Skokie was a family of research vehicles developed by the
Cook Electric Co. for the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...
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.
Design and development
Intended for use in evaluating high-speed parachute systems for the recovery of missiles and unmanned aircraft,
[Jacobs and Whitney 1962, p.170.] 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.
[Haley 1959, p.153.] Named after the hometown of the Cook Electric Co., their manufacturer, Skokie 1 had four aft-mounted stabilizing fins; Skokie 2 had a tri-fin arrangement,
[Parsch 2003] with three
solid-propellant rocket
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 Arabs, Chinese, Persia ...
s, of a type similar to that used for
rocket-assisted take offs, externally mounted between them.
The vehicle was equipped with instrumentation to record the deployment of the two-stage parachute; a
high-speed camera
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 fps. It is used for recording fast-moving objects as photographic images onto a storage medium. After r ...
was also fitted.
Skokie I descended ballistically at high subsonic speed; the rocket-powered Skokie II could reach
Mach 2 before deploying its parachute.
Mission profile
Skokie was launched from a
Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber at in altitude.
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.
[Ordway and Wakeford 1960, p.192.] A
drogue parachute
A drogue parachute is a parachute designed for deployment from a rapidly-moving object. It can be used for various purposes, such as to decrease speed, to provide control and stability, or as a pilot parachute to deploy a larger parachute. V ...
would be deployed once the vehicle reached a speed slightly below
terminal velocity
Terminal velocity is the maximum velocity (speed) attainable by an object as it falls through a fluid ( air is the most common example). It occurs when the sum of the drag force (''Fd'') and the buoyancy is equal to the downward force of grav ...
;
[Downing 1956, p.10.] after deceleration, the main parachute of in diameter would deploy.
References
Citations
Bibliography
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External links
Peaceful Missile Nose-Dives From B-29 To Test Parachute. ''
Popular Science'', June 1954, p.148.
{{USAF missiles
Experimental rockets of the United States
Equipment of the United States Air Force
Boeing B-29 Superfortress