[AR] Re: Dual-thrust solid motors: their history?
- From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: arocket <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2021 17:01:29 -0500 (EST)
On Thu, 25 Feb 2021, Dr Edward Jones wrote:
When I worked on the Hawk motor design at Aerojet in 1957, that was
apparently a great leap forward in propulsion...
I wonder now if Hawk was the first to develop this dual-propellant
concept? Where was it used before 1957?
Gunston's "Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Rockets & Missiles"
says the Hawk motor was the first dual-thrust solid in large-scale
production, suggesting that it had less-successful predecessors, but
doesn't elaborate.
And something I do not get to this day, is how is the nozzle throat
area configured? If it is optimum for the ~5-sec boost phase, the
~20-sec sustainer phase would necessarily be way off optimum, no?
And if the sustainer runs at nearly optimum At and Pc, how does that
affect the boost burn?
My first thought would be to optimize for sustainer burn and accept a
relatively inefficient boost burn, but some intermediate point might be
better overall (and I'm not a solids guy...).
Henry
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