Sounding Rockets
In 1955 the US Navy took many of the already-completed Lokis and replaced the explosive warhead with a chaff dispenser. These WASP rockets were fired from ships directly upward, and the chaff released at apogee where it was tracked by radar in order to accurately measure the winds aloft. The USAF also used the Loki for this role, assigning it the name XRM-82. The ONR also used the Loki in some of its Rockoon launches, lofting the Loki to high altitudes on a helium balloon before firing.
Many other Lokis were sold into the civilian market, where they became quite popular for meteorological work, referred to as the Loki-Dart. To better serve the needs in this role, a larger-diameter motor with 50% more fuel was developed in 1957, creating the Loki II, the original retroactively becoming Loki I. Other companies developed additional versions, including the Cooper Development /Marquardt Rocksonde 100 with a 100,000 ft maximum altitude and Rocksonde 200 able to reach 200,000 ft.
A variant known as HASP (High Altitude Sounding Projectile) was launched directly from a 5-inch gun barrel. To stabilize the HASP during firing, the dart's small fins were fitted with "bore riders", which guided the rocket along the rifled barrel and thereby also imparted a spin. The bore riders fell free as soon as the dart exited the gun barrel.
Read more about this topic: Loki (rocket)
Famous quotes containing the words sounding and/or rockets:
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—Nora Ephron (b. 1941)
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