No doubt this query has been in many past threads, all of which I've
missed. Forgive please for asking once again.
Regarding the Aerojet 15KS-1000 JATO motors, still in supply among
scrap yards here and there in places like Carrizozo, Tularosa,
Alamogordo, as purpose-built for reuse, easily reloadable, and for
many years fully licensed by CAA (FAA) for commercial airlines,
they're selling at ~$500 each in good condition, often without the
igniter assembly.
A beauty of these motors is the well-designed and proven
burst-diaphragm system. That's certainly not to suggest they're
harmless, by any means. Still and yet, "factory service manuals" are
in circulation. Original formulations and nominal performance are
well-known.
Who among us has refurbished and reloaded an Aerojet 15KS-1000 motor?
And to what effect? Grin.
I'm writing this from the edge of New Mexico Tech in Socorro, a few
roadrunner hops from the High Energy Materials Research Test Center,
complete with in-house rocket sleds. tracks and much that doesn't meet
the eye. Almost daily, windows rattle across this desert town, as tons
of propellant and HE are put to work. This started as New Mexico
School of Mines, evolving from their blasting college.
That's just about in my backyard, and in the other direction lies
WSMR, circa 25 miles to the south east. Trinity Site is roughly 35
miles from here. The Very Large Array (VLA) radiotelescope ranch [more
than a farm, here] is in the desert flat, perhaps 45 mi west. North
are Los Alamos and Sandia National Labs (parallel yet different atomic
weaponry missions); ballistic missiles sail overhead from Fort
Wingate, targeting WSMR. Others soar in from Green River UT and
elsewhere. Within 50 miles or so are the historic and noteworthy Red
Rock Canyon and Orogrande and McGregor Nike training ranges. Did I
mention Fort Bliss, where Werner von Braun drank Corona cerveza in the
late 40s? And the classic former "Air Development Center" now called
Holloman AFB, adjacent to White Sands and WSPG/WSMR. I came here first
just before Sputnik One, in 1957, as a student-trainee (chemical
engineering) part time with the Army (GS-2, $1.17 per hour) and the
rest with the Aggies at New Mexico A&MA just over the Organ Mtns.
Edward