Misplaced Pages

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72-516: Thunderbird had performance similar to other semi-portable missiles like the US MIM-23 Hawk and fully mobile Soviet 2K11 Krug , although it pre-dates both of these systems. After its mid-life upgrades, which shared several components with the RAF's Bristol Bloodhound , Thunderbird featured a continuous-wave radar semi-active homing system that was highly resistant to radar jamming and deception , and

144-582: A Ferranti developed tactical control radar and the RRDE's "Yellow River" fire control radar built by British Thomson-Houston . In 1952 the projects were split, with Bristol's effort becoming "Red Duster" and English Electric's becoming "Red Shoes". These would fill the Stage 1 requirement, along with existing early warning radars and the Gloster Javelin interceptor aircraft . The original Red Heathen concept for

216-517: A 890 kW (1,200 bhp) gas turbine for the Auris , the first commercial ship to use gas-turbine propulsion. In 1955 BTH supplied 18 New Zealand DSC class locomotive Rolls-Royce powered locomotives for New Zealand Railways . The Ediswan trademark appeared on semiconductors in 1956 and the following year British Rail Class 15 diesel-electric locomotives were designed by BTH. To try to cure internal political and efficiency problems, AEI stopped using

288-550: A Pulse Repetition Frequency of 800 and 667 Hz alternately. The radar operates in the 1.25 to 1.35 GHz range. The antenna is a 22.0 ft × 4.6 ft (6.7 m × 1.4 m) elliptical reflector of open lattice construction, mounted on a small two-wheeled trailer. Rotation rate is 20 rpm, the BCC – Battery Control Central and the CWAR are synchronized by the PAR revolutions and

360-523: A consolidated research effort at Aldermaston in Berkshire, England. The research centre was based at Aldermaston Court , a large stately home owned by AEI that had been requisitioned for military use in the war era. One of the BTH-built batch of New Zealand Railways DSC class Bo-Bo shunters has been preserved and is used in industrial service, complete with original Rolls-Royce engines. The locomotive (DSC406)

432-463: A contract for electrical lighting for the east end of London. In 1894 Laing, Wharton and Down purchased patents and exclusive production rights from the American company, now known as General Electric after Thomson-Houston merged with Edison General Electric Company in 1892. At this stage Laing, Wharton and Down was renamed as British Thomson-Houston and General Electric became the majority owner of

504-420: A dual thrust motor, with a boost phase and a sustain phase. The MIM-23A missiles were fitted with an M22E8 motor which burns for 25 to 32 seconds. The MIM-23B and later missiles are fitted with an M112 motor with a 5-second boost phase and a sustain phase of around 21 seconds. The M112 motor has greater thrust, thus increasing the engagement envelope. The original MIM-23A missiles used a parabolic reflector, but

576-462: A much larger 70 degree arc. The missile's M112 rocket motor has a boost phase of 5 seconds and a sustain phase of 21 seconds. The motor's total weight is 871 lb (395 kg) including 650 lb (295 kg) of propellant. This new motor improves the engagement envelope to 0.93 to 24.85 mi (1.5 to 40 km) in range at high altitude, and 1.6 to 12.4 mi (2.5 to 20 km) at low altitude. The minimum engagement altitude

648-409: A much longer-ranged weapon became " Green Sparkler " and then " Blue Envoy ", and relegated to Stage 2 deployment in the 1960s along with newer radars and interceptor aircraft. EE's design quickly developed into a fairly simple cylindrical fuselage with an ogive nose cone, four cropped-delta wings just behind the middle point of the fuselage, and four smaller control surfaces at the rear, in-line with

720-635: A panel known as the GAP Committee formed within the MoS to consider this and similar designs from the Army. The group was reformed several times, growing each time as the topic grew more important. From their work the LOPGAP experimental design emerged, short for "Liquid Oxygen and Petrol Guided Anti-aircraft Projectile". Armstrong Whitworth won a contract to develop its liquid-fueled rocket engine. The Navy's initial design

