Gosling solid rocket booster information

The Gosling was a British single nozzle wrap around solid rocket booster developed by Bristol Aircraft Co. in the 1950s to act as a booster motor for the 'Red Duster' Bristol Ferranti Bloodhound for the RAF, the Sea Slug for the Royal Navy, and the Thunderbird for the British Army. All three are surface to air missiles.^[1] It would burn for between 8 and 12 seconds, providing an average thrust of 103.24kN which would allow the Bloodhound missile to reach Mach 2.2 and a maximum altitude of just over 21 km. It was used until 1968 by the RAAF when it was decommissioned.^[2] The Gosling also appear on the High Altitude Density (HAD), Cockatoo Mk1 and Mk2 and Aero High sounding rockets which were designed to conduct experiments in the upper atmosphere until 1975. Some of the early HAD experiments involved tracking an inflatable metal sphere through the atmosphere after the HAD and dropped it in the upper atmosphere. Later experiments would study the wind speed and direction among other atmospheric conditions deduced from 'lithium vapour grenades'.^[3] One difference is that as a strap on booster for the Bloodhound, the Gosling used a angled nozzle whereas on the HAD it employed a straight nozzle design.^[2]