Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 July 2016
The advent of the Skylark firings and the more recent trials of ballistic missiles such as the Black Knight firings, have demanded a continuous development of both ground and airborne instrumentation at Woomera Range; this in turn has raised the need for sighter rockets and instrumentation test vehicles with altitude capabilities in the 200,000-500,000 ft. range.
The need is currently being met by the rocket vehicles Long Tom and Aeolus. These rockets are of interest because they represent the first designed and built at W.R.E. that can be classed as high altitude rockets; also, they make possible the provision of relatively cheap and readily available vehicles for upper atmosphere research.