Skokie (rocket)

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Skokie
Skokie 2 in gantry.jpg
Skokie 2
Function Experimental rocket
Manufacturer Cook Electric Co.
Country of origin United States
Size
Height Skokie 1: 7.6 metres (25 ft)
Skokie 2: 9.8 metres (32 ft)
Diameter Skokie 1: 510 millimetres (20 in)
Mass Skokie 1: 1,100 kilograms (2,400 lb)
Skokie 2: 1,400 kilograms (3,000 lb)
Stages One
Launch history
Status Retired
First stage – JATO
Engines 3
Thrust 49 kN (11,000 lbf) each
Fuel Solid

Skokie was a family of research vehicles developed by the Cook Electric Co. for the United States Air Force during the mid to late 1950s. Launched from a B-29 bomber, Skokie 1 was an unpowered, ballistic vehicle, while Skokie 2 was rocket-propelled; both were used for evaluating and testing high-speed parachute recovery systems.

United States Air Force Air and space warfare branch of the United States Armed Forces

The United States Air Force (USAF) is the aerial and space warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the five branches of the United States Armed Forces, and one of the seven American uniformed services. Initially formed as a part of the United States Army on 1 August 1907, the USAF was established as a separate branch of the U.S. Armed Forces on 18 September 1947 with the passing of the National Security Act of 1947. It is the youngest branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, and the fourth in order of precedence. The USAF is the largest and most technologically advanced air force in the world. The Air Force articulates its core missions as air and space superiority, global integrated intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, rapid global mobility, global strike, and command and control.

Parachute device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere

A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong fabric, originally silk, now most commonly nylon. They are typically dome-shaped, but vary, with rectangles, inverted domes, and others found. A variety of loads are attached to parachutes, including people, food, equipment, space capsules, and bombs.

Contents

Design and development

Intended for use in evaluating high-speed parachute systems for the recovery of missiles and unmanned aircraft, [1] Skokie was a simple, inexpensively-designed vehicle, consisting of a tube with a long spike on the nose to reduce damage while landing under parachute. [2] Named after the hometown of the Cook Electric Co., their manufacturer, [3] Skokie 1 had four aft-mounted stabilizing fins; [4] Skokie 2 had a tri-fin arrangement, [5] with three solid-propellant rockets, of a type similar to that used for rocket-assisted take offs, externally mounted between them. [2] The vehicle was equipped with instrumentation to record the deployment of the two-stage parachute; a high-speed camera was also fitted. [5] Skokie I descended ballistically at high subsonic speed; the rocket-powered Skokie II could reach Mach 2 before deploying its parachute. [2]

Solid-propellant rocket rocket with a motor that uses solid propellants

A solid-propellant rocket or solid rocket is a rocket with a rocket engine that uses solid propellants (fuel/oxidizer). The earliest rockets were solid-fuel rockets powered by gunpowder; they were used in warfare by the Chinese, Indians, Mongols and Persians, as early as the 13th century.

A high-speed camera is a device capable of capturing moving images with exposures of less than 1/1,000 second or frame rates in excess of 250 frames per second. It is used for recording fast-moving objects as photographic images onto a storage medium. After recording, the images stored on the medium can be played back in slow motion. Early high-speed cameras used film to record the high-speed events, but were superseded by entirely electronic devices using either a charge-coupled device (CCD) or a CMOS active pixel sensor, recording, typically, over 1,000 frames per second onto DRAM, to be played back slowly to study the motion for scientific study of transient phenomena.

Mach number Ratio of speed of object moving through fluid and local speed of sound

In fluid dynamics, the Mach number is a dimensionless quantity representing the ratio of flow velocity past a boundary to the local speed of sound.

Mission profile

Skokie was launched from a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber at 30,000 feet (9.1 km) in altitude. [2] On each drop, the vehicle would deploy an initial parachute to calibrate the onboard equipment, following which it would be released to allow the vehicle to build up speed. [6] A drogue parachute would be deployed once the vehicle reached a speed slightly below terminal velocity; [7] after deceleration, the main parachute of 88 feet (27 m) in diameter would deploy. [6]

Boeing B-29 Superfortress Four-engine heavy bomber aircraft

The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is a four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber designed by Boeing, which was flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. It was one of the largest aircraft operational during World War II and featured state-of-the-art technology. Including design and production, at over $3 billion it was the single most expensive weapons project in World War II, exceeding the $1.9 billion cost of the Manhattan Project—using the value of dollars in 1945. Innovations introduced included a pressurized cabin, dual-wheeled, tricycle landing gear, and an analog computer-controlled fire-control system directing four remote machine gun turrets that could be operated by a single gunner and a fire-control officer. A manned tail gun installation was semi-remote. The name "Superfortress" continued the pattern Boeing started with its well-known predecessor, the B-17 Flying Fortress. Designed for the high-altitude strategic bomber role, the B-29 also excelled in low-altitude nighttime incendiary bombing missions. One of the B-29's final roles during World War II was carrying out the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Drogue parachute

A drogue parachute is a parachute designed to be deployed from a rapidly moving object in order to slow the object, to provide control and stability, or as a pilot parachute to deploy a larger parachute. It was invented in Russia by Gleb Kotelnikov in 1912.

Terminal velocity highest velocity attainable by an object as it falls through a fluid


Terminal velocity is the highest velocity attainable by an object as it falls through a fluid. It occurs when the sum of the drag force (Fd) and the buoyancy is equal to the downward force of gravity (FG) acting on the object. Since the net force on the object is zero, the object has zero acceleration.

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References

Citations

  1. ↑ Jacobs and Whitney 1962, p.170.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Haley 1959, p.153.
  3. ↑ Aero Digest Volume 68 (1954), p.46.
  4. ↑ Bowman 1957, p.193.
  5. 1 2 Parsch 2003
  6. 1 2 Ordway and Wakeford 1960, p.192.
  7. ↑ Downing 1956, p.10.

Bibliography

  • Bowman, Norman John (1957). The Handbook of Rockets and Guided Missiles. Chicago: Perastadion Press. ASIN   B0007EC5N4.
  • Downing, J. Robert (1956). Recovery Systems for Missiles and Target Aircraft. Wright-Patterson AFB, OH: Wright Air Development Division. ASIN   B009B3EJ1I.
  • Haley, Andrew G. (1959). Rockety and Space Exploration. Princeton, NJ: D. Van Nostram Company. ASIN   B000GB0580.
  • Jacobs, Horace; Eunice Engelke Whitney (1962). Missile and Space Projects Guide 1962. New York: Springer Science+Business Media. ISBN   978-1-4899-6967-5.
  • Ordway, Frederick Ira; Ronald C. Wakeford (1960). International Missile and Spacecraft Guide. New York: McGraw-Hill. ASIN   B000MAEGVC.
  • Parsch, Andreas (21 October 2003). "Cook Skokie". Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles, Appendix 4: Undesignated Vehicles. Designation-Systems. Retrieved 2017-12-10.

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