HYPERSONIC RESEARCH AT WOOMERA: FALSTAFF-the Unclassified Story

摘要

Following on from the authors' previous paper on the Jabiru hypersonic research program at Woomera, this paper will focus on an associated hypersonic weapons testing program, Falstaff, which carried out launches at Woomera between 1969 and 1979. Based on the Stonechat motor, the largest UK solid propellant motor used in flight tests, the Falstaff vehicle was derived from a Mach 10 hypersonic research vehicle (Hyperion) being developed in the 1960s by the RAE. This proposed sounding rocket, which could lift a payload of 1,000 kg to a height in excess of 100 km, was adapted by the RAE Weapons Department to become a test-bed launcher for components, equipment and systems for the Chevaline project-the classified program to develop upgrades for Britain's Polaris submarine-launched missile deterrent.rnAs aspects of the Chevaline program remain classified, this paper will, as its title indicates, address only the unclassified or de-classified aspects of the program, providing the most complete description currently available of the experimental work involving the Falstaff launcher. It will describe the origins of the Stonechat motor and present technical details of the Stonechat I and II motors that were the basis of the Falstaff vehicle. The paper will examine the adaptation of the Hyperion vehicle to become Falstaff and will look at the first trial of the rocket in 1969, and the growing need for a vehicle intended to test components for the Chevaline program. It will present descriptions of the operational Falstaff vehicle, the launch program at Woomera and the experiments that were carried on each flight. Finally, the paper will discuss other planned launchers that were intended to be based on the Stonechat motor.