Word: soundingly
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Sonic control has many possibilities besides smoothing the pressure curve of burning fuel. It may develop into a way to program the complete flight of a solid-propellant missile. Shifting sound levels could vary the thrust to give the rocket better maneuvering capabilities; fuel might also be compounded that does not burn at all unless the rocket's cavity is filled with powerful sound, thus accomplishing total cutoff with the whistle. The big spaceships that NASA plans to toss into space will use clusters of rocket engines. If they are solid fueled and equipped with whistles, they could...
...This week Acoustica Associates, Inc. of Plainview, N.Y. announced an initial $85,188 contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to explore a radical new control that is as exciting as it is simple. The company thinks that it can handle solid fuels by filling the rocket with sound-plain, ordinary noise...
Hole in the Middle. Sound waves can perform the trick. When they pass through the reaction layer, they jostle the gases, make them mix and react either faster or slower, depending on the level of sound...
...forward end of the cylinder's cavity. While the cavity is still small, the whistle will screech at full power, increasing the burning rate of the fuel. As the cavity grows bigger, a valve will reduce the amount of gas passing through the whistle. The volume of sound will decrease, and so will the fuel's burning rate. If the valve is manipulated efficiently by some pressure-sensing instrument, it will keep the hot gas inside the rocket at constant pressure from take-off to burnout. Rocket walls can be made lighter, and the bird itself will...
...Fiddle on Top. Building a lightweight, sound-controlled rocket will not be easy. But Acoustica's engineers think that it is certainly possible. For a sound-making device, they intend to use a Levavasseur whistle that has no moving parts and can be made of heat-resistant material. The rocketeers figure that the best frequency to use is 10,000 cycles, about the pitch of a very high violin note. Yet the volume of sound must be well above the loudest fiddle; an ear-shattering 170 decibels, which is 100 times the sound pressure of a supersonic boom from...