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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1797.PDF
6 December 1957 887 1,000 miles, can be of enormous value in providing data on radiotransmissions through the ionosphere. Thirdly, even when the satellite is silent it can be tracked visually and by radar, and itsspeed and exact orbit can give data for air density calculations, the forecasting of future orbits, and studies of the Earth's magnetism. A comprehensive symposium on high-altitude and satelliterockets was held by the College of Aeronautics, the Royal Aero- nautical Society and the British Interplanetary Society at Cranfieldlast July (reported in Flight of August 2) at which 12 papers were presented. Another general reference to satellite flight is die articleA New Realm of Flight which appeared in Flight of October 18. Projects in the U.S.A. The American programme of upper-atmosphere research by means of sounding rockets was begun in 1946 with the launching of the first ex-German V-2 rockets in theU.S.A. An important second step was to use the V-2 together with a small U.S. rocket, the WAC-Corporal, as a two-stage vehicle.For many research purposes the V-2 was too large and the WAC-Corporal was too small, and there followed the first U.S.rocket to be specifically designed as an upper-air research vehicle. This was the liquid-propellant Aerobee, first fired in November1947. Since then over 200 Aerobees have been launched and an improved version known as the Aerobee-Hi has been developed.Now well established as versatile upper-air vehicles, rockets of the Aerobee family are taking an important part in the I.G.Y. Among recent experiments performed with this type was thefiring of artificial meteors (aluminium pellets) from an Aerobee at Aerobee-Hi launch (below) from White Sands. Successor to the ubiquitous Aerobee, the Aerobee-Hi was used in the recent U.S. arti- ficial-meteor experiment. The night scene (right) shows Viking rocket and launching tower at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida. I a height of 54 miles over New Mexico on October 16; and therelease of sodium vapour at between 80 and 100 miles to produce an ionized cloud with which to study the reflection of shon-waveradio transmissions. The aluminium pellets were fired at speeds up to 40,000 m.p.h. (greater than escape velocity). Other American sounding rockets include the Viking, a largeV-2 replacement which, in an improved version, formed the basis for the first stage of the Vanguard satellite launching vehicle; anda variety of small and efficient rockets designed for economy and (in many cases) limited scientific purposes. The most important ofthese are listed in the table below. Rocket Nike-CajunArcon IrisTerrapin ... Rockoon (balloon/Deacon) Rockaire (aircraft/Deacon)Farside rockoon ... Asp Aerobee ...Aerobee-Hi SpaerobeeSkylark Veronique Kappa County U.S.A.U.S.A. U.S.A.U.S.A. U.S.A. U.S.A.U.S.A. U.S.A. U.S.A.U.S.A. U.S.A.Britain France Japan AltitudeStages (miles) 2 1 2 2 1 1 4 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 9570 200 80 50-70 100 4,00040 70122-165 350 100 84 80 Payload(lb) 60 40 100 8 20-30 40 1025 150120-200 40 100-150 130 15 One typical moderate-performance sounding rocket is the Nike-Cajun, approximately 50 of which are to participate in the I.G.Y. programme. This is a high-altiude version of the Nike-Deacon,the Army's Nike booster being used as a first stage, and the Cajun second stage carrying a 50 lb payload of instruments to heights ofabout 10 miles. Among the Nike-Cajun I.G.Y experiments are the measurement of water-vapour distribution; total-field magneto-meter readings and electron-density measurements in the E-region; cloud-structure studies by photography of the optical horizon;measurement of cosmic rays and auroral radiations; and measure- ments of X-rays during solar flares. In general the trend in the U.S.A. over the past ten years hasbeen a switch from the large rocket carrying extensive equipment for a variety of investigations, to the smaller rocket used for amore limited range of measurements on any one flight. From the V-2 payload of 2,000 lb, favour has turned to the small packageweighing 50 or even 10 lb. By concentrating on less complex equipment, the chances of successful results are higher, and thesmall rocket can take advantage of assisted launching either by a large booster rocket or by "rockoon" or "rockaire" techniques.
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