Aerobee

This article is about the 1950s rocket. For the flying ring, see Aerobie.

Aerobee Hi Missile, White Sands Missile Range Museum.

The Aerobee rocket was a small (8 m) unguided suborbital sounding rocket used for high atmospheric and cosmic radiation research in the United States in the 1950s.^[1]

Research utilizing V-2 rockets after World War II produced valuable results concerning the nature of cosmic rays, the solar spectrum, and the distribution of atmospheric ozone. The limited supply and the expense of assembling and firing the V-2 rockets led to the development of a low cost sounding rocket to be utilized for scientific research. This rocket, the Aerobee, was developed under the joint guidance of James Van Allen at the Applied Physics Laboratory and Rolf Sabersky at the Aerojet Corporation and was supported by the Navy Bureau of Ordnance and the Naval Office of Research and Inventions (later ONR). The Aerobee drastically reduced the cost of a single research mission.^[2]

It was built by Aerojet General.^[3] The company began work in 1946 and test fired the first complete Aerobee from the White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico on November 24, 1947. It reached an altitude of 34.7 miles (55.8 km).^[4]

The rocket was two stage with a solid-fuel boost and a nitric acid/aniline sustainer. The rockets could reach around 230 km (a later variant exceeded 400 km). Instrumentation usually provided constant telemetry and was recovered by parachute. For accurate pointing special gimbal mounts were developed.

Aerobees were launched from 53 m tall launch towers to provide the necessary stability until the rockets gained enough speed for their fins to be effective in controlling attitude. Launch towers were built at White Sands Missile Range, Fort Churchill, Wallops Island, and aboard the research vessel USS Norton Sound. The Aerobee could take a 68 kg payload to an altitude of 130 km.

The first instrument-carrying Aerobee was the A-5, launched on March 5, 1948 from White Sands, carrying instruments for cosmic radiation research, reaching an altitude of 117.5 km. When the last Aerobee flew at White Sands in 1958, around 165 (including variants) had been successfully fired at that location. Variants of the Aerobee were launched in 1968 and 1969 for research relating to the Apollo program. The Aerojet engineers also developed the Aerobee-Hi (first launched in 1955).

A total of 1,037 Aerobees (including variants) were launched from all locations, the last on January 17, 1985.

Technical data

Aerobee

Payload: 68 kg
Maximum flight altitude: 130 km
Liftoff Thrust: 18 kN
Total Mass: 727 kg
Core Diameter: 0.38 m
Total Length: 7.80 m

Aerobee 75

Maximum flight altitude: 80 km
Liftoff Thrust: 7.00 kN
Total Mass: 400 kg
Total Length: 6.00 m

Aerobee 170 Rocket, White Sands Missile Range Museum.

Aerobee 150

Payload: 68 kg
Maximum flight altitude: 270 km
Liftoff Thrust: 18 kN
Total Mass: 930 kg
Core Diameter: 0.38 m
Total Length: 9.30 m

Aerobee 170

Maximum flight altitude: 200 km
Liftoff Thrust: 225 kN
Total Mass: 1,270 kg
Core Diameter: 0.42 m
Total Length: 12.60 m

Aerobee 170A

Maximum flight altitude: 200 km
Liftoff Thrust: 217 kN
Total Mass: 1,270 kg
Core Diameter: 0.42 m
Total Length: 12.40 m

Aerobee 170B

Maximum flight altitude: 200 km
Liftoff Thrust: 225 kN
Total Mass: 1,270 kg
Core Diameter: 0.42 m
Total Length: 12.40 m

Aerobee 200

Maximum flight altitude: 250 km
Liftoff Thrust: 225 kN
Total Mass: 1,600 kg
Core Diameter: 0.42 m
Total Length: 12.60 m

Aerobee 300

Payload: 45 kg
Maximum flight altitude: 300 km
Liftoff Thrust: 18 kN
Total Mass: 983 kg
Core Diameter: 0.38 m
Total Length: 9.90 m

