Jaguar (American rocket)
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 Jaguar in front of B-57 launch aircraft | |
| Function | Sounding rocket |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | ARDC |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Size | |
| Height | 8.029 m (26 ft 4.1 in) |
| Diameter | 0.53 m (21 in) |
| Mass | 730 kg (1,600 lb) |
| Stages | Three |
| Payload to 800 km (500 mi) | |
| Mass | 16 kg (35 lb) |
| Launch history | |
| Status | Retired |
| Launch sites | White Sands |
| Total launches | 2 |
| First flight | 1960 |
| Last flight | 1961 |
| First stage – Recruit cluster | |
| Diameter | 0.53 m (21 in) |
| Powered by | 3 x XM19 |
| Maximum thrust | 156 kN (35,000 lbf) each |
| Burn time | 1.5 s |
| Propellant | solid |
| Second stage – Recruit | |
| Diameter | 23 cm (9 in) |
| Powered by | 1 x XM19 |
| Maximum thrust | 156 kN (35,000 lbf) |
| Burn time | 1.5 s |
| Propellant | solid |
| Third stage – Baby Sergeant | |
| Diameter | 16 cm (6.4 in) |
| Powered by | 1 x 5.4KS1975 |
| Maximum thrust | 8.8 kN (2,000 lbf) |
| Burn time | 5.4 s |
| Propellant | solid |
Jaguar was a three-stage sounding rocket developed by the United States Air Force in the early 1960s.[1] Designed for air launch to allow soundings from remote areas without infrastructure, it was only launched twice before the project was abandoned.
Jaguar was an air-launched sounding rocket developed by the Air Research and Development Command of the U.S. Air Force, intended for use for high-altitude scientific research into the aurora borealis and radiation trapped in the Van Allen Belts.[2] Derived from a design used by the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory,[2] it was a three-stage vehicle, with a first stage of three clustered Recruit rockets, a single Recruit as a second stage,[3] and a third stage with a Baby Sergeant rocket.[2][1] It was to be launched using a Martin B-57 Canberra medium bomber that was modified to carry the rocket on a side-mounted pylon; this allowed for the rocket to be launched from any location capable of operating a jet aircraft, without the need for installing launch infrastructure in remote areas.[4] To launch, the Canberra would pull into a near-vertical climb, akin to that used for toss bombing, and release the rocket;[2] Jaguar was expected to be capable of launching a 16-kilogram (35 lb) payload to an apogee of 800 kilometres (500 mi).[3] An upgraded version using the improved "Yardbird" model of the Recruit was proposed.[5]