"Bloodhound Mk. I" Missile test in Woomera, South Australia (1958, HD)

At the Royal Air Force rocket range at Woomera, Australia, Britain unveils a surface-to-air missile with an incredible "brain." Remarkable films show the missile, aptly named the Bloodhound, take after a target plane - alter its course, and score a dramatic direct hit.
Dated 1958 Sep 02

[@mjproebstle]

These videos are brilliant! I had no idea of the level of activity in Australia regarding the defense effort. The four solid rocket motors remind me of the Apollo Little John test vehicle. Cheers!

[@rhythmstic]

Fantastic, thank you very much.

[@BrianWMay]

I can't imagine there are too many folk that have been to Woomera. Our Air Traffic clearance was to fly down the runway and if it was clear, then carry out a visual circuit to land !!

[@My-Pal-Hal]

Kinda looks like a "Bomarc".

[@lovethe70s]

Thanks for posting this. My Dad was on secondment at Woomera Range for RAE from 1953 to 1956. Not sure if trials of the Bloodhound were done then or later.

[@richardvernon317]

XTV4 and 5 Test Vehicles used to develop Bloodhound's Ramjet engines and other systems fired at Woomera between 1953 and 1957. Bloodhound Prototypes first fired from mid 1956 at that range. Bloodhound Service Acceptance Trials were between 1958 and 1960 (this firing was one of them, though there were actually two version of the Missile. The Series 1 which was overweight and couldn't do high altitude intercepts and the lightweight Series 2, which became the production Bloodhound 1). This missile was a series 1, Meteor attitude was 15,000 feet and Impact range was 15,000 yards. The later Bloodhound 2 was developed using a series of Test Vehicles called XTV-11 through to 17. Most of the XTV-16's and XTV-17's were fired at Woomera. Also Bloodhound 2 Missile Evaluation Trials were done between 1962 and 1965.
Bloodhound 1 wasn't operational until 1961 / 62 and in late 1962 they started shutting squadrons down to save money. Bloodhound 2 wasn't operational until early 1966.

[@lovethe70s]

@@richardvernon317 Wow. Thanks. The little I gleaned from Dad before his death, was that he was a Range Controller on Range B, then Koolymilka, trialling Thunderbird (RED Shoes?), RED Duster which might have become Bloodhound and also Sea Slug- these notes were taken 50 years after he had returned. I went back to Woomera Village in 2011 and gave Dad's photos from that time to the museum there.

[@richardvernon317]

@@lovethe70s Red Shoes and Red Duster were not related bar the fact that they both in the running for Army and RAF contracts for a while. Red Shoes was EE Thunderbird, Red Duster was Bristol Ferranti Bloodhound. All of the Red Duster stuff was done on Range E.