[AR] Re: The ol' peroxide leather demo
- From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2023 16:06:38 -0400 (EDT)
On Tue, 18 Apr 2023, roxanna Mason wrote:
In the early days of the X-1 and D-558 programs they were getting
explosions in the oxidizer systems.They traced the problem to the
leather gaskets.
Note, that was with LOX rather than peroxide. Not only were the gaskets
leather, but they were treated leather, impregnated with organic gunk of
some kind, which tended to ooze out in some conditions.
The key step in tracking down the problem was that after several in-flight
explosions, they finally had one happen *on the ground*, so they could
collect all the pieces and give everything a thorough inspection and
reconstruct the failure in detail.
(Reportedly, after the problem was tracked down, somebody actually asked
the material supplier whether it was LOX-compatible, and the answer was
"no!!". Many of the early problems with both LOX and peroxide came from,
by modern standards, gross negligence on materials compatibility. Too
many people just didn't understand, then, how important material choice
and cleanliness are when working with liquid oxidizers.)
Henry
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