V46 Chapter 3text (original) (raw)

Wernher von Braun's "Rocket Team" and America's Military-Industrial Complex

The story of Wernher von Braun and his rocket team's harrowing escape from the collapsing Third Reich into the warm embrace of a former enemy is one of the more exciting and significant moments from the final days of World War II. As the Red Army approached the Peenemünde complex on the Baltic coast, the SS, who assumed control of the V-2 program in late 1944, evacuated personnel and material into the interior of the country. Fearing the SS would rather liquidate him and his elite team of scientists and technicians than allow them to fall into enemy hands, von Braun and his inner circle disappeared into the Bavarian countryside and patiently awaited contact with American troops. It was the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship. More than the freighters full of equipment and caches of documents recovered from caves and hastily abandoned warehouses, the "German brains" who designed and built the

Martin Summerfield and His Princeton University Propulsion and Combustion Laboratory

47th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit, 2011

Martin Summerfield (1916-1996) pioneered in rocket propulsion and combustion research. He had key roles in transforming the American Rocket Society into a leading professional organization and a precursor to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). In 1940, he began his career as a California Institute of Technology (Caltech) graduate student working for Theodore von Kármán on the Army Air Corps Jet Propulsion Project to demonstrate the first US jet-assisted takeoff (JATO) units in 1942. From 1942 to 1949, as a founder of Aerojet Engineering Corporation and as a manager at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he led development of liquid-propellant propulsion and planning for long-range missiles. The JPL liquid propulsion contributions are described in the context of the propulsion accomplishments of Goddard and the German teams led by von Braun and Walter. In 1949, Summerfield came to Princeton University as Editor of the Princeton Series; in 1950, he received his first faculty appointment. He went on to establish a renowned solid-rocket propulsion and combustion laboratory. Following his retirement from Princeton University in 1978, he devoted more time to his company, Princeton Combustion Research Laboratory. This paper focuses on his Princeton University laboratory and his graduate students. Research in his laboratory yielded fifty dissertations and theses; all include aspects of combustion. Anecdotes are included to illustrate how Professor Summerfield's experiences gave him keen insights into preparing his students for practical problems and hardware.

THE HISTORY OF SOLID-PROPELLANT ROCKETRY: WHAT WE DO AND DO NOT KNOW

Contributions to the evolution of solid-propellant rocketry have come from a variety of sources. World War II research on large solids enabled one company to capitalize on work in the area of castable double-base propellants. Separate development of castable composite propellants led to production of Polaris and Minuteman powerplants. Pivotal to the development of these missiles were Edward Hall's advocacy of the Minuteman missile within the Air Force and contract funding to resolve problems. The discovery that adding large amounts of aluminum significantly increased the specific impulse of a castable composite propellant further aided large-missile technology. These separate lines of research led to the development of large solidpropellant motors and boosters. Many more discoveries went into the development of large solid-propellant motors. Ammonium perchlorate replaced potassium perchlorate as an oxidizer in the late 1940's, and binders were developed. Discoveries important in the evolution of large solid-propellant motors appear to have resulted from innovators' education and skills, an exposure to contemporary problems, an awareness of theory but a willingness not to let it dictate empirical investigations, and proper empirical techniques. Other important contributions are the adequate funding and exchange of information. However, many questions remain about these and other innovations.

Ignition An informal history of liquid rocket propellants20191022 51957 n1lvdg

John D. Clark, 1972

Millions of words have been written about rocketry and space travel, and almost as many about the history and development of the rocket. But if anyone is curious about the parallel history and development of rocket propellants — the fuels and the oxidizers that make them go —he will find that there is no book which will tell him what he wants to know. There are a few texts which describe the propellants currently in use, but nowhere can he learn why these and not something else fuel Saturn V or Titan II, or SS-9. In this book I have tried to make that information available, and to tell the story of the development of liquid rocket propellants: the who, and when, and where and how and why of their development. The story of solid propellants will have to be told by somebody else.

Liquid-hydrogen rocket engine development at Aerojet, 1944 - 1950

1977

In the early 20th century, many early rocket pioneers favored liquid hydneen; however, mne of them used hydrogen as a rocket fie1 because of its extreme physical properties and scarcity. difficult is a boiling point of-426O at one atmosphere, and a density about one-seventh that of water. Interest in the methods and apparatus used i n hydrogen gas liquefaction increased sigrdficantly in the mid-1940s when handling methods w e r e developed t o supply liquid hydrogen f o r the steadily increasing requirements of basic research. The authors had the good fortune t o participate i n one of the earliest programs i n t, 2 G n i t e d States t o systematically investigate hydrogen-oxygen propellants for higbenergy rocket en3he application. Fran late in 1944 t o the cession of tests i n August 1949, tne hydrogen-oxygen programs at t h e Aerojet Gmeral Corporation, under t h e SponSGPShip of the Navy BL;reau of Aeronautics, a d m c e d these propellant.., f r o m theoretical performance studies t o practical sources of high specific impulse. thrust 4xu&ers, investigated the concept of ablative-cooled thrust chunbers, developed the first successfhl 1,000-lb-thst gaseous-propellant rocket engine, conducted t h e first tests of the effect of jet overexpansion and separation on performance of rocket Illustrative of t h e properties that make practical handling Specifically, t h i s work tested transpiration-cooled +Presented at t h e Fourth History Symposium of the 1nternat.iorx-1 kadderrly of wG.H. Osborn, Assistant, t o the Vice President, EngPieering <pe?ations, Aerojet Astronautics, Constaxe, G e m Federal Repkblic, OctQber 197C.