Misplaced Pages

#762237

68-481: Originally designed as an upgraded version of the Firestreak, Red Top emerged as a much more capable weapon, with roughly double the range, a more sensitive seeker giving limited all-aspect capability, and an even larger warhead than the already-large one in Firestreak. In its primary role as an anti-bomber weapon fired at medium and high altitudes, it offered a significant improvement in overall performance. Red Top

136-692: A quantum well . In such a heterostructure InSb/ AlInSb has recently been shown to exhibit a robust quantum Hall effect . This approach is studied in order to construct very fast transistors . Bipolar transistors operating at frequencies up to 85 GHz were constructed from indium antimonide in the late 1990s; field-effect transistors operating at over 200 GHz have been reported more recently ( Intel / QinetiQ ). Some models suggest that terahertz frequencies are achievable with this material. Indium antimonide semiconductor devices are also capable of operating with voltages under 0.5 V, reducing their power requirements. InSb can be grown by solidifying

204-628: A LEX fence significantly reduces the buffeting and increases fin fatigue life. Aircraft with all-moving fins, but which did not enter service, were the North American F-107 and the BAC TSR-2 . The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird and North American X-15 used fixed stubs for the fins and rudders for the remaining height. Conventional rudders would have been inadequate for the SR-71 because excessive deflections would have been required for

272-407: A determining role in yaw stability, providing most of the required restoring moment about the center of gravity when the aircraft slips. Yaw stability is typically quantified using the derivative of moment coefficient with respect to yaw angle. The airflow over the vertical tail is often influenced by the fuselage, wings and engines of the aircraft, both in magnitude and direction. The main wing and

340-488: A fixed vertical stabilizer or fin on which a movable rudder is mounted. A trim tab may similarly be mounted on the rudder. Together, their role is to enable trim in the yaw direction (compensate moments in yaw generated by any asymmetry in thrust or drag ), enable the aircraft to be controlled in yaw (for example, to initiate side slip during a crosswind landing ), as well as provide stability in yaw (weathercock or directional stability). The greater its position away from

408-410: A ground-handling safety issue. Removing the ammonia bottles and all of the plumbing for the cooling systems freed up room in the electronics section and the aircraft-mounted weapon pack. Elimination of the cooling for the electronics also had the side-effect of removing the cooling for the seeker head, which had been used to improve its performance. A new cooling system using highly filtered air replaced

476-416: A horizontal stabiliser, such as North American Rockwell OV-10 Bronco or Armstrong Whitworth AW.660 Argosy transport. A variation on the twin tail, the triple tail has three vertical stabilizers. The WW II era Avro Manchester was given a third fin when the original twin fin proved insufficient. The Lockheed Constellation used three fins to give the airplane the required vertical stabilizer area while at

544-405: A laboratory at the university to further this research, however Delft later retracted the paper. InSb has the appearance of dark-grey silvery metal pieces or powder with vitreous lustre. When subjected to temperatures over 500 °C, it melts and decomposes, liberating antimony and antimony oxide vapors. The crystal structure is zincblende with a 0.648 nm lattice constant . InSb

612-410: A straight line, or leading in or out of a turn, before applying the tiller, to keep the turn smooth. With the controls in the neutral position, a plane may still gently yaw to one side. This is corrected through the setting of a trim surface, often a separate trim tab mounted on the rudder but sometimes the rudder itself, to counteract the yaw and ensure the plane flies in a straight line. Changing

680-540: A supersonic Lightning. There was also some discussion of mounting four Red Top on Blackburn Buccaneer , likely the B.112 version that had been proposed to replace Sea Vixen for long-duration combat air patrol . Independently, in 1959 Jon Fozard of Hawker Aircraft also considered using Red Top on the Hawker Siddeley P.1127 . The concept fit the aircraft with a more powerful engine, added the AIRPASS radar from

748-425: A tail-aspect in these cases. This loss in performance was offset to some degree by increasing the field of view from 30 to 60 degrees, allowing the fighter much greater tactical freedom. In contrast to Blue Vesta, which retained most of the original Firestreak physical layout, Red Top significantly rationalised the design. The fuselage was straightened, removing the boat-tail layout of the Firestreak. Previously

SECTION 10

#1732790562763

816-428: A wake its effectiveness is reduced because the wake has a lower dynamic pressure than the free stream. The fin height may need to be increased to restore its required effectiveness in certain flight conditions. The Panavia Tornado had a tall fin for directional stability at high angles of incidence. The rudder is the directional control surface and is usually hinged to the fin or vertical stabilizer. Moving it allows

