Battleship (rocketry)
In rocketry, a battleship was term used during the design of the Saturn V for a heavy duty rocket stage which is used to test configuration and integration of a launch vehicle.
The "Battleship" term was used in contrast to the boilerplate nickname, which refers to the mock-up designs of test spacecraft.
A battleship version uses thick propellant tanks made of stainless steel or other corrosion-resistant metals rather than the light weight aluminum of the operational version. This is done mainly to test the liquid engines operationally and the configuration of the propellant tank passively.
See also
References
[https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JnoZTbVLx0MC&pg=PA481&lpg=PA481&dq=battleship+saturn+v&source=bl&ots=C5xa0RRZUU&sig=FJ7DWTm3y5a6L1Qagpz90bDq6t4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjVkPPBq6HQAhXFtxoKHdxxD0EQ6AEIcjAO#v=onepage&q=battleship%20saturn%20v&f=false/ Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicle ( pages 124, 148, 186, 224, 367, 481 ) ]
Saturn V Rocket by Alan Lawrie