RZ.2 Engine and Turbo Pump

RZ.2 Engine and Turbo Pump

Two separate RZ.2 engines were used to power the British Blue Streak rocket. Each engine has a turbo pump, which fed the rocket’s propellants into the combustion chamber. Blue Streak was a liquid fuelled rocket, using liquid oxygen and kerosene as propellants. When these were ignited in the combustion chamber, hot gases were forced out of the nozzle at the bottom of the rocket. This produced the necessary thrust for the rocket to blast off.

Blue Streak was a medium range ballistic missile, developed by Britain in the 1950s with the aim of maintaining a nuclear deterrent. De Havilland Aircraft (later Hawker Siddeley Dynamics) built the main body of the rocket, and Rolls Royce built the engines. However, due to mounting costs and its vulnerability to pre-emptive strikes, the missile programme was cancelled in 1960.

Blue Streak then went on to become the first stage of a new European satellite launcher called Europa. Altogether, eleven Blue Streaks were launched. All of them were successful. However, the Europa system as a whole was not and never managed to put a satellite into orbit. There were repeated problems with the separation between the stages and the British Government lost enthusiasm for the project. By the early 1970s, in the face of mounting costs, the development of Blue Streak was cancelled. The remaining European partners went back to the drawing board, eventually developing the successful series of Ariane rockets, based on some of the work done on Europa.

Web resources

• National Museums Liverpool Website
• British Pathé Blue Streak Film