884-408: A way to disrupt the airflow to the rear wing reducing drag, the most radical system being the "F-duct" found in the 2010 McLaren MP4-25 and Ferrari F10 . On demand by the driver, this system diverted air from a duct in the front of the car through a tunnel in the vertical fin onto the rear wing to stall it and reduce drag on the straights on which downforce was not needed. The system was banned for

952-547: Is a critical issue for fighter aircraft with twin or single fins because the fatigue life of the fin structure is reduced by the fluctuating loads caused by burst vortices impinging on the fin. The single fin on the Eurofighter Typhoon experiences buffet loads caused by burst vortices which originate from the canard and wing leading edges at high angles of attack. The sides of the top-mounted airbrake, when deflected, also shed vortices which impinge, after bursting, on

1020-548: Is a narrow direct band gap semiconductor with an energy band gap of 0.17  eV at 300  K and 0.23 eV at 80 K. Undoped InSb possesses the largest ambient-temperature electron mobility of 78000 cm /(V⋅s), electron drift velocity , and ballistic length (up to 0.7 μm at 300 K) of any known semiconductor, except for carbon nanotubes . Indium antimonide photodiode detectors are photovoltaic , generating electric current when subjected to infrared radiation. InSb's internal quantum efficiency

1088-471: Is a special tiller controlling the wheel steering and the pedals control the rudder, and a limited amount of wheel steering (usually 5 degrees of nosewheel steering). For these aircraft the pilots stop using the tiller after lining up with the runway prior to take-off, and begin using it after landing before turning off the runway, to prevent over correcting with the sensitive tiller at high speeds. The pedals may also be used for small corrections while taxiing in

1156-402: Is complex and coupled with the effect of wing sweep and flow about the fuselage. Propellers , especially when they are advancing so that their axis makes an angle to the freestream velocity , can affect the static stability of an airplane in yaw. The vertical tail affects the behavior of the aircraft in roll , since its aerodynamic center typically lies far above the center of gravity of

1224-676: Is effectively 100% but is a function of the thickness particularly for near bandedge photons. Like all narrow bandgap materials InSb detectors require periodic recalibrations, increasing the complexity of the imaging system. This added complexity is worthwhile where extreme sensitivity is required, e.g. in long-range military thermal imaging systems. InSb detectors also require cooling, as they have to operate at cryogenic temperatures (typically 80 K). Large arrays (up to 2048×2048  pixels ) are available. HgCdTe and PtSi are materials with similar use. A layer of indium antimonide sandwiched between layers of aluminium indium antimonide can act as

1292-581: Is part of the aircraft empennage , specifically of its stabilizers . The vertical tail is typically mounted on top of the rear fuselage, with the horizontal stabilizers mounted on the side of the fuselage (a configuration termed "conventional tail"). Other configurations, such as T-tail or twin tail , are sometimes used instead. Vertical stabilizers have occasionally been used in motor sports , with for example in Le Mans Prototype racing . The vertical tail of an aircraft typically consists of

1360-454: Is typically the mean aerodynamic chord ). Values for the vertical tail coefficient vary only mildly from aircraft one type of aircraft to another, with extreme values ranging from 0.02 (sailplane) to 0.09 (jet aircraft transport). The tail efficiency is the ratio of the dynamic pressure at the tail to that in the freestream. The tail has its maximum capability when immersed in the free stream with an efficiency of one. When partially immersed in

1428-563: The 2011 Formula 1 season . Indium antimonide Indium antimonide ( InSb ) is a crystalline compound made from the elements indium (In) and antimony (Sb). It is a narrow- gap semiconductor material from the III - V group used in infrared detectors , including thermal imaging cameras, FLIR systems, infrared homing missile guidance systems, and in infrared astronomy . Indium antimonide detectors are sensitive to infrared wavelengths between 1 and 5 μm. Indium antimonide

SECTION 20

#1732790562763

1496-678: The AIM-7 Sparrow , but the choice of a secondary weapon was more contentious, with arguments being made for both Red Top or the AIM-9 Sidewinder . Those favouring the Red Top, mostly within the Ministry of Defence, pointed to its much higher performance against supersonic targets, especially in frontal engagements where it could be fired at ranges over 20,000 yards (18 km) under favourable conditions. It also had roughly double

