Saunders Roe Black Knight

Black Knight was developed from nothing to its full stature for approximately £5,000,000. A printers error in an early report caused that figure to appear as £50,000,000, and I understand it was stated in America that if Black Knight proved itself to be successful and had cost no more than the £50,000,000 quoted, Britain had bought itself a bargain.

Ivan Southall from his book Woomera, 1962

A Black Knight launch from Woomera

In 1953 Britain began the development of Blue Streak, its ballistic missile. Before the missile came into service in 1961, it was decided that a smaller rocket would be built, in order to study re-entry for warhead design, test equipment for Blue Streak, and give Britain some experience of using rockets. This test rocket was given the name Black Knight.

Black Knight was developed at a cost of £5 Million by Saunders-Roe, Bristol Siddeley Engines, the Royal Aircraft Establishment, and the Rocket Propulsion Establishment. The first flight was scheduled for 1958. The rocket was to be powered by a fuel of High Test Peroxide and Kerosene a fuel previously used in the German Me 163 Rocket interceptor of World War II. All British rockets used this fuel, apart from Blue Streak, which was based on American technology. Black Knight was constructed in sections to allow it to be assembled and dissembled quickly, a feature necessary because the rockets had to be shipped to Woomera, Australia, for launching.

On 7 September 1958, Black Knight 01 took off from Woomera and achieved a World Altitude Record (for the time) of 564 Km. This is particularly impressive when it is considered that Explorer I and Sputnik, the American and Soviet satellites, had already been launched. A further twenty-two flights would take place by 1965. A two-stage version of Black Knight was developed with the second stage pointing downwards, in order to boost re-entry speeds to 10,000 m.p.h., but further improvements to the system were cancelled in 1964.

In 1960 the Blue Streak missile was cancelled, and there seemed no future for Black Knight. However, the rocket had been so successful, and was so cost effective, (each rocket cost just £41,000) that it was decided to let Black Knight continue as a scientific rocket for investigating re-entry and the upper atmosphere. The success of Black Knight also meant that it was decided to develop the rocket further into a satellite launcher. This effort was to become Black Arrow. The Black Knight project came to an end in 1965, but the Black Knight-derived Black Arrow became the rocket which launched the first British satellite in 1971.

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