Rook engine

Royal Ordnance solid rocket single stage vehicle consisting of a Rook solid rocket motor. Used initially for supersonic tests of aircraft models. The motor was a fast-burning version of Raven. Rook was fired 70 times altogether, in 65 flights and 16 different vehicle designs.

The Rook motor was 0.43 m in diameter and 5.28 m long. It contained a case-bonded charge of 846 kg of non-aluminized plastic propellant giving a total impulse of 1760 kN-seconds in 5.6 seconds; with a maximum thrust of 323 kN and a specific impulse of 213 seconds. The motor was capable of withstanding the 40g acceleration it provided during firing. It was employed as the first propulsion stage of the Leopard and Jaguar (Jabiru) supersonic test vehicles, and by itself in single-stage test applications. Thrust (sl): 313.000 kN (70,365 lbf).