792-460: A power rating of 200 W and a frequency of 10 GHz ( X-Band ) Built by Raytheon. Replaced by MPQ-48. The Improved Hawk version of the CW acquisition radar doubled the output power and improved the detection ranges: Hawk Improved Continuous Wave Acquisition Radar or ICWAR. The output power is doubled to 400 W, this increases the detection range to around 43 mi (70 km). The radar operates in

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864-457: A re-evaluation of the Red Heathen concept. The MoS re-evaluated the missile program and split it into two "Stages". Red Heathen re-emerged in 1949 as a semi-active radar homing system with the same required range as Seaslug. Bristol's ramjet-powered Seaslug design was redirected to this new requirement instead of Navy use. A single set of radars would be used with both designs, this consisted of

936-559: A small flat surface at the end of every fin. This surface provided an outward drag component that help pull the booster away from the main body when released, helped by the booster's asymmetrical nose cone. Guidance was via semi-active radar homing , the Ferranti Type 83 " Yellow River " pulsed radar serving both as an acquisition and illumination system. The same radar was used with the competing Red Duster. The test programme used development vehicles D1 to D4. D1 and D2 established some of

1008-571: Is 200 ft (60 m). The missile was operational in 1971. All US units had converted to this standard by 1978. The Hawk and Improved Hawk structure was integrated into one system— AN/TSQ-73 air defense missile control and coordination system, called Missile Minder or Hawk-MM . It consists of the following components: MPQ-50 Pulse Acquisition Radar, MPQ-48 Improved Continuous Wave Acquisition Radar, TSW-8 Battery Control Central, ICC Information Coordination Central, MSW-11 Platoon Command Post, MPQ-46 High Power Illuminator, MPQ-51 Range Only Radar and

1080-585: Is the primary motive power at Alliance Ltd, Pukeuri , New Zealand. All the others were scrapped between 1986 and 1990. Metro-Cammell-BTH diesel electric locomotive 4102 has been preserved in New South Wales, Australia. Another BTH diesel locomotive is preserved in the UK This locomotive was purchased from Ford Dagenham by AEI and presented to the Kent and East Sussex Railway for preservation. See Rolling stock of

1152-576: The Bloodhound which became much larger as it was upgraded. The improved missile was known in service as Thunderbird 2. They entered service in 1966 and were removed in 1977. Negotiations were also held with Libya and Zambia . Thunderbird remains a popular museum item in the UK. One of the missiles is now displayed outside the Midland Air Museum , Warwickshire , England. There is also one on display at

1224-615: The Chatham and District Light Railways Company in June 1902. In 1903 BTH was contracted to supply the electrical equipment for the Tyneside Electrics railway network in Newcastle upon Tyne . In 1907 BTH started a joint venture with Wolseley Motors to make petrol-electric buses and in 1909 the company supplied major coal-fired steam generators to London to power an electric trolley system that

1296-599: The MIM-14 Nike Hercules , trading off range and altitude capability for a much smaller size and weight. Its low-level performance was greatly improved over Nike through the adoption of new radars and a continuous wave semi-active radar homing guidance system. It entered service with the US Army in 1959. In 1971 it underwent a major improvement program as the Improved Hawk , or I-Hawk , which made several improvements to

1368-524: The Territorial Army (United Kingdom) 457th (Wessex) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery also used Thunderbird. It was the first British-designed and produced missile to go into service with the British Army. While development of the Stage 1 missiles was still ongoing, work on the Stage 2 systems was proving to be too far in advance of the state of the art to realistically enter service while

1440-552: The Thomson-Houston Electric Company , it soon became a manufacturer using licences from the American company. They were known primarily for their electrical systems and steam turbines . BTH merged with the Metropolitan-Vickers company in 1928 to form Associated Electrical Industries (AEI), but the two brand identities were maintained until 1960. The holding company, AEI, was bought by GEC in 1967. In

1512-460: The 10–20 GHz ( J band ). Other features include FM ranging and BITE (Built in test equipment). Frequency modulation is applied to the broadcast on alternate scans of the ICWAR to obtain range information. Some changes to the signal processing allow the radar to determine the targets' range and speed in a single scan. A digital DSP system is added which allows a lot of the processing work to be done on

