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Jaguar
Triple-Recruit Recruit T-55 (under B-57A) [NASA]
Jaguar (under B-57A) [USAF]
The Triple-Recruit Recruit T-55 was a sounding rocket for heat transfer studies. The three-stage vehicle consisted of a cluster of three Recruits, a single Recruit, and then a T55 in the last stage. It was launched by a Martin B-57A Canberra. It was attached to the outside of the door of the bomb bay. A single rocket was to be launched after a successful dummy drop test, but the vehicle failed first to separate and was finally lost during the flight back to the air base. No further flights did happen, but the vehicle was developed into the jaguar sounding rocket with a different third stage.
The Jaguar was an air-launched sounding rocket developed by the USAF. The three stage vehicle used a cluster of three Recruit motors as first stage, a single Recruit as second stage and a Baby-Sergeant as fourth stage. The 7.92 m long vehicle had mass of 725 kg and was launched by B-57A Canberra bomber.
Two successful launches were made, but it was never developed into an operational vehicle.
| Vehicle | Aircraft | Stage 1 | Stage 2 | Stage 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Triple-Recruit Recruit T-55 | B-57A | 3 × Recruit (XM-19) | Recruit (XM-19E1) | T-55 |
| Jaguar | B-57A | 3 × Recruit (XM-19) | Recruit (XM-19E1) | Baby Sergeant |
No. TNo. Vehicle Date LS Payload
1 1 Triple-Recruit Recruit T-55 19.03.1958 *F WI / B-57A Heat Transfer 2 1 Jaguar xx.xx.1960 * WS / B-57A ? 3 2 Jaguar xx.xx.1961 * WS / B-57A ? Launch sites: WI = Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia, USAWS = White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, USA
References
- Joseph Adams Shortal: A New Dimension - Wallops Island Flight Test Range: The First Fifteen Years, NASA Reference Publication 1028, 1978
- Scala, Keith J.: 'A History of Air-launched Space Vehicles', in Quest, Spring 1994, p. 36
