vehicle/ELV) is a launch vehicle that can be launched only once, after which its components are destroyed during reentry or impact with Earth, or discarded in space. ELVs typically consist of s ...
programme.


Development


Origins

During the early 1950s, the British government had identified the need to develop its own series of
ballistic missile A ballistic missile is a type of missile that uses projectile motion to deliver warheads on a target. These weapons are powered only during relatively brief periods—most of the flight is unpowered. Short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) typic ...
s due to advances being made in this field, particularly by the
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and the
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. The ballistic missile was of critical importance to developing a more effective method of
nuclear deterrence Deterrence theory refers to the scholarship and practice of how threats of using force by one party can convince another party to refrain from initiating some other course of action. The topic gained increased prominence as a military strategy d ...
, replacing the role currently occupied by free-fall
nuclear bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear exp ...
s and thus a reliance on ever-more complex, costly and capable aircraft. A British programme to develop such a missile, named Blue Streak, was promptly initiated; however, there were key questions over the then-relatively unknown scenario of what such a vehicle would encounter when attempting
re-entry Atmospheric entry (sometimes listed as Vimpact or Ventry) is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. Atmospheric entry may be ''uncontrolled entry ...
to the atmosphere, there were fears that such a vehicle might simply burn up like a meteor and therefore be unachievable. To explore the phenomenon of atmospheric entry, it was decided that a dedicated research programme would be necessary in order to acquire research information that would shape the design of subsequent ballistic vehicles. Britain had also never previously developed a ballistic missile before, the field being relatively new and with few participants, thus there was significant value in developing and constructing a research ballistic missile in order to gain experience and data on how to design and build such vehicles, develop launch techniques, and general handling. Thus, in 1955, the Black Knight research vehicle has its inception for this purpose. In 1955, due to its close relationship with the
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), bef ...
(RAE), the British government awarded a contract to British manufacturer
Saunders-Roe Saunders-Roe Limited, also known as Saro, was a British aerospace and marine-engineering company based at Columbine Works, East Cowes, Isle of Wight. History The name was adopted in 1929 after Alliott Verdon Roe (see Avro) and John Lord took ...
to produce the Black Knight. This contract involved a complete package for the design, development, manufacturing and testing of the vehicle, its flight control system, instrumentation, and supporting infrastructure for its operation. According to author C.N Hill, the Black Knight programme ultimately fulfilled its prime objective of gathering information on rocket systems. Amongst applicable fields for the accumulated data included a greater understanding of the physics involved in re-entry vehicles, which had military value due to this scope including
ballistic missile A ballistic missile is a type of missile that uses projectile motion to deliver warheads on a target. These weapons are powered only during relatively brief periods—most of the flight is unpowered. Short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) typic ...
s and
missile defense Missile defense is a system, weapon, or technology involved in the detection, tracking, interception, and also the destruction of attacking missiles. Conceived as a defense against nuclear weapon, nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic mi ...
. Specifically, it influenced the development of the British-built Blue Streak missile programme, while generally benefitting scientific understanding in both the United Kingdom and the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
.


