Old Cumbria Gazetteer |
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| Spadeadam Rocket Establishment, Spadeadam | ||
| Spadeadam Rocket Establishment | ||
| locality:- | Greymare Hill | |
| locality:- | Spadeadam Forest | |
| civil parish:- | Kingwater (formerly Cumberland) | |
| civil parish:- | Waterhead (formerly Cumberland) | |
| county:- | Cumbria | |
| locality type:- | research establishment | |
| coordinates:- | NY62127430 (etc) | |
| 1Km square:- | NY6274 | |
| 10Km square:- | NY67 | |
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 CGB94.jpg Rolls Royce rocket engine. (taken 12.5.2017) courtesy of Solway Aviation Museum |
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 CGB95.jpg Rolls Royce rocket engine training course notes. (taken 12.5.2017) courtesy of Solway Aviation Museum |
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| notes:- |
Blue Streak was an experimental medium range ballistic missile, its range was to be
2000 nautical miles, designed to carry a nuclear warhead. |
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| Why Blue Streak? The name was in the pattern of World War II Rainbow Codes, colour plus random word. Other projects were Green Garlic, Orange Poodle, and Brown Bunny. |
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| The rocket design was by the de Havilland Aircraft Company, with engines from Rolls
Royce. Progress was slow but successful, but more than the country could afford, and
the project was abandoned in 1960. |
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| Instead, the rocket became part of the british Black Prince satellite launcher project,
which was abandoned in favour of a european launcher, Europa I. Blue Streak was the
first stage, the french Coralie was second stage, the german Astris was a very advanced
third stage. The first, successful, test flights of Blue streak were made at Woomera,
Australia, 1964. Eight further tests with the added french and german stages all failed,
and Blue Streak was cancelled completely in 1968. |
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| notes:- |
When Britain was still involved in rocketry the Spadeadam Rocket Establishment was
built here, in the late 1950s. Blue Streak was tested here up to 1964 when the programme
was cancelled. A second stage was planned for this rocket, called Black Knight. |
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| A Blue Streak rocket is preserved at the Museum of Flight, East Fortune, an outstation
of the Chamber Street museum, Edinburgh. |
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 CFA48.jpg (taken 23.5.2016) courtesy of the National Museums of Scotland  CFA49.jpg (taken 23.5.2016) courtesy of the National Museums of Scotland  CFA50.jpg (taken 23.5.2016) courtesy of the National Museums of Scotland  CFA51.jpg (taken 23.5.2016) courtesy of the National Museums of Scotland  CFA52.jpg (taken 23.5.2016) courtesy of the National Museums of Scotland  CFA53.jpg Mounting for nose cone or second stage. (taken 23.5.2016) courtesy of the National Museums of Scotland |
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