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Records of the Aircraft Torpedo Development Unit and Projectile Development Establishment...
Catalogue reference: Division within AVIA
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Division within AVIA
Records of the Aircraft Torpedo Development Unit and the Projectile Development Establishment and its successors relating to research into aerial torpedoes, mines and rockets.Comprises reports and technical notes, AVIA 16, files, AVIA 32, German...
Full description and record details
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Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
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Division within AVIA
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Title (The name of the record)
- Records of the Aircraft Torpedo Development Unit and Projectile Development Establishment and successors
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Date (When the record was created)
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1932-1976
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Description (What the record is about)
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Records of the Aircraft Torpedo Development Unit and the Projectile Development Establishment and its successors relating to research into aerial torpedoes, mines and rockets.
Comprises reports and technical notes, AVIA 16, files, AVIA 32, German rocket research drawings from the Second World War, AVIA 40, technical reports, AVIA 41, committee and research files, AVIA 48, thermodynamic charts, AVIA 59 and reports and technical memoranda, AVIA 68
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Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
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Public Record(s)
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Language (The language of the record)
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English
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Creator(s) (The creator of the record)
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- Aircraft Torpedo Development Unit, 1921-1970
- Guided Projectile Establishment, 1945-1958
- Projectile Development Establishment, 1939-1945
- Rocket Propulsion Establishment, 1959-1970
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Physical description (The amount and form of the record)
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7 series
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Subjects (Categories and themes found in our collection (our subject list is under development, and some records may have no subjects or fewer than expected))
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Administrative / biographical background (Historical or biographical information about the creator of the record and the context of its creation)
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The Aircraft Torpedo Development Unit was established by the Air Ministry at Gosport in 1921 to undertake the development of aerial torpedoes and mines and the means of carrying them and of delivering them from aircraft. It worked exclusively for the Air Ministry until 1942, when control passed to the Ministry of Aircraft Production and it thereafter carried out work both for the Royal Air Force Force and the Royal Naval Air Service. The unit was passed to the Ministry of Supply control in 1946.
The Projectile Development Establishment's first director was Dr A D Crow, who had been Director of Ballistic Research at the War Office. The establishment moved from Halstead in Kent to Aberporth in Cardiganshire in 1940. After the end of the war in 1945 work on rocket research and development was continued at the renamed Guided Projectile Establishment at Westcott, Buckinghamshire, renamed the Rocket Propulsion Establishment in 1958.
Both the Aircraft Torpedo Development Unit and Rocket Propulsion Establishment became the responsibility of the Ministry of Aviation in 1959. When the ministry was abolished in 1967 control passed to the Ministry of Technology and then to the Ministry of Aviation Supply in 1970.
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Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C554/
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Within the department: AVIA
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Records of the Aircraft Torpedo Development Unit and Projectile Development Establishment and successors
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