| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
Black Brant was the result of research at CARDE during the 1950s into the nature of the upper atmosphere as part of ongoing research into anti-ballistic missile systems and very-long-range communication. In 1957 CARDE contracted Bristol to produce a simple rocket fuselage, called the Propulsion Test Vehicle, for studies into high-power solid fuels. The resulting design was quite heavy for sounding rocket use, as it was designed to be able to accommodate a wide variety of engine burning times, propellant loadings and launch angles in keeping with its role as a test vehicle for ABM systems development. The first test flight took place only two years later from Fort Churchill in September 1959.
However, CARDE found the system useful as a sounding rocket when their attention turned to long-range communications, and Bristol modified the design to be lighter and more tailored to the sounding rocket role. This became the Black Brant. CARDE launched a number of Black Brant rockets over the next few years, both the original Black Brant I design which could place a 150 lb (68 kg) payload to 150 km altitude, as well as the larger Black Brant II which first flew in October 1960, and the smaller but higher-altitude Black Brant III.
In July 1963 the much larger Black Brant V first flew, which was also used as a booster stage for the BB3 to make the Black Brant IV. The IV first flew in 1964, but failed, as did the next test launch. Aside from these two launches, which were corrected for, the Black Brant has never had another failure, making it one of the most reliable rockets in history. Since then it has undergone continual evolution, and the current versions are the 11 and 12, consisting of BBV used as an upper stage, with Talos and Terrier boosters as lower stages. They have reached altitudes of more than 1500 km, which is in the ionosphere, well above the orbits of the Space shuttle and the International Space StationOverview Continuing on from the United States' Skylab and Russia's Mir, the International Space Station ISS represents a permanent human presence in space: it has been manned with a crew of at least two since November 2, 2000. Each time that the crew is r.
The propellant designs developed by CARDE in the Black Brant program were the highest performing solid fuels of their day. Bristol then placed this propellant in a new 2.75 in (70 mm) rocket to form the CRV7The CVR7 is a 2. 75 inch (70 mm) folding-fin ground attack rocket produced by Bristol Aerospace in Winnipeg, Manitoba. When it was first introduced in the early 1970s it was the highest performing 2. 75 inch (70 mm) rocket (the standard US size) in the wo, the first rocket capable of penetrating standard Warsaw PactHeinz Hoffmann, Polish Premier Wojciech Jaruzelski, Warsaw Pact Commander in Chief Viktor Kulikov, and Czechoslovakian Defence Minister Martin Dzur discussing Warsaw Pact manoeuvres in Poland, March 1981. The Warsaw Pact or Warsaw Treaty was a military al aircraft hangers. The CVR7 has since gone on to become the de-facto standard rocket for most western-aligned militaries.