black brant photos

[bobby_hamill]

Ok this is for all of you Black Brant lovers.

all photos are of the Black Brant 2B version with 4 fins

sorry no date or round numbers available

enjoy

Bobby

[bobby_hamill]

and 1 more photo

[Ez2cDave]

That last photo is an interesting one. The fins are appear to be smaller and don't have a swept trailing edge.

Dave Fitch

[bobby_hamill]

Dave

wish i could decipher the round number on the fin

possible

NRC ________ II__________
AB or AD 48 42 60 52 ect

bobby

That last photo is an interesting one. The fins are appear to be smaller and don't have a swept trailing edge.

Dave Fitch

[T-Rex]

Also noted, and maybe its the shadows, but looks to me that the nose cone is not conical, almost VC like....

[bobby_hamill]

T-rex

Looks conical to me . the booklet that the photo was used in was dated 1965

Bobby

[blackbrandt]

Which one is the one that Oldham launched?

[bobby_hamill]

His was the 3 fin version of the Black Brant 2A
this is the 4 fin version of the Black Brant 2B

[adrian]

His was the 3 fin version of the Black Brant 2A
this is the 4 fin version of the Black Brant 2B

Photo 1 caption: "FIGURE 1 - Black Brant IIA four-fin Rocket vehicle."
Photo 2 caption: "FIGURE 2 - Black Brant IIA four-fin on the launcher."


According to an article at Designation Systems, the Black Brant II was the three-finned version and the Black Brant IIA was the four-finned one. On the other hand, Encyclopedia Astronautica shows a list which appears to include Black Brant II and Black Brant IIB but has no reference to the Black Brant IIA.

[Fuse Eh!]

Ok this is for all of you Black Brant lovers.

Great photos! Thanks for sharing them.

[bobby_hamill]

on some of the reports I have there are 3 fin and 4 fin Black Brant 2A and 2B vehicles and a few Black Brant 2B vehicles were used as test beds to test Black Brant 4 and 5 fins as well as the Black Brant 5 ogive nose cone

[Ltulissi]

Some clarification is in order.

Based on my research the designations Black Brant IIA and IIB are in reference to the engine only (15KS25000 vs 23KS20000). The name Black Brant II was used unofficially to refer to the BBIIA configuration. These designations have nothing to do with the fin or payload configuration.

At least five different aft body and fin configurations were used on the Black Brant IIA. No official naming convention was adopted to distiguish the different configurations. The first was the three fin version made famous by the Estes and FSI kits. This configuration was a total failure and abandoned after only a few launches. The second configuration is the four fin version shown in Bobby's photos. This version was used for the majority of Black Brant IIA launches, and with a modified aft body for all four BBIIB launches. A third version was a modified three fin configuration which used wedges on the trailing edge to control roll rate. Although used quite a bit it suffered poorer performance than the four fin configuration. The fins for the Black Brant V were tested and then modified (thicker ablative coating) for use with the 15KS25000 engine. This configuaration would eventually use the designation Black Brant VA but started life being known as a BBIIA. Finally a flat "slab" fin was developed for the AFGL and used on a small number of launches. However, most of the documentation for these launches refer to the configuration as a BBVA mod 1. Black Brant IV fins were never used on a single stage 15KS250000 Black Brant but the engine does form the first stage of all BBIV.

The majority of payload componants for Black Brants were manufactured by either Bristol Aerospace or SED Systems with some specialized payload componants developed by the AFGL. These parts were were generally interchangable. Resulting payloads varied greatly by length, nose cone type and even diameter on occasion. The payload configuration had nothing to do with the overall vehicle designation. As such there was no "BBV nose" or "BBII nose".

One more thing. The black and white checkered marking were used primarily by CARDE for test launches. Typical operational BBII were usually all black or had a red painted motor.

LT

[bobby_hamill]

some of the Black Brant 2s with the checkerboard fin pattern were launched
by the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory

Bobby

[Ltulissi]

Bobby,

If you have any photographic documentation of AFCRL or AFGL black brants I'd love to see it.

LT