History of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines

This book, written by one of the foremost experts in rocket propulsion, gives an account of the liquid propellant rocket engine field over the last four-score and more years. It is the story about the technological advances that allowed progressive improvements in design, analysis, thrust magnitude, reliability, cost, and performance ; where and when those advances were made, including unique engines from the countries most important to this technology ; the groups, companies, or organizations of engineers, specialists, and dedicated people who made it happen ; and the different kinds of flight vehicles that have been propelled by liquid propellant rocket engines. It describes the early pioneers, amateur rocket societies, evolution of key hardware components, past investigations of different liquid propellants, reorganizations and mergers of key companies, and the principal areas of current and former applications. Both large pump-fed rocket engine and low thrust ensta gas-pressure-fed rocket engines with multiple thrusters are included.