Icons
’’70s70s
1970s – First European geostationary satellite
Bristol led the STAR consortium in designing and building Geos, the fi rst European
geostationary scientifi c satellite, which was launched from Cape Canaveral by a Delta
rocket.
1970s – First British missile capable of destroying anti-ship
missiles
The Bristol team had much understanding of anti-missile defence, and their designs
Vertically Launched Missiles.
(including a vertically launched version suitable for small ships) won the development
Image courtesy of the Royal Navy
contract for Sea Wolf. The team demonstrated the safety of vertical launch in test fi rings
in the 1970s.
Bristol engineers led the subsequent development, during which the missile destroyed
an Exocet anti ship missile, and intercepted a 4.5 inch shell. During the Falklands confl ict,
Sea Wolf was fi red in defence by ships of the British Navy. From the 1980s, the vertically
launched version defended Type 23 frigates.
1980s – First close
’’80s80s
up pictures of a
comet’s nucleus
The Giotto spacecraft
performed a close fl y-by
of two comets, and was
the fi rst to return from
interplanetary space and
perform an earth fl y-by.
2000s – Dan Dare and the birth of Hi-Tech
Britain in the 1950s
In 2008-9 the Science Museum in London showed the
technological innovations of the 1950s. The Bloodhound 1 missile
was the largest and most striking exhibit, correctly shown as part
2000s
of a complex weapon system, and displayed as an icon.
As an innovation, a website was set up to enable memories
of the exhibits to be shared and comments to be made. The
Bloodhound Missile’s page can be found at http://objectwiki.
sciencemuseum.org.uk/wiki/Bloodhound_Anti-Aircraft_Missile.
The Bloodhound I
2000s – A car to reach 1000mph
Missile in the Science
The project was launched in 2008 and the design team has been
Museum’s Dan Dare
set up at Bristol.
exhibition
The team’s Chief Aerodynamicist, Ron Ayers, also worked on
the Bloodhound Missile design team. Project Director Richard
Noble paid a great compliment to the surviving members of the Family resemblances
Bloodhound Missile team by naming the car Bloodhound SSC. The Bloodhound SSC does not just share the missile’s name.
On this project, for the fi rst time ever, the world can share Surprisingly, there are many similarities in design decisions in the
the problems and decisions in engineering design, know the missile and car, despite a 50 year gap between them.
engineers’ thoughts and concerns, and follow all the stages of One example is confi guration design. Both the homing head in
development – all via the internet. At last, a great light is now the Bloodhound Missile and the driver in the car need a clear fi eld
shining on the work of the engineering designer. of view, while the air intake for the jet needs a clean entry airfl ow. In
In my opinion, this alone makes the project iconic, and I the missile design, ten confi gurations were studied in series to fi nd
strongly recommend readers to access the website (www. the best confi guration. The fi rst was the ‘obvious’ one – a big ramjet
bloodhoundssc.com/car/the_scientifi c_and_engineering_challenge.cfm). with a homing head in the intake centre cone. Guidance range would
30
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