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1584-787: The 1947 reorganisation of British missile projects. At the time there was a wide variety of concepts under study among various groups in the British Army , Royal Navy and Royal Air Force . All of these were handed to the Ministry of Supply (MoS) with the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) providing technical direction. Among the projects inherited by the RAE was a 1943 Navy effort to develop surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) to shoot down aircraft carrying glide bombs and anti-shipping missiles before they could reach firing range. In March 1944,

1656-445: The 1960s AEI's apprenticeships were highly thought-of, both by the apprentices themselves and by their future employers, because they gave the participants valuable experience in the design, production and overall industrial management of a very wide range of electrical products. Over a hundred of the apprentices - who came to Rugby from all over the UK, and a few from abroad - lodged in the nearby Apprentices' Hostel at Coton House which

1728-481: The 1980s GEC Rugby shrank and buildings were demolished. The south part of the area to the west of the Black Path became a supermarket site. The Boughton Road site became several separate small firms. In 1989 GEC Rugby split into GEC Alsthom and Cegelec Projects , which were reunited in 1998 as Alstom . The firm's clubhouse on Hillmorton Road was demolished in 2007, and the south edge of its surrounding sports field

1800-769: The Automatic Data Processor (ADP) in the Information Coordination Centre (ICC) to the IBCC or the Improved Platoon Command Post (IPCP) for up to three launchers. The HPIR J-band energy reflected from the target is also received by the Hawk missile. British Thomson-Houston British Thomson-Houston ( BTH ) was a British engineering and heavy industrial company, based at Rugby, Warwickshire , England. Originally founded to sell products from

1872-607: The BTH and Metrovick names on 1 January 1960. This led to a huge decline in sales because no-one had heard of "AEI" before, and in turn, a massive drop in AEI's stock price. Continued attempts to streamline what was two separate management structures continued to fail, and by the mid-60s the entire AEI group was in financial trouble. The AEI name was first used on products in 1961. By 1967 AEI brands included Siemens Edison Swan, Hotpoint , Birlec and W.T. Henley . The AEI research lab (building BR57)

1944-552: The Doppler frequency resolution. A typical Basic Hawk battery consists of: A typical Phase-III Hawk battery consists of: The Hawk missile has a slender cylindrical body and four long chord clipped delta-wings, extending from mid-body to the slightly tapered boat-tail. Each wing has a trailing-edge control surface. In the 1970s, NASA used surplus Hawk missiles to create the Nike Hawk sounding rocket . The original missile used with

2016-760: The Finnish missiles survive, one missile is located in Museo Militaria, Hämeenlinna, another in the Anti-aircraft Museum, Tuusula. A Thunderbird is displayed in Woomera township of the Woomera Rocket Range , South Australia. MIM-23 Hawk The Raytheon MIM-23 HAWK ("Homing All the Way Killer") is an American medium-range surface-to-air missile . It was designed to be a much more mobile counterpart to

2088-562: The Hawk system. MPQ-64 Sentinel provides coverage out to a range of 47 mi (75 km), rotating at 30 rpm. The system has a mean time between failure of around 600 hours, and can track at least 60 targets at once. It can elevate up to +55 degrees and depress to −10 degrees. This X Band Continuous wave system is used to detect targets. The unit comes mounted on its own mobile trailer. The unit acquires targets through 360 degrees of azimuth while providing target radial speed and raw range data. MPQ-34 Hawk CW Acquisition radar with

2160-565: The I-Hawks 2 gram (30 grain) fragments. MIM-23K Hawk missiles are effective up to 66,000 ft (20,000 m) altitude and up to 28 mi (45 km) in range. The missile also includes a new fuze to make it effective against ballistic missiles. New fuzing + old warhead Retains the I-Hawks 30 grain warhead, but with the new fuze. The original Hawk system used 4 or in some models 6 radars : to detect (PAR and CWAR), to track (CWAR and HPIR) and to engage (HPIR and ROR) targets. As

