Rockets

Being in Woomera (and being fascinated by rockets and aircraft) I feel obligated to mention some of the technology developed here. The Woomera range was originally established as a joint project between the UK and Australia for the development of rockets after WWII. The types of rockets being researched and developed included ICBMs, antiaircraft missiles, satellite launch vehicles, sounding rockets (for atmospheric research) and antitank weapons. In addition, several atomic bomb tests were conducted in the 1950s and there were a variety of radar tracking sites for space/satellite/defense purposes.

The Skylark sounding rocket was used for many experiments related to atmospheric research and astronomy. It could lift a 200kg payload to an altitude of roughly 200km. Over 400 of them were launched worldwide from 1957 to 2000. The one pictured here has a an optional second stage on the bottom that added 4 seconds of burn time and an additional 90km of altitude. Multiple experiments were typically fitted into the nose cone.

The Black Knight Rocket was originally designed as a test vehicle for studying designs and materials for reentry. Originally it was intended to help with the development of the Blue Streak rocket but this program ended up getting cancelled. Later flights were done in conjunction with the US for studies needed for its manned space flight program. The initial rockets would reach altitudes of 800km and then fall back into the atmosphere reaching velocities above 3km/s. Later versions used a second stage rocket that fired after the rocket was falling back to earth and further increased the downward velocity to 5km/s.

The flights were done at night so the reentry could be seen optically. I found the following image of a Black Knight reentry. (stolen from http://www.spaceuk.org/bk/bk_pics/5.htm) The reentry head is the longer streak.

One of the most iconic vehicles here is the Jindivik target drone (aboriginal for "The Hunted One"). It was developed by Australia for the testing of antiaircraft missiles. It took off on a wheeled trolley. Once it gained sufficient airspeed, the Jindivik detached from the trolley which stayed on the ground. It took 5 people to remotely pilot the vehicle. Generally, the Jindivick tows a target (eg a flare) behind it for missile tests, though sometimes it was used as the primary target. It had no wheels and landed by sliding on its underside.

An image of one taking off:

Additionally, old fighters (like the Meteor below) and bombers were modified to be unmanned target drones as well.

Starting in the 50s, a lot of testing was done on anti-aircraft missiles. An example of this is the Thunderbolt missile pictured below. The 4 yellow rockets were additional boosters that detached shortly into flight. The missile used semi-active radar to find its target. A ground based radar was required to illuminate the target aircraft. The missile detected the radar reflection off the target and homed in on it.

Video of a Thunderbird test.

Finally, here is a piece of equipment used for the testing. A kinetheodolite. It was used to record the flight of the object under test (eg bomb or rocket). It took two operators to keep the camera on the target: one kept it aligned in azimuth and one in elevation. It's camera took images of the target and annotated them with the current azimuth and elevation of the pedestal.

Example image from a kinetheodolite (from the book Fire Across the Desert - Peter Morton). People would have to analyze each frame of data, recording the azimuth and elevation of the target and adding a correction if the target was not correctly centered in the crosshairs.