Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2011 | Page 53

Island Life - February/March 2011

interview

THE Second World War had ended barely 10 years earlier, but
by the mid-1950s Britain was bracing itself for what might
have been another bitter confrontation.
This time it was the threat of the Cold War with the Soviet
Union that was looming large on the horizon.
This country was still recovering from the six-year battle
with Germany that had taken a terrible toll. But a decade
later, with the advent of atomic and hydrogen bombs. The
British Government knew it had to see off the latest threat,
or face the bleak prospect being overrun by the Soviets.
It was all very well having bombs to hold back the
opposition, but a means of delivery had to be found
– and without delay. So came the introduction of the
intercontinental ballistic missile, code-named Blue Streak.
A significant part of the project was the design, structure
and launch of a smaller rocket that used the complex liquid
propellants but employed hardware and techniques that were
immediately available. This rocket was code-named Black
Knight, and in 1955 the long-established Island company
Saunders Roe, based in Cowes, was commissioned to develop
the missile.
Ray Wheeler, now 83 and living in East Cowes, played a
major role in the development and testing of Black Knight
rockets. The design was carried out at the old stables of
Osborne House; they were assembled at Saunders Roe’s
factory opposite Barton Manor and transported to Highdown.
Then they were towed down the newly built road along the
cliff top above Scratchell's Bay to one of the two 60 foot
high test gantries adjacent to The Needles. The rockets were
erected inside steel and aluminium towers by men dressed
in protective suits with glass-fronted helmets operating one
and a half ton mobile cranes.
The Needles Headland, which had been used extensively in
both the First and Second World Wars offered a secure test
site, so Highdown was leased from the Ministry of War. Ray
recalls: “The Island was scrutinized to find the perfect spot,
and it was located at Highdown.
“The infrastructure was already there, and in quite good
condition. There were underground stores, which we used
for the recording apparatus. The site was also perfectly
shaped for the testing because it meant that any noise – and
it was going to be very noisy – would go out to sea.”
Ray, who claims he was conceived on the Island, and
eventually came to live here permanently when just eight
years old, worked for what was Saunders Roe, before its
name change, for 46 years.
He was educated at East Cowes primary school in School
Hill, which is no longer there, and then attended Parkhurst
Primary School, now Hunnyhill, before winning a scholarship
to Newport County Secondary Grammar School.
He said: “I wanted to fly airplanes, because in those days
you saw them buzzing around in the sky all day. There was
a cadetship which allowed you to attend university to learn
to fly planes. I was set to go, but my father became ill, so I
joined Saunders-Roe as an apprentice for the princely sum of
21shillings and sixpence a week (now £1, seven-and-a-half
p).
“I went part-time to Southampton University to get a
degree, but wanted the cadetship. But I was told I was in
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