2232-622: The Iran-Iraq War. Low-level/multi-jamming An upgraded to the MIM-23C/D missiles improved guidance for low-level engagements in a high-clutter/multi-jamming environment. Introduced in 1990. New body section A 1995 upgrade consisting of a new body section assembly for the MIM-23E/F missiles. New warhead + fuzing (anti-TBM) Introduced around 1994. Enhanced lethality configuration warhead with 35 gram (540 grain) fragments instead of

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2304-614: The Lutterworth Power Jets work was nationalised. After World War II Oliver Lyttelton took over as chairman of AEI, and started a massive expansion. He returned as chairman between 1954 and 1963 and oversaw the opening of a massive new £8 million turbine works was opened at Larne in 1957. In 1955 AEI acquired Siemens Brothers , which was merged with Edison Swan in 1957 to form the Siemens Edison Swan subsidiary. Rivalry with Metrovick intensified, particularly after BTH won

2376-569: The M192 Launcher. Introduced around 1982 with improved ECCM capabilities. Unknown upgrade to the MIM-23C. The C and D missile families remained separate until the missiles' exit from service. It is not clear exactly what the difference between the two missiles - however it seems likely that the D family missiles represent an alternative guidance system, possibly home on jam developed in response to Soviet ECM techniques that were used by Iraq during

2448-524: The PAR system trigger. Introduced with the I-Hawk system, the improved-PAR. The system introduces a digital MTI (Moving Target Indicator) that helps separate targets from ground clutter. It operates in the 500 to 1,000 MHz ( C-band ) frequency range with radar pulse power of 450 kW. A X-Band 3D range-gated doppler radar system used with the Hawk XXI system. It replaces both the CWAR and PAR components of

2520-416: The RAE. The RAE was interested in seeing ramjet technology applied to this role, and asked de Havilland to submit an entry for Seaslug as well. They were too busy working with Red Hawk , so the contract was offered to Bristol Aerospace instead. The GAP committee also considered the needs of the Army and Air Force, based on the same technology but aimed at higher performance aircraft and longer ranges on

2592-509: The Red Duster and Red Shoes were still useful. In the meantime, advances in radar technology were proceeding rapidly, so it was decided to produce interim designs using new continuous wave radars which would dramatically improve the performance of the existing missiles. In the case of the Thunderbird, the "Stage 1½" design was known as "Green Flax", and after some paperwork with that name on it

2664-623: The Red Shoes was underway, the "competition" in the form of Red Duster was also entering testing. Red Duster demonstrated several serious problems, and the Army ended any interest in it. In the end the Red Duster problems were sorted out fairly quickly, and it entered service slightly before Red Shoes, as the Bristol Bloodhound Mk. I. The production Red Shoes missile was officially named Thunderbird. It entered service in 1959 and equipped 36 and 37 Heavy Air Defence Regiments, Royal Artillery. In

2736-766: The Royal School of Artillery in Larkhill. A Thunderbird Mk1 is also on display at the National Museum of Flight located at East Fortune, just outside Edinburgh, Scotland. A Thunderbird is also stationed outside the Combined Services Military Museum at Maldon in Essex. A Thunderbird nose cone and parts of main body on display at Predannack Anti-Aircraft Battery and museum, Cornwall, UK A Thunderbird without launch pad can be seen at Capel Military Show, Surrey UK Two of

2808-462: The UK's largest electrical group. A year later GEC acquired English Electric , prompting a series of mergers and reorganisations. GEC-AEI Electronics (Blackbird Road and New Parks, Leicester) was merged with Marconi's Radar Division (Chelmsford) and Elliott's Aerospace Control Division to form Marconi Radar Systems Ltd. (MRSL) in 1969. In 1980 GEC Turbine Generators Ltd received The Queen's Award for Enterprise: International Trade (Export) . During

2880-674: The XSAM-A-18 happened in June 1956. By July 1957 development was completed, by which time the designation had changed to XM3 and XM3E1. Very early missiles used the Aerojet M22E7 which was not reliable. The problems were resolved with the adoption of the M22E8 engine. The missile was initially deployed by the US Army in 1959, and by the US Marine Corps in 1960. The high complexity of the system, and

