Word: thiokol
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Inside Out. The 3,000,000-lb.-thrust engine was constructed by Thiokol Chemical Corp. to prove the feasibility of very large, solid-propellant boosters. It is 100 ft. long, 156 in. in diameter, paced with 800,000 Ibs. of ammonium perchlorate and powdered aluminum held together with synthetic rubber. This potent stuff is cured in a single carefully shaped "grain" with a star-shaped cavity and burns from the inside out. The nozzle is made of plastic, spun silica and fibrous graphite...
...reported doing well after five years and $289 million of development cost, but it has not flown yet; and even more money and time must be lavished on it before a cluster of F-1s can be considered a safe enough booster for the ride to the moon. Thiokol's 156-in. motor, twice as powerful as the Fl, worked the first time. Its development cost was only...
President Harold Ritchie of Thiokol is confident that in 2½ years he can have a cluster of four solid-fuel motors with 28 million Ibs. of thrust flying at a cost far below the price of an equivalent liquid-fuel booster. A cheap backup booster with such enormous power might easily save the moon program from half a decade of frustration...
...baffles that keep the propellants from escaping before they have mixed and burned. Baffles and other improvements, says Ordahl, have boosted combustion efficiency to 90% in some U.T.C. hybrids. Aerojet-General Corp. has a different kind of baffle that is said to get 95% . The Reaction Motors Division of Thiokol Chemical Corp. believes that good burning under variable conditions can best be had by injecting extra oxidizer near the rear of the combustion chamber or downstream from the baffles...
...firm is their faith in the advantages of solids, four large rocket companies are putting millions of their own, dollars into development-a rare gamble in the Government-nurtured aerospace industry. In addition to Lockheed, Thiokol Chemical Corp., maker of the Minuteman booster, has put $12 million into a Georgia plant to build solid-propellant engines up to 21 ft. 8 in, in diameter with 3,000,000 Ibs. of thrust. Aerojet-General Corp., maker of the Navy's Polaris booster, is doing the same near Miami. The United Technology Center of United Aircraft is building smaller solids...