1564-625: The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk . Winglets on the canard pusher configuration Rutan VariEze and Rutan Long-EZ , acting as both a wingtip device and a vertical stabilizer. Several other derivatives of these and other similar aircraft use this design element. The top part of the vertical fin on the North American A-5 Vigilante folds to the side due to the hangar deck height restriction. Devices similar to vertical tails have been used on cars such as

1632-628: The Vought F-8 Crusader ), or folding-down wingtips (such as on the North American XB-70 Valkyrie ). If a bigger tail is not acceptable automatic rudder deflections may be used to increase the tail side force and restore directional stability. This method was used on the Avro Arrow . The vertical tail sometimes features a fillet or dorsal fin at its forward base, which helps to increase the stall angle of

1700-418: The center of pressure of the trim tab is further away from the axis of rotation of the control surface than the center of pressure of the control surface, the movement generated by the tab can match the movement generated by the control surface. The position of the control surface on its axis will change until the torque from the control surface and the trim surface balance each other. The vertical tail plays

1768-478: The 1942 Douglas DC-4 , predating the wing strakes of the fighter aircraft developed in the 1970s, such as the F-16 . The rudder and fin on a large, or fast, aircraft are each subject to a considerable force which increases with rudder deflection. An extreme case occurs with a departure from controlled flight, known as an upset, which in the context of fin and rudder is excessive sideslip. For large transport aircraft

1836-422: The 1955 Jaguar D-type or the 2013 Lamborghini Veneno . On race cars, its primary purpose is to reduce sudden high-speed yaw-induced blow-overs that would cause cars to flip due to lift when subject to extreme yaw angles during cornering or in a spin. Since 2011, the vertical stabilizer has become mandatory for all newly homologated Le Mans Prototypes . Some Formula 1 teams utilized a vertical stabilizer as

1904-753: The Blinder and a tail-chase against this plane would be difficult to perform. Blue Vesta was reactivated in July 1957 to provide an all-aspect weapon for Lightning and allow head-on attacks. For security reasons, yet another rainbow code was assigned in November 1957 and it became "Red Top". Firestreak's valve-powered electronics were replaced by transistorized versions, which were smaller and greatly improved reliability. More importantly, they no longer required active cooling, which in Firestreak had been accomplished with an aircraft-mounted system using ammonia , presenting

1972-576: The Lightning in September 1961. The Red Top entered service on both the Lightning and Sea Vixen in 1964 . It remained in service until the final retirement of the Lightning in 1988 . Unusually, the missile that the Red Top was intended to replace – Firestreak – also remained in service on the Lightning until 1988. This was because Red Top's larger wing area required the Lightning to have a larger fin to maintain stability at high speeds. Newer models of

2040-452: The Lightning were modified for Red Top, leaving Firestreak on the older models that were already in service. While the development of Red Top was being carried out, another adaptation of the original Firestreak was being considered to produce a semi-active radar homing version that would allow a single airframe to be converted from IR to radar by changing the nose section. Initially known as Blue Jay Mk. V, this became "Blue Dolphin", but this

2108-458: The Lightning, and carried a pair of Red Top missiles. Red Top testing began using the new fuselage layout with the original Firestreak faceted nosecone and leftover Magpie III motors from the Blue Vesta program. Ten such lash-ups had been fired by June 1959. Guidance tests with the new motor and seeker were carried out from an English Electric Canberra beginning in early 1960 and firing from

Red Top (missile) - Misplaced Pages Continue

2176-458: The Magpie motor was in a bottle in the centre of the missile, and its exhaust reached the rear through a long tailpipe. The warhead was wrapped around the pipe, but that left too little room for the control fin actuators, which were instead controlled from nose-mounted actuators using long pushrods. In Red Top, the smaller electronics package allowed the warhead to be moved forward, leaving room for

2244-529: The Sidewinder, at £3,500 to £3,900. Additionally, Red Top was heavier, especially if one considered the mounting system, which would reduce the loiter time of the aircraft. Although some Red Top from the Sea Vixen fleet could be salvaged, the cost of buying additional missiles to fill out the larger fleet of Phantom aircraft would cost as much as simply buying a complete set of Sidewinder. These arguments won

