SUCCESSFUL TRIAL OF PILOTLESS MISSILE IN ENGLAND

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 April 1947, Page 7

SUCCESSFUL TRIAL OF PILOTLESS MISSILE IN ENGLAND

. (Rec. 11.5 a.m.) LONDON, April 14. I The British pilotless radio-control-led rocket missile, which has been named “Stooge,” and which has been secretly developed in the past 18 months, has completed successful trials, says the Australian Associated Press. The development of the rocket, which is, in effect, a radio-controlled version of the German V2, was considered in the final stages of the war in an effort to counter -the Japanese suicide-bomber, tactics. . The directorate of guided projectiles in the Ministry of Supply, following the Japanese capitulation, requested the Fairey Aviation Company to continue its work on a research basis. Fairey Aviation Company officials today disclosed details of the Stooge and demonstrated how a projectile could be fully controlled by a radio joystick on the ground, to which the projectile instantaneously responds. The Stooge, with four rockets, each of 751 b thrust, can attain a speed far in excess of 500 miles an hour. Four booster rockets used for take-offs in the tests gave, two seconds after firing, a speed of 267 miles an hour. The booster rockets are automatically discarded shortly after the take-off. . The Stooge has great military significance. Its use in peace-time is not immediately envisaged, but is most obvious, as is the probability of complete radio control from the ground of aircraft in navigational difficulties.