If you're going Red go all the way, MDA, Max Density Acid, 103#/Ft3 with
44% dissolved NO2.
But it's kind of digressing since there's no real need for maximum density
impulse for the amatuer.
K
On Mon, Mar 1, 2021 at 4:30 PM Michael Kelly <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I know of at least one effort (and am told there are many more) to use
ammonia borane in a hybrid rocket, with IRFNA as the oxidizer. No reason
why WFNA wouldn't work, but IRFNA gives better performance, and isn't
nearly the danger that NTO is (especially if it is gelled). Having a
hypergolic hybrid may get rid of some of the usual performance issues that
make hybrids "a combination of the features of both solids and liquids,
with the advantages of neither." Wish I could say more, but I can't - and
Purdue evidently is unaware of it, since they're kind of reinventing the
wheel.
On March 1, 2021 at 12:23 PM, Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On Mon, 1 Mar 2021, James Fackert wrote:
new safer hypergolic propellant?
https://www.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/tb/insiders/pit/storie
s/38688?utm_source=TB_Photonic_News&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20210301&
oly_enc_id=8686C2280356C0S
The part they gloss over, alas, is that it's the *oxidizer* that's the big
threat in the classical hypergolics -- the hydrazines are dangerous, yes,
but it's the N2O4 that's really bent on climbing out of its tank and
killing you right now. And this still needs an oxidizer.
The fact that it's a solid is also rather an inconvenience.
If all you want is something that's not hydrazine and is hypergolic with
WFNA, that problem was solved long ago: furfuryl alcohol is a fairly
inexpensive, stable, carbon-neutral, reasonably-safe industrial solvent
that can be bought by the tank-car-load today. Hard to get research
grants for studying it, though. :-)
Henry