After the war, the company diversified. The first departure from the production of
airscrews took place in 1950, when small-scale manufacture of electronic
vibration-measuring equipment was started for sale to the industry at large. These were the by-products of the vibration department, whose experience in electronics was, early in 1952, to provide the nucleus of a team which began the design of guided weapons: besides guided missiles, de Havilland Propellers undertook the manufacture of aircraft cold-air units, turbine-driven electric alternators, radar scanners, electronic equipment, plastic structures—even an experimental 80 ft windmill to derive electricity from the wind. In that year the company received a contract from the
Ministry of Supply (MoS) for the development of a compact turbo-alternator to meet the electrical power requirements of missiles developed by other companies. In the same year a second contract was received for the development of an infra-red homing head. When these contracts had been completed the M.o.S. awarded the company a development contract for a complete weapon system for an air-to-air missile with infra-red homing guidance. Originally under the project designation
Blue Jay, later to be
Firestreak. Production of the Firestreak was shared between all the U.K. plants of de Havilland Propellers:
Hatfield was responsible for the design, research and development; Lostock manufactured a proportion of the weapon (the remainder being sub-contracted) and was also responsible for assembly and testing;
Farnworth carried out manufacture and assembly of development rounds; and the factory at
Walkden handled all production assembly.
Woomera, Australia and
Aberporth were used for test firing. The company was also responsible for the
Blue Streak rocket, Britain's own nuclear missile. Although cancelled in 1960 as a weapon, the technology went into providing Europe with an indigenous satellite launcher. Blue Streak as the first stage of the Europe rocket, performed flawlessly with every flight and bears the distinction of being the only rocket to have a 100% success rate in test firing. During preliminary investigations regarding the propellent system of Blue Streak, in which DHP were the prime contractors, engineers from de Havilland visited the
Convair Division of the Dynamics Corporation in the United States to discuss problems associated with refuelling. A reciprocal technical information agreement existed between the two firms. == Associated products ==