Project 621 was a project by the
Dornier company with the intention of producing a
sounding rocket
A sounding rocket or rocketsonde, sometimes called a research rocket or a suborbital rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The rockets are used to ...
with liquid-fuel propulsion. It was to use a
paraglider
Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness or lies supine in a cocoon-like 'po ...
system to return safely to earth for later re-use. It had a wet mass of 240 kg (520 lb) and a dry mass of 74 kg. The
rocket
A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...
itself was never launched.
The rocket of the project was supposed to reach an
apogee
An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion.
General description
There are two apsides in any ellip ...
of eighty kilometers, and then return from a height of forty kilometers, spiraling to the ground. In 1965, multiple drop tests of the paraglider system on the rocket test area in
Salto di Quirra
Salto di Quirra is a restricted weapons testing range and rocket launching site near Perdasdefogu on Sardinia.
It is the largest military range in Italy, composed of 12000 hectares of land owned by the Italian Ministry of Defence and one of the l ...
in
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
was performed.
The project was halted in 1966, after large problems occurred regarding the choice of a suitable wing material (textile wings could not handle the loads, while wings made of high-grade steel could not withstand the airflow without major problems).
References
astronautix.com
Sounding rockets of Germany
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