Fireflash

Fireflash was the United Kingdom's first air-to-air guided missile to see service with the Royal Air Force. It was briefly deployed during the 1950's. Constructed by Fairey Aviation, the missile utilised radar beam-riding guidance.

Development
Produced in response to a Ministry of Supply requirement for a guided air-to-air missile. The project began in 1949 under the name Blue Sky. It was initially developed under the designation Pink Hawk. Blue Sky itself was a de-rated version of the Red Hawk missile.

About 300 missiles had been produced by 1955, but the Royal Air Force soon decided not to retain it in the inventory. Many of the 300 missiles were expended in testing by 6 JSTU at RAF Valley and Woomera, South Australia from 1955–1957 using Meteor NF11 trials aircraft and subsequently by the Supermarine Swift fighters of No. 1 Guided Weapons Development Squadron at RAF Valley. The Fireflash was deployed on a very limited scale by the RAF in August 1957, and "had a limited capability against piston-engine bombers." The RAF deployed the later and more effective de Havilland Firestreak infra-red missile from August 1958.

Description
Fireflash was a beam-riding missile that relied on radar command guidance from the launch aircraft. It had a very unusual configuration: the missile was propelled by a pair of rocket boosters on the forward fuselage. These were jettisoned 1.5 seconds after launch. At separation, the missile would be travelling at around Mach 2, it then coasted the remaining distance to its target.

This configuration drastically limited both range and flight duration, but was used because of fears that ionised particles from a rocket motor would interfere with the guidance radar signals; further development showed the fears were unfounded.

Steering was accomplished by four rudders in a cruciform configuration. These were moved by four pairs of pneumatic servos, operated by solenoid valves. An air bottle, pressurized to 3000 psi, supplied air for the servos and also supplied the air that spun the three, air-blown gyroscopes in the missile's Inertial navigation system. The purpose of the control system was to keep the missile centred in the radar guidance beam emitted by the launch aircraft. The pilot of the aircraft would keep the beam aligned with the target using his gun–sight, which was harmonized with the axis of the radar beam. An advantage of this system was that it would be unaffected by the target aircraft using radar countermeasures such as chaff. The missile's receiver, fitted at the rear, only detected signals from the launch aircraft.

Operators

 * Royal Air Force
 * Royal Air Force

Survivors
A Fireflash is part of the collection of the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford.