History of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines (Library of Flight) by George Sutton

by George P. Sutton

To this date liquid propellant rocket engines have propelled all the manned space flights, all the space vehicles flying to the planets or deep space, virtually all satellites, and the majority of medium range or intercontinental range ballistic missiles. Furthermore forces or turning moments provided by liquid propellant rocket engines have almost universally controlled the flight path direction and flight maneuvers of essentially all space vehicles. They have been an important essential enabling ingredient for space flight.This new book, written by one of the foremost experts in rocket propulsion, gives an account of the liquid propellant rocket engine field over the last fourscore 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.You will learn about 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 gas-pressure-fed rocket engines with multiple thrusters are included.In addition to the United States, histories of rocket engines in Russia, Ukraine, Germany, France, Japan, United Kingdom, People's Republic of China, and India are discussed. this includes some unusual or novel engine features.About the George P. Sutton has been active in the design, research, development, testing, teaching, installation, and management of rocket propulsion since 1943 and was personally involved in several early historic liquid propellant rocket engine programs and solid propellant rocket motor projects. In the aerospace industry, he worked for three years at Aerojet Engineering Company and for more than 25 years at Rocketdyne (a part of The Boeing Company at the time of publication) where he held several positions, including Executive Director of Engineering and Director of Long Range Planning.His book Rocket Propulsion Elements (currently in its seventh edition) is the classic text on this subject. It has been translated into three other languages and is used by more than 40 colleges worldwide. First published in 1949, it has been in print longer than any other known aerospace text. For 11 years Sutton served as a member of the propulsion panel of the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. In academia he was the Hunsaker Professor of Aeronautical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has been on the faculty of the California Institute of Technology. He has worked for the United States government as Chief Scientist of the Advanced Research Projects Agency in the Department of Defense, where he started major propulsion programs, and as a project leader at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. For several years he was an officer in two commercial companies and has been a member of the board of directors of two industrial private companies.Sutton is an AIAA Fellow, a past president of the American Rocket Society (predecessor society of the AIAA), an author of 50 technical articles, the recipient of several professional society awards, and has been listed in several biographical references, including "Who's Who in the World."

Genres: Engineering

Hardcover

First published November 1, 2005

Reviews

[George Leyland · Rating 4 out of 5]

esoteric