Loki (rocket)

Loki, officially designated 76mm HEAA Rocket T220, was an American unguided anti-aircraft rocket based on the German Taifun. Like the Taifun, Loki never saw service in its original role, but later found widespread use as a sounding rocket. It was so successful in this role that several advanced versions were developed on the basic Loki layout, including the final Super Loki.

As part of their anti-aircraft development program of 1942, the Luftwaffe began developing a number of guided missile projects. However, there was concern that these would not develop in time to be useful in the 1943/44 time frame. To fill the gap, Scheufeln suggested building a simple unguided rocket that would be fired en-masse directly up into the bomber streams. The result was the Taifun.

Taifun was powered by a hypergolic mixture pressure-fed into the combustion chamber. The pressure was provided by small cordite charges that were fired into the fuel tanks, in the process bursting a pair of thin diaphragms to allow the fuel and oxidizer to flow into the combustion chamber. The Germans were never able to get the engine to work reliably, and the rocket was never deployed operationally.

The US Army had initially studied the Taifun in 1946, and the German engineers now working for the Army were convinced the concept deserved more development. When similar concerns about the development time of their own guided missile projects were raised, the Taifun was reconsidered and a development program started at Bendix in 1948. One major change was to replace the warhead area with a dart-like version, which was separated from the main rocket body at engine burnout to continue on without the drag of the airframe and thereby reach higher altitudes.

Like the Germans before them, Bendix had significant problems with the engine, and eventually decided to develop a solid-fuel engine based on a new elastomeric fuel from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), starting in March 1951. The first flight of a solid-fuel Loki occurred on 22 June 1951. The new engine was successful, and the liquid engine was abandoned in February 1952.

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