2952-399: The antenna directional focus was insufficient, when engaging low-flying targets the missile would dive on them, only to lose them in the ground clutter. The MIM-23B I-Hawk missiles and later uses a low side lobe, high-gain plane antenna to reduce sensitivity to ground clutter in addition to an inverted receiver developed in the late 1960s to give the missile enhanced ECCM ability and to increase

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3024-411: The basic configuration issues, whilst D3 and D4 were used to test the aerodynamics of the design. The Army rejected the idea of using a liquid fuel rocket because of the difficulty in handling the highly reactive fuel in the field, so a solid rocket sustainer had to be chosen instead. Several different models of sustainer were tried, most of them known as the "Luton Test Vehicle", or LTV. While testing of

3096-472: The basic missile were undertaken as well. Although the size remained the same, the new version featured much larger boosters, larger mid-mounted wings with sweep on the front and back, and a new nose cone with a much higher fineness ratio . The boosters lost their asymmetrical nose cones, but the surfaces on the end of their fins grew much larger. Overall the missile still looked much like the Mk. I version, as opposed to

3168-614: The company. Once BTH had the production licences for Thomson-Houston's products it started setting up factories in the English Midlands , with Rugby, Warwickshire chosen as the main location due to its good accessibility by rail and a local coal supply. In 1900 BTH bought Glebe Farm on the west side of Mill Road north of the railway in Rugby for £10,000, from Thos. Hunter & Co., to build their factory on it. The Mill Road factory opened in 1902 and made electric motors and generators . In

3240-414: The contract to build the new Buenos Aires Central Costanera S.A. power station, valued at £35 million, in 1957. Lyttelton continued to try to reduce this friction, leading to several unsuccessful reorganisations and slipping profits. The postwar period saw continued development at BTH. The Hungarian scientist Dennis Gabor invented holography at the BTH site in Rugby in 1947, and in 1951 BTH supplied

3312-485: The following year. In 1927 BTH sold the Chatham and District Light Railways Company to Maidstone and District Motor Services Ltd. Throughout the 1920s BTH made turbo generators and motors for ocean liners including RMS  Mooltan , RMS  Viceroy of India , RMS  Strathnaver and RMS  Strathaird . The BTH factory in Northern Ireland made the turbo generator and propulsion motor for one of

3384-585: The footpath that runs north through the AEI site in Rugby to the Leicester Road, known in the area as the Black Path because it was surfaced with cinders, clinker and bitumen . During World War II BTH expanded north of the River Avon into the Boughton Road site to make magnetos for aircraft engines and other war products. BTH had a major role in developing the world's first prototype jet engine , which

3456-406: The mid-mounted wings. The fuselage had a slight boat-tail narrowing at the extreme rear under the control surfaces. The sustainer was to be a liquid fuel rocket developed for the missile, and was launched by four large "Gosling" solid fuel rocket boosters lying between the control surfaces and wings. The boosters featured a single oversized fin of their own, and are particularly easy to spot due to

3528-405: The missile and replaced all of the radar systems with new models. Improvements continued throughout the next twenty years, adding improved ECCM , a potential home-on-jam feature, and in 1995, a new warhead that made it capable against short-range tactical ballistic missiles . Jane's reported that the original system's single shot kill probability was 0.56; I-Hawk improved this to 0.85. Hawk

3600-485: The missiles were produced. Development of the Hawk missile system began in 1952, when the United States Army began studies into a medium-range semi-active radar homing surface-to-air missile . In July 1954 development contracts were awarded to Northrop for the launcher, radars and fire control systems, while Raytheon was awarded the contract for the missile. The first test launch of the missile then designated

3672-517: The new Radar, AD, No 11 (tactical control, usually called ' Big Ears ') and Radar, AD, No 12 (height finder, usually called ' Noddy ') radar, giving them a longer range surveillance system. These radars were also known to Marconi as the S303 and S404, or to the RAF as AMES Type 88 and Type 89. After leaving Army service in 1977 they were turned over to the RAF who used them for tactical control. Several changes to

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3744-414: The numerous items of ground equipment. Hawk Missile Restore Reliability (MRR) Hawk ECCM Low clutter enhancements Hawk missile ILM (Improved Lethality Modification) Hawk mobility and TMD upgrades Phase IV Hawk XXI (Hawk 21) The Hawk system consists of a large number of component elements. These elements were typically fitted on wheeled trailers making the system semi-mobile. During