2312-596: The UK." Although Red Top was a relatively straightforward upgrade to Firestreak, Sandys almost cancelled it as well. He felt that Firestreak would be acceptable during the short period before the Bloodhound Mk. II SAM entered service in the early 1960s and eliminated the need for interceptor aircraft altogether. The Air Staff argued this point, ultimately convincing him that Red Top's head-on attack profile against new Soviet supersonic bombers known to be in development

2380-436: The actuating mechanism. Multi-engined aircraft, especially those with wing-mounted engines, have large powerful rudders. They are required to provide sufficient control after an engine failure on take-off at maximum weight and cross wind limit and cross-wind capability on normal take-off and landing. For taxiing and during the beginning of the take-off, aircraft are steered by a combination of rudder input as well as turning

2448-582: The aerodynamic heating issues, the fins were made of steel rather than aluminium, and featured cut-away sections to keep the rear portions of the surfaces out of the Mach cones, a feature they referred to as "mach tips". Work on Blue Vesta was curtailed after 1956 as the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) concluded that the closing speeds of two Mach 2+ aircraft would be so rapid that the missile would have no chance to be launched while it

2516-492: The aircraft. When the aircraft slips to the right, the relative wind and side force on the vertical tail translate into an anti-clockwise moment in roll. In supersonic flight, the vertical tail becomes progressively less effective with increasing Mach number until the loss of stability may no longer be acceptable. The stability is reduced because the lift, or side force, generated by the tail reduces with speed for each degree of sideslip angle (lift-curve slope). This results from

2584-471: The ammonia. For Red Top, the all-aspect lead telluride (PbTe) seeker developed for Blue Vesta was replaced by a much less expensive indium antimonide (InSb) system known as "Violet Banner". This seeker lacked the sensitivity of the PbTe model and did not offer general all-aspect capability; while it worked against supersonic targets warmed by skin friction, it would not work against subsonic targets and required

2652-439: The angles that it could be fired at. In these situations, it had roughly the same firing angles as the Sidewinder. If radar cueing was added, then it would also suffer from the same problems that Sparrow would in terms of electronic countermeasures or a radar failure on the aircraft, which was the entire argument for including a secondary IR-based weapon. That being the case, the cost of Red Top, at £18,000 had little advantage over

2720-552: The case of the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor which uses differential rudder, together with other control surface deflections, for speed control as it has no dedicated airbrake. A twin tail may be either H-tail, twin fin/rudder construction attached to a single fuselage, such as North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber or Avro Lancaster , or twin-boom where the rear airframe consists of two separate boom structures each with one single fin and rudder joined by

2788-494: The center of gravity, the more effective the vertical tail can be. Thus, shorter aircraft typically feature larger vertical tails; for example, the vertical tail of the short Airbus A318 is larger than that of its longer counterparts in the A320 family . The effectiveness of the vertical tail depends on its efficiency and the vertical tail volume coefficient (also called volume ratio ), which non-dimensionalizes its area and arm with

Red Top (missile) - Misplaced Pages Continue

2856-410: The control actuators to be mounted directly on the fins and thus removing the need for the pushrods. Moving the actuators to the rear, along with the air bottle that powered them, still took up much less room than the warhead, allowing the rocket motor to be made larger by extending it rearward. This resulted in significantly higher performance than the original design. With the warhead moved forward and

2924-480: The day and the Phantom carried Sidewinder in service. Vertical stabilizer A vertical stabilizer or tail fin is the static part of the vertical tail of an aircraft . The term is commonly applied to the assembly of both this fixed surface and one or more movable rudders hinged to it. Their role is to provide control, stability and trim in yaw (also known as directional or weathercock stability). It

2992-563: The dimensions of the main wing: V v = S v L tail-CG S w L w {\displaystyle V_{\text{v}}={\frac {S_{\text{v}}L_{\text{tail-CG}}}{S_{\text{w}}L_{\text{w}}}}} (where the indices V {\displaystyle V} and W {\displaystyle W} stand for vertical tail and wing respectively, S {\displaystyle S} stands for area, and L w {\displaystyle L_{\text{w}}}

3060-622: The engine-out case causing unacceptable trim drag. Early configurations put forward for the X-15 show a conventional fixed fin and trailing rudder, and a ventral fin. This was changed to dorsal and ventral fins each with the outer half acting as a rudder. Twin tail aircraft have two vertical stabilizers. Many modern combat aircraft use this configuration. The twin rudders may be used in the gear-down configuration for additional longitudinal control with toe-in or flare-out ( McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet ). Twin rudders are also used as an airbrake as in

