I've never really looked into tip jets, so I don't know if this is the
practice, but if metallurgical sag was one of the key issues with high
temperature zones - would it be an option to orient the chambers normal to
the axis of rotation ie. so their axis is in line with the blades? Obviously
the inlets and outlets will need to be right angles to those chambers, but
that could be potentially advantageous - particularly with the outlets which
could be something resembling a conventional de-laval type nozzle that's
inline with the chamber axis (as per conventional) but blasting its exhaust
onto a 45deg angled blast plate that could perhaps utilise the aerodynamics
for cooling...
Okay okay... Forget that idea...
Troy
lives at...Having the rotor acting as a pump seemed like an easy alternative
to turbopumps...
Well, it's an *alternative* to turbopumps, but the "easy" part is more
doubtful. :-) Trouble is, it means that your engines spend their working
very high G, and this tends to make hot metal sag... and making it thicker
*doesn't help* because that adds mass too! Jeff Greason said (some years
later) that in such a system "you have to clever your way out"
of every stress problem, and that it really made him lose enthusiasm for
rotating machinery. Hence the change of approach.
Henry