3816-546: The order of 100,000 yards (57 miles). As a new project, it was assigned a name under the newly-introduced MoS rainbow code , "Red Heathen". English Electric won the development contract. Due to the way radar signals spread out in space with increasing range, beam riding is only useful at shorter ranges, and a paper produced by the RAE suggested that there was no way Red Heathen's accuracy requirements could be met with existing radars. This meant new Gun Laying radars would have to be developed for this role, and that, in turn, led to

3888-421: The quality of tube -based electronics, gave the radars in the early Hawk systems a mean time between failures (MTBF) of only 43 hours. The improved Hawk system increased this to between 130 and 170 hours. Later Hawk versions improved this further to between 300 and 400 hours. Improved Hawk or I-Hawk The original Hawk system had problems engaging targets at low altitude—the missile would have problems picking

3960-473: The radar directly and forwarded directly via a serial digital link to the PCP/BCP. The early AN/MPQ-46 High Power Illuminator (HPIR) radars had only the two large dish-type antennas side by side, one to transmit and one to receive. The HPIR automatically acquires and tracks designated targets in azimuth, elevation and range. It also serves as an interface unit supplying azimuth and elevation launch angles computed by

4032-588: The same company's battles in the US between their parents, General Electric and Westinghouse . The Power Act 1900 let BTH and British Westinghouse get new contracts to supply electric power to large areas. As well as manufacturing, BTH also began to move into transport. On 22 December 1898 BTH opened the Cork Electric Tramways and Lighting Company , followed by the Isle of Thanet Electric Tramways on 4 April 1901 and

4104-538: The same year BTH obtained a licence to produce the Curtis steam turbine , which became one of the company's major products. In 1905 BTH made its first turbo-alternator and in 1911 got licences for all of General Electric's drawn-wire light bulbs , which it produced under the Mazda trademark . For much of the late 19th century BTH competed for electrical generation and distribution contracts with British Westinghouse , mirroring

4176-406: The system was upgraded the functionality of some of the radars was merged. The final iteration of the system consists of only 2 radars, an enhanced phased array search radar and an engagement radar (HPIR). The pulse acquisition radar is a long-range, high-altitude search radar. The search radar used with the basic Hawk system, with a radar pulse power of 450 kW and a pulse length of 3 μs,

4248-556: The system's 40-year life span, these components were continually upgraded. The Hawk missile is transported and launched from the M192 towed triple-missile launcher. A self-propelled Hawk launcher, the SP-Hawk, was fielded in 1969, which simply mounted the launcher on a tracked M727 (modified M548 ), however the project was dropped and all activity terminated in August 1971. The missile is propelled by

4320-436: The system. The 119 lb (54 kg) warhead produces approximately 4,000 8-gram (0.28 oz) fragments that move at approximately 4,500 mph (2,000 m/s) in an 18 degree arc. The MIM-23B has a larger 163 lb (74 kg) blast-fragmentation warhead, a smaller and improved guidance package, and a new M112 rocket motor. The new warhead produces approximately 14,000 2-gram (0.071 oz) fragments that cover

4392-505: The target out against ground clutter. The US Army began a program to address these issues in 1964 via the Hawk Improvement Program (Hawk/HIP). This involved numerous upgrades to the Hawk system: The system entered service during 1972, the first unit reaching operational status by October. All US units were upgraded to I-Hawk standard by 1978. Product Improvement Plan In 1973 the US Army started an extensive multi-phase Hawk PIP (Product Improvement Plan), mainly intended to improve and upgrade

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4464-401: The world's first turbo-electric merchant ships, the banana boat SS San Benito , in 1921. This was followed by turbo generators and propulsion motors for the banana boats SS  Musa , SS  Platano and SS  Darien . The site at Rugby was also developed. Building 52, the research laboratory, was purpose-built in 1924. In the late 1920s AEI started to build buildings west of

