The Avro Blue Steel was a British air-launched, rocket-propelled nuclear stand-off missile, built to arm the V bomber force.

Avro Blue Steel nuclear missile ( front ) at the Midland Air Museum

Avro Blue Steel missile ( side view ) at the Midland Air Museum behind the wing of an Avro Vulcan bomber

Rear view of Blue Steel missile at RAF Cosford aerospace museum, showing the twin-chamber " Stentor " rocket motor

Avro began work proper in 1955, with the assigned Rainbow Code name of " Blue Steel " which it would keep in service.

The large girth of Blue Steel was determined by the implosion sphere diameter of Green Bamboo.

Avro proposed that Blue Steel would evolve over time, subsequent versions increasing speed ( to Mach 4. 5 ) and range.

The ultimate Blue Steel would be a range weapon that could be launched by the supersonic Avro 730 under development.

Blue Steel emerged as a pilotless, winged aircraft roughly the size of the experimental Saunders-Roe SR. 53 interceptor, with clipped delta wings and small canard foreplanes.

Blue Steel finally entered service in February 1963, being carried by Vulcans and Victors, although its limitations were already apparent.

A replacement for Blue Steel, the Mark 2, was planned with increased range and a ramjet engine, but was cancelled in 1960 to minimise delays to the Mk. 1.

Blue Steel required up to seven hours of launch preparation, and was highly unreliable ; the Royal Air Force estimated in 1963 that half the missiles would fail to fire and would have to be dropped over their targets, contradicting their purpose of serving as standoff weapons.

With no effective long-range weapon the original Blue Steel served on after a crash programme of minor modifications to permit a low-level launch at, even though its usefulness in a hot war was likely limited.

This WE. 177 laydown weapon supplemented the remaining modified Blue Steel missiles using a low-level penetration followed by a pop-up manoeuvre to release the weapon at Forty-eight live operational rounds were deployed on 48 Vulcan and Victor bombers plus a further five live rounds as operational spares.

Blue Steel was officially retired on 31 December 1970, with the United Kingdom's strategic nuclear capacity passing to the submarine fleet.

* Video of Blue Steel in operation

* The Vulcan Gets New Striking Power an AVRO advertisement for the Vulcan from Flight in February 1959, showing the ( still unnamed ) Blue Steel.

*" Blue Steel And Its Engine " a 1960 Flight article on the Blue Steel

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Blue Throat was slumped with his back against the bar, elbows supporting his massive frame.

He didn't stop till he was within three feet of Blue Throat and by that time the gang leader's right hand was on the butt of his revolver.

In two minutes the body of Tilghman's former comrade, who had been killed by Blue Throat in a gambling brawl the previous night, was carried into the town's funeral parlor to be prepared for decent burial.

It was the abrupt end of Blue Throat's dictatorship in Petrie.

After a year in a studio on Sheridan Square, having married an American girl who was a native of Virginia, Helion moved to a village in the Blue Ridge mountains, where he produced some of the most imposing of his abstract canvases.

It was her job to stand at the foot of the stairs, and, just as the First Lady stepped off the last tread, Mama would straighten out her long train before she marched to the Blue Room to greet her guests with the President.

In addition, Blue Cross coverage for all employees and their dependents was extended to provide the full cost of semi-private hospital accommodations.

The effluent was collected through two pipes and discharged to the Blue River through a surface drainage ditch.

In the Blue Ridge meeting, the audience was warned that entering a candidate for governor would force it to take petitions out into voting precincts to obtain the signatures of registered voters.

Blue ribbon for one dozen white eggs was taken by Nyberg.

Eckstein was traded from the Toronto Blue Jays for Minor League pitcher Chad Beck.

Callinectes sapidus | Blue crab was used on the eastern and southern coast of what is now the U. S. mainland.

The U. S. military began targeting food crops in October 1962, primarily using Agent Blue ; the American public was not made aware of the crop destruction programs until 1965 ( and it was then believed that crop spraying had begun that spring ).