3128-410: The fin. Buffeting from the extended airbrake is highest when the airbrake effective angle of attack is greatest, which for a fully-extended airbrake is greatest at low aircraft angle of attack and least when manoeuvring. The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet twin fins are subject to buffeting from the breakdown or bursting of the leading-edge extension (LEX) vortex in front of the tail. The addition of

3196-458: The guidance electronics now taking up less room, the warhead was enlarged to 31 kg (68.3 lb) from Firestreak's already prodigious 22.7 kg (50 lb). It also used an expanding-rod warhead in place of the earlier blast fragmentation type. This move also left room at the rear of the fuselage for one of the two rows of the IR proximity fuse , which were formerly positioned just in front of

3264-399: The horizontal stabilizer, if they are highly swept , can contribute significantly to the yaw stability; wings swept backwards tend to increase yaw stability.  Sweep in the wing and horizontal tail of a conventional airplane, however, does not affect airplane trim in yaw. Dihedral in the main wing and horizontal tail can also have a small effect on the static yaw stability. This effect

3332-524: The maximum engagement angle, when radar cued, which gave the interceptor improved tactical freedom on their choice of approach. In contrast, the Director of Surface and Amphibious Warfare (DSAW) noted several problems. Integrating the missile with the Phantom's radar would require modifications to the aircraft and this was ruled out for budgetary reasons. This would mean that the missile would have to be locked on using its own seeker, which would greatly limit

3400-529: The mid-mounted wings. This gave the missile an improved view of its targets. The new "Green Garland" fuse required smaller rectangular windows, compared to the Firestreak's large triangular windows, further simplifying the layout. The Red Top was much faster and had greater range and manoeuvrability than the Firestreak, and its infrared seeker enabled a wider range of engagement angles. "Unlike modern [1990s] missiles, Red Top and Firestreak could only be fired outside cloud, and in winter, skies were rarely clear over

3468-503: The motor to limit acceleration when launched from new supersonic interceptors in order to avoid overheating due to aerodynamic friction. Neither project was proceeded with. In late 1954, the Air Ministry received intelligence about new Soviet supersonic bomber designs. In January 1955 they issued Operational Requirement F.155 for a new interceptor aircraft capable of defeating these bombers, preferably at long range. Along with it

SECTION 50

#1732790562763

3536-415: The nosewheel or tailwheel. At slow speeds the nosewheel or tailwheel has the most control authority, but as the speed increases the aerodynamic effects of the rudder increases, thereby making the rudder more and more important for yaw control. In some aircraft (mainly small aircraft) both of these mechanisms are controlled by the rudder pedals so there is no difference to the pilot. In other aircraft there

3604-406: The pilot to control yaw about the vertical axis, i.e., change the horizontal direction in which the nose is pointing. Maximum rudder deflection is usually controlled by a rudder travel limiter . The largest achievable angle of a rudder at a particular flight condition is called its blowdown limit . It represents a balance between the aerodynamic forces on the rudder and the mechanical forces from

3672-486: The pilot used full rudder deflections while following in the wake of a very large jet. Clear air turbulence caused the failure of the complete fin and rudder assembly on a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress after which the pilots made a successful landing. B-52 bombers instrumented for gust and manoeuvre loads recorded gusts from clear air turbulence considerably more than the design limit with highest loads at 34,000 feet. The English Electric Lightning T4 prototype fin failure

3740-422: The same time keeping the overall height low enough so that it could fit into hangars for maintenance. A V-tail has no distinct vertical or horizontal stabilizers. Rather, they are merged into control surfaces known as ruddervators which control both pitch and yaw. The arrangement looks like the letter V, and is also known as a "butterfly tail". The Beechcraft Bonanza Model 35 uses this configuration, as does

3808-406: The setting of a trim tab adjusts the neutral or resting position of a control surface (such as an elevator or rudder). As the desired position of a control surface changes (corresponding mainly to different speeds), an adjustable trim tab will allow the operator to reduce the manual force required to maintain that position—to zero, if used correctly. Thus the trim tab acts as a servo tab . Because

3876-419: The stabilizing moment necessary for recovery comes from the fin with little requirement for rudder deflection. These aircraft do not have a requirement to withstand near-full rudder deflections in these circumstances because the structural weight required to prevent structural failure would make them commercially unviable. Loss of the complete fin and rudder assembly occurred on American Airlines Flight 587 when