4536-449: Was able to track targets even at very low altitudes. Thunderbird was the Army's only heavy anti-aircraft missile. As missile systems like Thunderbird made flight at medium and higher altitudes practically suicidal, nap-of-the-earth flying became the norm and even shorter-range, faster acting systems were needed. Thunderbird's role was taken over by the much smaller Rapier missile as it became available. Thunderbird traces its history to

4608-634: Was being set up. During World War I BTH expanded into naval electrical equipment, supplying the Royal Navy with various lighting, radio and signalling gear. After the war BTH expanded dramatically, adding or expanding factories at Willesden , Birmingham , Chesterfield , and Lutterworth . It later had factories in Coventry , and in Larne in Northern Ireland . From 1924 to 1927 Demetrius Comino worked as an apprentice for BTH. In 1926 Gerard Swope, president of General Electric , proposed that BTH, Westinghouse, General Electric Company (GEC) and English Electric should amalgamate. Lord Hirst of GEC

4680-526: Was built by Frank Whittle 's Power Jets company at the BTH works in Rugby in 1937. Development was later moved to the Lutterworth works, which were falling into disuse at the time. BTH's directors seemed sceptical of the design and offered little help, and in 1940 decided they were not really interested in making jet engines due to their commitment to electrical equipment. Rover was soon selected to make jet engines, but exchanged jet engine production with Rolls-Royce for making tank engines in 1943. In 1944

4752-444: Was built in 1960 at the Boughton Road site. At this point the size of the Rugby site peaked, with all of the company's land west of the Black Path built over. Britain's first commercial nuclear power facility was built between 1956 and 1962 at Berkeley . This was followed by the building and commissioning of the 25 m Chilbolton radar dish at Chilbolton Observatory between 1963 and 1967. In 1967 GEC bought AEI outright and became

4824-638: Was encroached along for house building. By 2011 the Mill Road factory site was greatly changed and included Rugby College . Quartzelec, and Converteam worked on electrical engineering projects in some of the early BTH buildings, notably buildings 4, 193 and 140. A public road was built through the site between its former east and west gates. In 2012 Converteam was bought out by General Electric , therefore coming full circle back to when they were partnered in AEI. Converteam (now GE) produced rotating machines and used former-BTH equipment (machines) for running tests. During post-World War II Britain, AEI established

4896-407: Was lost and assumed compromised, "Yellow Temple". It utilised the new Type 86 "Indigo Corkscrew" radar. In service it was known as Radar, AD, No 10 (fire control). The new radar greatly improved performance against low-level targets, as well as providing considerably better performance against electronic countermeasures . To support Thunderbird operations in the field the regiments were equipped with

4968-409: Was not interested in Swope's scheme, but a new holding company was formed, Associated Electrical Industries (AEI), and in 1928 AEI bought BTH and Metropolitan-Vickers (Metrovick). BTH had been in the process of buying Edison Swan (Ediswan) and Ferguson, Pailin & Co , with AEI completing the purchases in 1929. Howard C. Levis, chairman of BTH from 1916, became chairman of AEI in 1928, retiring

5040-431: Was reformulated several times as the threat evolved from propeller-driven medium bombers to jet-powered strike aircraft , but remained largely the same in terms of performance; it called for a missile using beam riding guidance on the Navy's Type 909 radar with range on the order of 30,000–60,000 yards (17–34 miles) and capability against subsonic aircraft. This was renamed Seaslug in 1947, shortly before being moved to

5112-421: Was superseded by the MIM-104 Patriot in US Army service by 1994. The last US user was the US Marine Corps , who used theirs until 2002 when they were replaced with the man-portable short-range FIM-92 Stinger . The missile was also produced outside the US in Western Europe , Japan and Iran . The US never used the Hawk in combat, but it has been employed numerous times by other nations. Approximately 40,000 of

5184-404: Was uphill from Rugby on the road to Lutterworth and Leicester. Each year in Rugby there was a big parade of floats run by the apprentices. In 1980, G.E.C. Turbine Generators Ltd, on the Rugby site, was awarded a Queen's Awards for Enterprise . The company Laing, Wharton and Down was formed in 1886 to sell products from the Thomson-Houston Electric Company . Laing, Wharton and Down soon won

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