Armstrong Siddeley Stentor

The Armstrong Siddeley Stentor, latterly Bristol Siddeley BSSt.1 Stentor, was a two-chamber HTP rocket engine used to power the Blue Steel stand-off missile carried by Britain's V bomber force. The high thrust chamber was used for the first 29 seconds, after which it was shut down and a smaller cruise chamber was used for the rest of the powered flight.

Design and development

It was fuelled by hydrogen peroxide with kerosene.

The engine incorporated an integral tubular mounting frame which was attached by six lugs to the rear bulkhead of the missile airframe, the complete engine being enclosed in a tube-shaped fairing with the nozzles at the rear.

Applications

Blue Steel missile

Engines on display

Preserved Stentor engines are on display at the following museums:

Royal Air Force Museum Cosford
Midland Air Museum
The University of Liverpool – On display at the Brodie Tower foyer of the Department of Engineering.
South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum, Doncaster
Newark Air Museum, Nottinghamshire
Cambridge Science Centre, Cambridge

Specifications

Data from

General characteristics

Type: two chamber liquid-propellant rocket engine
Length: 58 in (1,473 mm)
Diameter: 38 in (965 mm) wide, 44.5 in (1,130 mm) high
Dry weight: 747 lb (339 kg) including oil and nitrogen
Fuel: kerosene
Oxidiser: hydrogen peroxide

Components

Pumps:

Performance

Thrust: large boost chamber rated at 24,000 lbf (110 kN) smaller cruise chamber rated at 6,000 lbf (27 kN)
Burn time:
Thrust specific fuel consumption:
Specific impulse: ~220 seconds (2.2 km/s)