Design work on what would become the Black Knight launch vehicle commenced in 1955, being performed by the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) and British manufacturer Saunders-Roe.

[2][3] During the early 1950s, the British government had identified the need to develop its own series of ballistic missiles due to advances being made in this field, particularly by the Soviet Union and the United States.

[10] This contract involved a complete package for the design, development, manufacturing and testing of the vehicle, its flight control system, instrumentation, and supporting infrastructure for its operation.

[11] According to author C.N Hill, the Black Knight programme ultimately fulfilled its prime objective of gathering information on rocket systems.

[1] One of more radical ideas for reusing the Black Knight was voiced by Armstrong-Siddeley, who suggested that the rocket be repurposed as the foundations for an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM).

[15] The RAE performed a multitude of studies on the subject of prospective derivatives of the Black Knight and its Gamma engine.

[14] An alternative solution for satellite launches was explored by the RAE, in which solid fuel boosters would have been attached to the Black Knight.

This proposal would have involved a basically unmodified Black Knight vehicle being paired with two strap-on boosters along with two further stages in order to be capable of placing a 100lb payload into a 200 mile-high orbit.

[citation needed] Further firings with different heads showed up some unusual phenomena, and further tests under the code names Gaslight and Dazzle were carried out in conjunction with the United States.

One (BK11) was expended as part of the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) initiative as an investigation of range facilities.

[1] Authors Robin Paine and Roger Syms summarised this achievement as: "Altogether, 22 successful launches were made without a single failure - a remarkable record without parallel in ballistics rocket development.