Further development and derivatives

The Black Knight was regarded as being a successful programme, having produced a relatively low cost and reliable rocket. While the Blue Streak missile had by this point been recognised as being too costly to serve as a competitive launcher in the face of international competition, the Black Knight was viewed as having the potential to be more cost-effective in this regard. The
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), bef ...
(RAE) had been encouraged by its performance and were keen to reuse the rocket elsewhere. One of more radical ideas for reusing the Black Knight was voiced by Armstrong-Siddeley, who suggested that the rocket be repurposed as the foundations for an
intermediate-range ballistic missile An intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) is a ballistic missile with a range (aeronautics), range between (), categorized between a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) and an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Classifying ball ...
(IRBM). This proposal would have involved greatly increasing the size of the vehicle itself, and the adoption of a substantially more powerful rocket engine in place of the Gamma engine. The RAE performed a multitude of studies on the subject of prospective derivatives of the Black Knight and its Gamma engine. Many of these focused on the possibility of extending the vehicle to operate a launcher for small satellites and proposed the use of
liquid hydrogen Liquid hydrogen () is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecule, molecular H2 form. To exist as a liquid, H2 must be cooled below its critical point (thermodynamics), critical point of 33 Kelvins, ...
-fuelled upper stage, which was comparatively expensive to develop while not providing much payload capacity without redesigning of the Black Knight vehicle itself as well. An alternative solution for satellite launches was explored by the RAE, in which
solid fuel Solid fuel refers to various forms of solid material that can be burnt to release energy, providing heat and light through the process of combustion. Solid fuels can be contrasted with liquid fuels and gaseous fuels. Common examples of solid fu ...
booster Booster may refer to: Amusement rides * Booster (Fabbri ride), a pendulum ride * Booster (HUSS ride), an evolution of the Breakdance ride * Booster (KMG ride), a pendulum ride Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * Booster, a cha ...
s would have been attached to the Black Knight. This proposal would have involved a basically unmodified Black Knight vehicle being paired with two strap-on boosters along with two further stages in order to be capable of placing a 100lb payload into a 200-mile-high
orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit (also known as orbital revolution) is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an ...
. While this implementation was found to be simple and low-cost to develop, the payload capacity remained low. One of the more ambitious proposals for an improved Black Knight involved substantially increasing the diameter of the tank from 36 inches to 54 inches, which had the effect of nearly doubling the rocket's fuel capacity, along with the adoption of a more powerful solid fuel second stage, named ''Kestrel''. This envisioned more powerful Black Knight rocket was to have been used as part of a further set of planned experiments, which had been codenamed 'Crusade'. Upon review,
HM Treasury His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury or HMT), and informally referred to as the Treasury, is the Government of the United Kingdom’s economic and finance ministry. The Treasury is responsible for public spending, financial services policy, Tax ...
refused to provide any funding for further Black Knight projects, and work on an enlarged Black Knight was abandoned in favour of the larger
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 Blac ...
satellite launcher.


Design

The Black Knight was a single stage ballistic missile, complete with a separate nose section. The vehicle was 35 feet long, had a 3-foot diameter, and a fully-fuelled weight of 12,800lb. In operation, the Black Knight could attain an altitude of up to 600 miles, and achieve a re-entry velocity of 12,000 feet per second. The Black Knight was powered by the Bristol Siddeley Gamma
rocket engine A rocket engine is a reaction engine, producing thrust in accordance with Newton's third law by ejecting reaction mass rearward, usually a high-speed Jet (fluid), jet of high-temperature gas produced by the combustion of rocket propellants stor ...
s. The Gamma engine was designed and manufactured by Armstrong-Siddeley at their factory in Ansty, near
Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...
. Between 1956 and 1959, the Gamma rocket engines underwent testing at the High Down Rocket Test Site under the direction of under Paul Leyton. The engine ran a fuel comprising a combination of
high-test peroxide High-test peroxide (HTP) is a highly concentrated (85 to 98%) solution of hydrogen peroxide, with the remainder consisting predominantly of water. In contact with a catalyst, it decomposes into a high-temperature mixture of steam and oxygen, with n ...
(HTP) and
kerosene Kerosene, or paraffin, is a combustibility, combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in Aviation fuel, aviation as well as households. Its name derives from the Greek (''kērós'') meaning " ...
; Saunders-Roe possessed prior experience of working with this fuel mixture as a result of the firm's work on the
Saunders-Roe SR.53 The Saunders-Roe SR.53 was a British prototype interceptor aircraft of mixed jet and rocket propulsion developed for the Royal Air Force (RAF) by Saunders-Roe in the early 1950s. As envisaged, the SR.53 would have been used as an interceptor ...
rocket propelled
interceptor aircraft An interceptor aircraft, or simply interceptor, is a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically for the defensive interception role against an attacking enemy aircraft, particularly bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Aircraft that are c ...
.


Versions

There were five Black Knight design versions, depending on the engines used on the first and second stages.


