Rocket Propellants T H I S i s the second symposium sponsored by the ACS on a subject concerned with rockets. It is more explicitly devoted to the subject of rocket propellants. In retrospect it may appear surprising that until World W a r I rockets were so poorly developed that they competed in neither range nor accuracy with guns. Throughout their long history, before World W a r I, the only propellant considered for their use was some form of black powder. Not until the work o f Dr. Goddard, begun in 1909, was there an investigation of liquid-propellant systems, such as gasoline and liquid oxygen. Goddard thought that the system liquid hydrogen-liquid oxygen would even b e suitable for an interplanetary rocket. He was also one o f the first to experiment with the double-base (nitrocellulosenitroglycerin) type o f solid propellant. Later, in World W a r II, liquid-propellant systems were introduced that used gasoline, alcohol, and aromatic amines, as fuels, and liquid oxygen, hydrogen peroxide, and fuming nitric acid, as oxidizers. Since the war there has been extensive investigation o f both solid- and liquid-propellant rockets such that now both have well established uses. At first there developed a rather widespread belief that all big rockets, such as the V-2, would be propelled b y liquid fuels and oxidizers and that solid propellants would probably be used only for small rockets, such as the bazooka, or for short-range rockets that had trajectories of not more than a few miles. The growing importance o f solid propellants has changed this point of view to the extent that now solid propellants have been considered not only for long-range missiles but even for multiplestep rockets, including possible satellite missiles. This symposium includes discussions of both liquid and solid propellants. The first paper develops the physical, chemical, and mathematical bases on which the operation of rocket propellants depends. There follow three papers on solid propellants-one describes desired characteristics, and the others discuss evaluation and inspection. There are four papers on the practical aspects o f certain liquid propellants, including ozone, and five papers dealing with fundamental investigations, including the study o f flames and studies o f the thermal decomposition products of both solid propellants and simple liquid propellants. There i s included, finally, a review o f methods for the safe handling o f the very reactive chemicals used as propellants. The objective o f the symposium has been to make available to a larger scientific audience than heretofore has had access to such information, a body of factual material, experimental techniques, and some rational speculation that could arouse a more widespread interest and stimulate the generation o f new ideas in this very important field. A. W . SLOAN
April 1956
PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF PROPELLANTS Arthur J. Stosick
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722
FUEL-BINDER REQUIREMENT FOR COMPOSITE PROPELLANTS William F. Arendale
................
725
RHEOLOGY OF COMPOSITE SOLID PROPELLANTS P.
J. Blatz
....................
727
INSPECTION OF LOADED ROCKETS Jack Buchanan and B. D. Herbert
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730
TETRANITROMETHANE AS OXIDIZER Johann G. Tschinkel.
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732
EXPLOSION LIMITS OF OZONE-OXYGEN MIXTURES G. A. Cook, Edward Spodinger, A, D. Kiffer, and C. V. Klumpp
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736
OZONE AND OZONE-OXYGENMIXTURES G. M. Platz and C. K. Hersh
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742
CONCENTRATED HzOz AS A PROPELLANT
N. S. Davis, Jr., and John H. Keefe
.........
745
COMBUSTION IN ROCKETS C.H.Trent
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INFRARED SPECTRA OF PROPELLANT FLAMES
749
..
759
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762
A. D. Dickson, 8. L. Crawford, Jr., and D. L. Rotenberg.
THERMAL DECOMPOSITION OF NITRITE ESTERS Joseph B. Levy.
NITRATE ESTER FLAMES Rudolph Steinberger
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766
DECOMPOSITION OF CARBON-NITRO COMPOUNDS Kenneth A. W i l d e
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769
LIQUID PROPELLANT HANDLING AND STORAGE Paul M. Terlizzi and Howard Streim
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774
Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, ACS, 128th Meeting, Minneapolis, Minn.
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
721
