History of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines

928 Pages·2005·21.69 MB·English

by  George P. Sutton

History
of Liquid
Propellant
Rocket Enaines

History
of Liquid
Propellant
Rocket Engines
George P. Sutton
American institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
1801 Alexander Bell Drive
Reston, Virginia 20191-4344
Publishers since 1930
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., Reston, Virginia
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file. 12 3 4 5
Cover design by David C. Milam
Copyright © 2006 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights
reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
distributed, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval sys
tem, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Data and information appearing in this book are for informational purposes only. AIAA is not
responsible for any injury or damage resulting from use or reliance, nor does AIAA warrant that
use or reliance will be free from privately owned rights.
CONTENTS
t / •w r _-
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Glossary of Abbreviations and Symbols xv
1. Introduction 1
2. Merits of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines and Their Applications 5
2.1 Why Were Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines Used? 5
2.2 Early Applications 6
2.3 Current Applications 16
3. Technology Trends and Historical Changes 23
3.1 Expanding the Range of the Thrust, 0.01 to 1,800,000 Ibf 23
3.2 Increasing the Chamber Pressure 25
3.3 So Many Liquid Propellants 25
3.4 Engines Can Come in Families 27
3.5 Thrust-to-Engine Weight Ratio Has Gone Up 28
3.6 Costs Have Gone Down 29
3.7 Extra Functions Have Increased Engine Complexity 29
3.8 Reliable Operations Were Achieved 32
4. Technology and Hardware 33
4.1 Propellants, Past and Present 33
4.2 Engine Systems 54
4.3 Large Thrust Chambers 74
4.4 Turbopumps 108
4.5 Gas Generators, Preburners, and Chemical Tank Pressurization 131
4.6 Small Thrusters for Attitude Control and Trajectory Corrections 147
4.7 Controls, Valves, and Interconnecting Components 182
4.8 Starting and Ignition 201
4.9 Steering or Flight Trajectory Control 218
4.10 Combustion and Vibrations 228
5. The Early Years, 1903 to the 1940s 241
5.1 Konstantin E. Tsiolkowsky 241
5.2 Robert H. Goddard 247
vi Contents
5.3 Hermann Oberth 271
5.4 Other Pioneers 276
5.5 Amateur Rocket Societies 281
5.6 Early Team Efforts 289
6. Liquid Propellant Rocket-Engine Organizations,
Worldwide, 1932 to 2003 293
7. Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines in the United States (Summary) 303
7.1 Liquid Propellant Rocket Engine Developers and Manufacturers
in the United States 307
7.2 Reaction Motors, Inc. 311
7.3 General Electric Company 327
7.4 Curtiss-Wright Corporation 346
7.5 M.W. Kellogg Company 351
7.6 Walter Kidde and Company 356
7.7 Aerojet Propulsion Company, a Subsidiary Unit of Gen Corp, Inc. 359
7.8 The Boeing Company, Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power 404
7.9 Propulsion Products Center, Northrop Grumman Corporation 474
7.10 Pratt & Whitney, a United Technologies Company 491
7.11 Atlantic Research Corporation (ARC), Liquid Rocket Division 510
8. Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines in Russia, Ukraine, and the former
Soviet Union 531
8.1 Early History (1929-1944) 532
8.2 Rocket Engines for Piloted Aircraft 559
8.3 Organizations Working on Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines 577
8.4 NPO Energomash 585
8.5 KB Khimautomatiki or Chemical Automatics Design Bureau 629
8.6 KB Khimmash or Chemical Machinery Design Bureau 661
8.7 Nil Mashinostroeniya or the R&D Institute of Mechanical
Engineering 684
8.8 NPO Saturn, formerly OKB Lyulka 693
8.9 OKB Kuznetsov, Reorganized as NPO Samara 698
8.10 NPOYouzhnoye 710
8.11 Korolev's Design Bureau, Later NPO Energiya 721
8.12 OKB Fakel 725
8.13 R&D Institutes 726
8.14 Summary of Soviet or Russian Efforts in Liquid Propellant
Rocket Engines 728
9. Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines in Germany 737
9.1 Early Efforts and Early Propellant Evaluations 738
9.2 The Army Research Station at Peenemunde 740
9.3 Hellmuth Walter Corporation 754
9.4 Bayrische Motoren Werke (Bavarian Motor Works) 763
9.5 German Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines Since 1945 769
10. France's Liquid Propellant Rocket-Engine History 785
11. Japan's Liquid Propellant Rocket-Engine History 815
Contents vii
12. Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines in the United Kingdom or Britain 843
13. Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines in the People's Republic of China 865
14. Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines in India 881
15. General Findings, Comments, and Conclusions 887
About the Author 895
Index 897
Supporting Materials 911

PREFACE
v** >
* ** * #
The idea of writing a historical book did not occur to me until I had a
phone call in 2001 from Vigor Yang, the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of
Propulsion and Power. He asked me to write this book, because he
believed that a written history was needed, and I was one of the few people
still alive, who had personal experience with early liquid propellant rocket
engines (LPRE) in the United States, and who was still active in this field after
retirement.
At that time I really was not aware of the large amount of effort needed to
research this subject, find old reference documents, obtain permissions of
copyrighted material, or contact and obtain information from others, who had
contributed to this field. Perhaps the most time-consuming work was to verify
and validate the historical data on specific rocket engines in several countries,
early pioneers in this endeavor, and the key organizations who were dedicated
to developing new rocket engines. The book covers principal events in the
United States as well as in other countries that had a significant effort in
several types of LPREs.
The book has been written from the perspective of an engineer in this field
with emphasis on LPRE technology; engine developments; design, ground or
flight testing; and flight applications. It covers the timing of the introduction of
key technical features in the history of LPREs and the impact of key develop
ments primarily on engines that have flown successfully. A number of unusual
and technically interesting engines, which were not flown, are also discussed.
The book covers most of the larger (higher thrust) rocket engines which have
actually flown and many of the numerous smaller rocket engines or thrusters.
While the book also gives the names and some details about key personalities
and a few of the early pioneers, the emphasis is on the evolution of the tech
nology, the key rocket engine characteristics, and the major development/
manufacturing organizations in this field.
There are many sources of information for this book. These sources include
technical papers presented at technical meetings, company brochures, com
pany data sheets, photos, patents, official and unofficial reports, internet sites,
press releases, and other written documents. Some of the best sources were dis
cussions and correspondence with people, who were key investigators or
designers and had done some of the early work in this field. A good number of
them were eager to provide information. Their contributions were indeed appre
ciated and their names are given in the text and the acknowledgment section.
ix