3944-406: The vertical surface (resulting in vortex lift), and in this way prevent a phenomenon called rudder lock or rudder reversal. Rudder lock occurs when the force on a deflected rudder (e.g. in a steady sideslip ) suddenly reverses as the vertical tail stalls. This may leave the rudder stuck at full deflection with the pilot unable to recenter it. The dorsal fin was introduced in the 1940s, for example on

4012-505: The very different pressure distribution, with shock waves and expansion waves, compared to subsonic. To achieve the required stability at the maximum operating speed of the aircraft the vertical tail may be enlarged, such as on the North American F-100 Super Sabre (the initial fin area requirement was underestimated). Extra area may be added by installing ventral fins (such as on higher-speed, later versions of

4080-497: Was a very common detector in the old, single-detector mechanically scanned thermal imaging systems. Another application is as a terahertz radiation source as it is a strong photo-Dember emitter. The intermetallic compound was first reported by Liu and Peretti in 1951, who gave its homogeneity range, structure type, and lattice constant. Polycrystalline ingots of InSb were prepared by Heinrich Welker in 1952, although they were not very pure by today's semiconductor standards. Welker

4148-559: Was an urgent requirement. At a February 1958 meeting of the Controller of Guided Weapons and Electronics, the group earmarked Red Top for both Lightning and the Fleet Air Arm 's de Havilland Sea Vixen . It was expected that Red Top would offer a dramatic leap in performance for Sea Vixen, as its enlarged motor significantly improved its performance when launched subsonically, the relative improvement being less when launched from

SECTION 60

#1732790562763

4216-417: Was another requirement, OR.1131, for an all-aspect missile that would allow attacks from the front quarter and thus avoid having to chase the bombers as was required with the tail-aspect Blue Jay Mk. I. De Havilland responded with Blue Jay Mk. IV, which was later given its own rainbow code, "Blue Vesta". Blue Vesta adopted the PbTe seeker of Mk. II and further upgraded the motor to the new Magpie III. To handle

4284-544: Was cancelled in 1958. A longer-ranged Red Top Mk. 2 was also proposed, replacing the Linnet rocket with a liquid fuel rocket running on MADI/RFNA, likely the de Havilland Spartan. When plans began to introduce the McDonnell Douglas Phantom in UK service , the issue was raised about the inclusion of Red Top on that platform. It was agreed from the start that the primary weapon for this platform would be

4352-507: Was caused by inertial roll coupling while doing high-rate rolls. The fin was enlarged, strengthened and roll-rate limitations were imposed. However, the first T5 also had a fin failure while doing rapid rolling trials with rocket pack extended. A Lightning lost its fin due to interaction between aircraft in close proximity at low level when flying in formation at M 0.97, an aerobatic display routine. Limitations were imposed including separation between aircraft when in formation. Fin buffeting

4420-564: Was interested in systematically studying the semiconducting properties of the III-V compounds. He noted how InSb appeared to have a small direct band gap and a very high electron mobility. InSb crystals have been grown by slow cooling from liquid melt at least since 1954. In 2018, a research team at Delft University of Technology claimed that indium antimonide nanowires showed potential application in creating Majorana zero mode quasiparticles for use in quantum computing ; Microsoft opened

4488-702: Was originally intended to replace Firestreak outright, but carrying the missiles on the Lightning required additional area to be added to the Lightning's vertical stabilizer for stability at high speed. For this reason, Firestreak continued to be used on older models of the Lightning. Both missiles passed out of service in 1988 when the last of the Lightnings retired. Even before the original Firestreak entered service, improvements were being studied to increase its performance. Still known by its rainbow code "Blue Jay", Blue Jay Mk. II introduced an improved seeker and more powerful motor known as Magpie II. Mk. III derated

4556-439: Was still within the range of its seeker. They suggested moving to the much larger radar -guided Red Hebe , although some low-level work on Blue Vesta's underlying technologies continued. F.155 was canceled in the aftermath of the release of the 1957 Defence White Paper , as Duncan Sandys noted that it would not be in service before new Soviet ballistic missiles had rendered the need for crewed interceptors moot. This argument

4624-598: Was successfully countered by the Air Ministry , which pointed out that the Tupolev Tu-22 "Blinder" would be in service in 1962 resulting in a several-year gap where the RAF had no effective response. It was decided to proceed with the development of the English Electric Lightning largely because it was already close to being complete. But even its Mach 2 speed would offer marginal performance over

#762237