way, one could see flames dancing along the top of the combustion chamber. We did not look upon her as being. dangerous. The crew took the bangs and fires as a matter of course...and fire drill became a very practised affair.'
The development of the hydrogen peroxide engine did not go well, and a lot of steam went out of the project, in quite a literal sense. When the Americans succeeded in designing a nuclear reactor suitable for fitting in submarines, a new era began and the HTP project was abandoned. Neither Explorer nor her sister Excalibur had much contribution to make in these circumstances, and they were scrapped in 1969/70.