But time and the investigations of subsequent explorers have shown that Abbadie was quite trustworthy as to his facts, though wrong in his contention — hotly contested by Beke — that the Blue Nile was the main stream.

Blue Lightning, a game with After Burner-like graphics, was especially notable and featured in TV advertising for the console.

The first party to successfully cross the Blue Mountains just outside Sydney was led by Gregory Blaxland in 1813, 25 years after the colony was established.

The breed's characteristic gene mutation was maintained through linebreeding to the point where the condition was a fixed property in the Belgian Blue breed.

The downtown area through which the tunnels were to be dug was largely landfill, and included existing Red Line and Blue Line subway tunnels as well as innumerable pipes and utility lines that would have to be replaced or moved.

Dilute color dogs ( Blue, Isabella, and Cream ) are very susceptible to Color Dilution Alopecia, a skin disorder that can result in hair loss and extreme sensitivity to sun.

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The air war on the Western Front received the most attention in the annals of military aviation, since it produced aces such as Manfred von Richthofen, popularly known as the Red Baron, Ernst Udet, Hermann Göring, Oswald Boelcke, Werner Voss, and Max Immelmann ( the first airman to win the Pour le Mérite, Imperial Germany's highest decoration for gallantry, as a result of which the decoration became popularly known as the Blue Max ).

As a result, Yeshaq was forced to withdraw towards the Blue Nile over the next five months, while Jamal ad Din's forces pursued them and looted much gold on the way, although no engagement ensued.

As a result, he was offered a contract by the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Darks were extremely active in the writers ' community of the Blue Mountains, which flourished as a result of many writers and artists moving to the area.

As a result of this 1943 decision, NBC was forced to sell one of its two networks — the Blue Network — and it was this action which then led to the creation of the American Broadcasting Company

As a result of Shoemaker's decision, Bill Hartack became Northern Dancer's permanent jockey and guided him to victories in the Blue Grass and the Kentucky Derby, winning the Derby over a fast finishing Hill Rise in a record time that stood until it was broken by Secretariat in 1973.

Another important difference between Blue Note and other independent labels ( for example Prestige Records, who also employed Van Gelder ) was that musicians were paid for rehearsal time prior to the recording session: this helped ensure a better end result on the record.

As a result, Lion was under pressure by independent distributors to come up with similar successes, with the result that many Blue Note albums of this era start with a catchy tune intended for heavy airplay in the United States.

A great portion of Blue Mars is concerned with the effects of extreme longevity on its protagonists, most of whom have lived over two hundred years as a result of repeated longevity treatments.

The Big Blue River and Sugar Creek overflowed their banks as a result of this activity.

Of these, 701 remained unexplained when Project Blue Book closed when, as a result of the build up in Vietnam, the Air Force closed its UFO investigations.

In the episode " Something Blue ", Giles becomes blind as a result of a faulty spell cast by Willow Rosenberg.

As a result of these appearances he signed a new recording contract with Blue Side Records and recorded One More for the Road in three days.

As a result, such cartoons as I Love to Singa and Book Revue ( the Blue Ribbon version of which was mistitled Book Review ) can once again be seen as they were originally intended.

As a result, the Blue Ensign was used throughout the Empire and thus became the model for the flags used by a number of colonies and former colonies in the British Empire.

As with most other blue-hued birds, the Blue Jay's coloration is not derived from pigments but is the result of light interference due to the internal structure of the feathers ; if a blue feather is crushed, the blue disappears as the structure is destroyed.

Blue is used when the carrier tries to levitate objects, pink for healing, purple for specific interactions with other force fields, and red radiation forms as a result of strong feelings ( intentional or unintentional ) which destroys matter.

The Blue Ribbon Bow River Trout fishery may be at risk as a result of this introduction.

For a time, Hempstead became known as " Old Blue ," as a result of the " Blue Laws ".

As a result of this experience Hergé would strive, in The Blue Lotus and subsequent Tintin adventures, to be meticulously accurate in depicting the places Tintin visited.