ROCKETDYNE GIANT PIONEER IN ROCKET TECHNOLOGY: THE EARLIEST YEARS, 1945-1955
- Paper ID
IAF-97-IAA.2.2.08
- author
- company
National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution
- country
U.S.A.
- year
1997
- abstract
Rocketdyne, the largest producer and developer of large-scale liquid-propellant rocket engines in the U.S., was created in 1955 although it already had a considerable pre-history lasting almost a decade. This paper covers that period, but for ease in definition, the name Rocketdyne is retained in the title. Rocketdyne may be said to have sprung from two roots. One was the parent company, North American Aviation, Inc. (NAA), incorporated in 1928. The second was Germany’s wartime missile programs. Between 1934 to 1945, NAA was engaged solely in the design and manufacture of military aircraft ranging from the P-51 Mustang to the B-25 Mitchell bomber. These were outstanding aircraft though during the war the Americans in general assigned rockets and missiles a lower priority status in contrast to the Germans who introduced, experimentally or operationally, a wide variety of missiles, notably the air-breathing pulsejet-powered V-l and the V-2, the world’s first large-scale liquid-propellant rocket. Among other German missile projects, most of which appeared from 1944, were the Natter, Enzian, Hs. 294, Hs. 295, Hs. 298, Rheintochter R-l and R-2, Wasserfall, the X-4, X-7, Schmetterling, Rheinbote, and Taifun. The Americans mainly used small caliber sohd-fuel rockets during the conflict, the largest being the 11.75-in. [30 cm] Tiny Tim air-to-ground rocket although work was started in the latter stages of the war on modest liquid-fuel propelled missiles such as the Gorgon, as well as copies of the German air-breathing pulsejet-powered V-l, known as the JB-2 or Loon. There were also the Private A and F test missiles fired from December, 1944-April, 1945, but these used modified Aerojet solid-fuel JATOs as their motors and ranged to only 11.3 miles [18 km] maximum. Nothing, of course, could compare on the Allied side to the awesome V-2 in terms of its 56,000 lbs [25,400 kg] thrust, range of 200 miles [320 km], and unstoppable speed of 3,800 mph [6,117 km/hr].) 1.