SHUTTLE REPLACEMENT WILL FEATURE ROCKET INNOVATION

July 31, 1996
Source: AUFORA News update
A new rocket design which will be used on the upcoming X-33 prototype design, is literally turning rocketry inside out.

Instead of using the familiar cone design in which flames are contained within the cone, the new rocket will instead shoot its flames along the outside surface of an inverted cone or curved surface. The new design is expected to be more efficient, and to be an overall simpler design.

Proponents of this "aerospike" engine say that because combustion gases are constrained by the rocket structure on only one side, they will be able to adjust to atmospheric pressure changes, improving thrust. The aerospike will be used in Lockheed Martin's X-33 prototype of a resusable, single stage to orbit, launch vehicle (the Venture Star). Two aerospikes will power the X-33.

Aerospikes replace the large combustion chamber of conventional rockets, using instead an array of smaller thrusters. The X-33 and the Venture Star will use linear aerospikes in which parellel lines of combustors fire out onto a curved rectangular surface.

The X-33 can generate 205,000 pounds of thrust using its 20 small combustors. The Venture Star will be able to create 431,000 pounds of thrust with only 14 combustors.

Back to UFO news update menu

All rights reserved to WUFOC and NÄRKONTAKT. If you reprint or quote any part of the content, you must give credit to: WUFOC, the free UFO-alternative on the Internet, http://www.tripnet.se/home/west/ufocentr.htm