Blue Water

[Howard of Effingham]

hmm, i'm not after the technical details for this ASM proposed for the TSR2 more some ideas or details on what sort of loading trolley might have carried it.

over to you.

[crudebuteffective]

I have always envisioned it as similar to the blue steel carrier either the truck or the trolley

google "blue steel missile carrier"


CBE

[rickshaw]

I suspect like all such things, it would be rather specialised, being built expressly for the missile.  Ideally, it would allow the missile to be elevated to the underwing pylon without double-handling.  It could be a trailer or perhaps might have been a specialised vehicle, like the suggested Blue Steel carrier.  I suspect if it was, it would need to carry two Blue Waters - one either side to make loading and manoeuvring easier.

If it wasn't, you'd need to be able to make it double-sided - so that the vehicle could be driven into position on either side of the aircraft.  Otherwise, you'd need twice as many vehicles to load the available aircraft.

So, this means IMO either a vehicle with a centrally placed cab, with two missiles, one either side or a vehicle with a single missile, centrally placed.   The missile would need to be held on hydraulic lifters which could raise it to the pylon.  Considering the length of the missile, I could see an articulated vehicle being used although that could lead to problems with manoeuvring in tight spaces (as would trailers). 

[Thorvic]

Adapt a Bloodhound Trolly and maybe use BW Unimog or similar as a tow vehicle 

[PR19_Kit]

There were TWO Blue Steel carriers though, one to cart it from the bomb dump or hangar to the loading site and one to carry it to the aircraft and lift it into position. The former was the wonderful 'Side Lift' AEC Mandator but the latter looked like a hydraulic version of a WWII bomb trolley.

[rickshaw]

Blue Steel required extensive maintenance and of course, using HTP as a fuel source was extremely dangerous to fuel/de-fuel.  Blue Water being solid-fuelled, was much safer and required considerably less maintenance.  Blue Steel because of it's delicate nature must have been a real bugger to move around on an operational airfield and the RAF is to be commended that there were no major accidents with the beast.   The RN couldn't achieve that and abandoned the use of HTP for a torpedo fuel quite quickly after a couple of very bad accidents with it. 

[Howard of Effingham]

thanks gents for the tips.

i think i can now come up with something for colin's resin version of the same which i've finished as 'drill rounds'.