Firings

During 1957, the first test launch of the Black Knight rocket was performed at High Down on the
Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...
. In September 1958, the second test launch was performed, this being the first to use the dedicated launch facility at the
Woomera Test Range The RAAF Woomera Range Complex (WRC) is a major Australian military and civil aerospace facility and operation located in South Australia, approximately north-west of Adelaide. The WRC is operated by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), a S ...
,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
; the majority of Black Knight launches were performed from Woomera, leading to the launchers being constructed in the UK and then transported to Australia. The first two launch vehicles were used as 'proving rounds' - that is, launches which lacked any payload in order to test and validate the design of the rocket itself. The third launch of the Black Knight was the first to carry an actual payload in the form of a re-entry vehicle, which was present for the purpose of testing the properties of the re-entry body's chosen design. All the re-entry firings deliberately took place on clear moonless nights, so that the luminous wake of the re-entry body could be observed photographically. Further firings with different heads showed up some unusual phenomena, and further tests under the code names ''Gaslight'' and ''Dazzle'' were carried out in conjunction with the United States. A variety of heads were flown in these tests, including a plain copper sphere and a silica sphere. Heads composed of a composite
asbestos Asbestos ( ) is a group of naturally occurring, Toxicity, toxic, carcinogenic and fibrous silicate minerals. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous Crystal habit, crystals, each fibre (particulate with length su ...
-based material known as Durestos were also flown, and later tests finalised on a cone-shaped head re-entering pointed-end first, as used on many subsequent missile RVs. A total of 25 Black Knight launch vehicles were constructed at a cost of just over £40,000 each. A single rocket (BK02) was used for ground testing. One (BK11) was expended as part of the
European Launcher Development Organisation file:Europa2vrp.jpg, 250px, Europa II file:Europa2rp.jpg, 200px, Rolls-Royce ''RZ-12'' file:Coralie rocket stage top view.jpg, 200px, ''Coralie'' file:Europa Upper Stage University of Stuttgart 02.jpg, 200px, ''Astris'' The European Launcher ...
(ELDO) initiative as an investigation of range facilities. The majority, 21, were fired as part of re-entry experiments; if they had been used as launch vehicles for satellites, the majority of these firing would have been successfully attained orbit. All launches of the Black Knight were successful and there were no major failures experienced during any. Authors Robin Paine and Roger Syms summarised this achievement as: "Altogether, 22 successful launches were made without a single failure - a remarkable record without parallel in ballistics rocket development.


Survivors

Three Black Knight rockets were preserved and are now kept on static display in museums. * Black Knight BK02 is on display at the Royal Museum Connect Gallery in
Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
, Scotland. It is nearly 11m high and stretches up for three floors. * Black Knight BK10 is on display at the
World Museum World Museum is a large museum in Liverpool, England which has extensive collections covering archaeology, ethnology and the natural and physical sciences. Special attractions include the Natural History Centre and a planetarium. Entry to the ...
in
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, England. It is suspended from the ceiling near the Planetarium, with other Black Knight components on display nearby. * A Black Knight (probably BK22) is on display at the Woomera Aircraft & Missile Park.


Launches

Black Knight was launched twenty-two times from Woomera LA-5.


See also

* Rainbow Codes *
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 Blac ...
* Blue Streak * Skylark


References


Citations


Bibliography

* Hill, C.N. ''A Vertical Empire: The History of the UK Rocket and Space Programme, 1950–1971''. World Scientific, 2001. . * Laycock, Stuart and Philip Laycock. ''Unexpected Britain''. Amberley Publishing Limited, 2014. . * Massie, Harri and M. O. Robins. "History of British Space Science." ''Cambridge University Press'', 1986. . * Paine, Robin and Roger Syms
''On a Cushion of Air''.
Robin Paine, 2012. . * Stocker, Jeremy. ''Britain and Ballistic Missile Defence, 1942–2002''. Routledge, 2004. . * Twigge, Stephen Robert. ''The Early Development of Guided Weapons in the United Kingdom, 1940–1960''. Taylor & Francis, 1993. .


External links



*
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â€
''The Archive Hour'' – "Britain's Space Race"
11 August 2007.
a cutaway drawing of the Black Knight
{{UKColdWarProjects Cold War military equipment of the United Kingdom 1960 in spaceflight 1961 in spaceflight Collection of National Museums Scotland Rockets and missiles Expendable space launch systems Space launch vehicles of the United Kingdom Rainbow code