Mathematical Modelling Techniques in Guided Weapons

Extract

At BAC Filton the use of computers in missile work began early in the 1950s, much as elsewhere no doubt, by the company manufacturing its own analogue machines. The utilisation of computers was brought about by the need to develop the theoretical approach of design beyond the stage of hand computed calculations. Linear calculations could be long and tedious, and although ingenious exposure of the basic principles of missiles were often very instructive, they remained too simple to give complete reassurance.

As the development of missiles proceeded, the realisation of the complexity and extent of the non-linearities became more evident, casting doubt on the likely success of the missiles under design and manufacture. Typically with Bloodhound there was the fear that a twist/steer missile would not work, most missiles of the day being tail controlled cartesians. Would one be able to keep the body movements down to an acceptable minimum for the sake of aberration or ramjet extinction? Just what were the cross coupling effects from pitch and roll into yaw? Later, when what one might call the purely mechanical reliability aspects of trials were over, the need to understand the interaction of the various phenomena of missile flight began to dominate design thought.