NNAMING THE ENGINEERSAMING THE ENGINEERS
As the project is so public and has received so much media Bloodhound Missile
attention, the world will get to know the Bloodhound SSC At Bristol: Hugh Metcalfe.
engineers very well professionally. However, the engineers who At Ferranti: Norman Searby, Denis Best.
worked on the previous iconic projects are unlikely to receive At Rolls Royce Bristol: Robin Jamison, Mike Nedham.
the same level of fame. At the Royal Radar Establishment, Malvern: Bill Penley, Andy
I have searched the internet in vain for those who played Smart.
major design roles in the other projects named in the article.
Of all the many people involved, only two earlier Bristol Space Shuttle contribution Do you have any memories of
aeronautical engineers could be found on the internet: Sir Brian Raybold, John Bircham. iconic projects? Do you feel
Archibald Russell (a founder member of the Institution of a design has been left out of
Engineering Designers) and myself (David J Farrar). Both can be Geos this article? Please send any
found on www.wikipedia.org. Don Rowley, Ray Munday. letters or comments to the
A complex engineering project is never designed in one editor by emailing editorial@
organisation or by one person. In recognition, and to complete Sea Wolf engineeringdesigner.co.uk or
this celebration of 100 years of Bristol Aerospace icons, some Graham Felton, Phil Rosser. send them to: Engineering
of the principal organisations and names appear below. Designer, Ewell House,
Giotto Graveney Road, Faversham,
Concorde Ray Munday, Geoff Crowder Kent ME13 8UP.
At Bristol: Bill Strang, Doug Thorne, Mick Wilde, Doug Vickery.
At Rolls Royce Bristol: Peter Calder, Pierre Young. Acknowledgements
I wish to thank Bill Morgan for a preview of the full list of
Bristol Freighter Bristol aerospace achievements, and Don Rowley and Charles
Alec Symon. Halton for sharing memories of them.
be too limited, so a series of confi gurations
followed with smaller ramjets in various
positions.
At the fourth and fi fth confi gurations, we were
amazed to see them in the ‘Eagle’ being fl own
22000s000s
by the cartoon character Dan Dare and his
opponents. projects reduce drag by area ruling (in of airfl ow and structure aids the design
The Ministry were concerned at the time the missile the intakes widen where the process for the car or fl ight path for the
about the possibility of a security leak, but none body narrows). In both projects, the missile.
was found. Fortunately, as we went on towards centre of gravity has to be decided by the A signifi cant difference is that the
the fi nal confi guration of Bloodhound, ‘Eagle’ aerodynamic centre, to minimise body guided missile, being expendable, was
failed to follow them. The fi nal confi guration, with rotation. Both use telemetry. Bloodhound simplifi ed by putting much of the
moving wings, minimised body rotation in pitch SSC uses digital control and health complexity into the ground part of the
and yaw, both to give better fl ow into the ramjet monitoring, Bloodhound 2 had the fi rst system. Bloodhound SSC has to carry
intakes and to avoid homing head guidance real time control by computer – the the complexity with it as part of the
errors of various sorts. Ferrranti Argus. Computer modelling challenge.
Bloodhound SSC has followed a similar course.
To maintain good wheel contact with the ground,
The Bloodhound SSC has many similarities
it is also essential to minimise any tendency to
to the missile it was named after.
body pitch or yaw. Dual engine air intakes proved
Image courtesy of Curventa
inferior to a single intake, which ingeniously uses
the conical driver’s canopy to produce the fi rst
compression shock, while giving him adequate
visibility over a shallow fore body (it echoes the
fi rst intake confi guration studied for the missile).
There are other similarities. At speed, the air
round both is hotter than boiling water. Both
Engineering Designer July/August 2009
31
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36