Aerobee 350

Payload: 227 kg
Maximum flight altitude: 450 km
Liftoff Thrust: 217 kN
Total Mass: 3,839 kg
Core Diameter: 0.56 m
Total Length: 15.90 m
Span: 2.30 m

In fiction

In Men into Space, a 1960 tie-in novel by Murray Leinster for the TV series of the same name, Ed McCauley makes the first manned suborbital spaceflight in the nose-cone of an Aerobee.^[5]

References

↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-05-16. Retrieved 2013-04-13.
↑ James Van Allen. "James Van Allen Papers". The University of Iowa Archives. Retrieved May 13, 2014.
↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-06-07. Retrieved 2013-04-13.
↑ "Area and Missile Range Chronology". WSMR. Archived from the original on 2007-11-17.
↑ Leinster, Murray (1960). Men into Space. New York: Berkley Publishing.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aerobee.

1955–1962 United States Air Force rocket and missile designations

Air-to-air missiles

1955–1961 sequence	MB-1 GAR-1 GAR-2 GAR-3 GAR-4 GAR-5 GAR-6 GAR-8 GAR-9 GAR-11

1961–1963 sequence	AIM-101

Other types

Undesignated types

See also: USAF missile designations 1947–51
United States tri-service missile and drone designations post-1962

USN missile designations 1947–1962

Air-launched missiles

Air-to-air missiles	AAM-N-2 AAM-N-3 AAM-N-4 AAM-N-5 AAM-N-6 AAM-N-7 AAM-N-9 AAM-N-10 AAM-N-11

Air-to-surface missiles	ASM-N-2 ASM-N-4 ASM-N-5 ASM-N-6 ASM-N-7 ASM-N-8 ASM-N-10 ASM-N-11

Air-to-underwater missiles	AUM-N-2 AUM-N-4 AUM-N-6

Surface-launched missiles

Surface-to-air missiles	SAM-N-2 SAM-N-4 SAM-N-6 SAM-N-7 SAM-N-8 SAM-N-8 SAM-N-9

Surface-to-surface missiles	SSM-N-2 SSM-N-4 SSM-N-6 SSM-N-8 SSM-N-9 (I) SSM-N-9 (II)

Surface-to-underwater missiles	SUM-N-2

Test vehicles

Control	CTV-N-2 CTV-N-4 CTV-N-6 CTV-N-8 CTV-N-9 CTV-N-10

Launching	LTV-N-2 LTV-N-4

Propulsion	PTV-N-2 PTV-N-4

Research and general testing	RTV-N-2 RTV-N-4 RTV-N-6 RTV-N-8 RTV-N-10 RTV-N-12 RTV-N-13 RTV-N-15 RTV-N-16

United States tri-service research rocket designations post-1962

PWN-1 PWN-2 PWN-3 PWN-4 PWN-5 PWN-6 PWN-7 PWN-8 PWN-9 PWN-10 PWN-11 PWN-12

See also: United States tri-service missile and drone designations post-1962 United States tri-service rocket weapon designations post-1962

Non-military suborbital rocket engines and motors that have flown

Liquid fuel engines	BE-3 Ofen-B WAC Corporal XLR10 XLR99

Hybrid Propellant Engines	RocketMotorOne RocketMotorTwo

Solid Propellant Motors	1.5KS35000 Algol X-254 Altair Aerobee Alcor Asp Black Brant Castor Genius Improved Orion Malemute Orion Oriole Rohini S-20 S-30 S-31 S40TM S44M S-310 S-520 Talos Terrier

Related articles	Sub-orbital spaceflight Sub-orbital tourism Sounding rocket

Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings

People	Thomas F. O'Neil Dan A. Kimball Robert Truax

Subsidiaries	Aerojet Rocketdyne Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Rocketdyne

Joint ventures	Bristol Aerojet

Products	Aerobee Aerojet General X-8 Aerozine 50 Aquarius LR-87 Sea Dragon

Related articles	Aerojet General Tire OMNOVA Solutions

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