Abstract: In order to meet the requirements of the rapid recovery of sounding rocket and reduce the development cost,a new type of sounding rocket skirt reel deceleration program was proposed. It has light weight,changeable expansion angle,expanded resistance area and some other advantages. The aerodynamic characteristics of the supersonic sounding rocket reducer were analyzed, the external flow field was simulated and analyzed. The influence of different taper angles on the aerodynamic characteristics and overload was given. The stress and strain of the external flow field, the pressure field and the gear unit were presented. The results show that the pneumatic resistance of the gear unit is obviously related to its cone angle and has the nonlinear characteristics, and the maximum stress of the reducer is less than the allowable stress. This paper can provide reference for the design of sounding rocket and new reducer.

Key words: pneumatic deceleration, mechanical deployment, sounding rocket recovery, reducer