| Function: | Experimental rocket | ||||||||||||
| Manufacturer: | Cook Electric Co. | ||||||||||||
| Country-Origin: | United States | ||||||||||||
| Height: | Skokie 1: 25feet Skokie 2: 32feet | ||||||||||||
| Diameter: | Skokie 1: 20inches | ||||||||||||
| Mass: | Skokie 1: 2400lb Skokie 2: 3000lb | ||||||||||||
| Stages: | One | ||||||||||||
| Status: | Retired | ||||||||||||
| Stagedata: |
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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.
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]
Skokie was launched from a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber at 30000feet 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 in diameter would deploy.[6]