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Old 02-23-2019, 02:23 AM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Default RJ-1 rocket kerosene?

Hello All,

The discussion about RP-1 rocket-grade kerosene, started by tbzep (see: http://www.oldrocketforum.com/showt...81&page=1&pp=10 ), just led me--accidentally--to another rocket kerosene fuel discovery:

While looking up (to confirm that its second stage did indeed use a STAR-37 solid rocket motor, the same motor--or a close derivative of it--that served as the Surveyor lunar landers' main retromotor) the Thor-Burner launch vehicles (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor-Burner ), I was surprised to read that their Thor first stages used a different type of rocket-grade kerosene, called RJ-1. According to the article (which contains links to other sources of Thor-Burner I, II, and IIA information), RJ-1 was (is?) "a higher grade of kerosene fuel that offered enhanced performance over standard RP-1." (Here is more material on the Thor-Burner I, II, and IIA [see: http://www.b14643.de/Spacerockets_2...ption/Frame.htm ] and on the Atlas-Burner II [see: http://www.b14643.de/Spacerockets_2...ption/Frame.htm and http://www.b14643.de/Spacerockets_2...ption/Frame.htm ]). But:

I had never heard of RJ-1 rocket kerosene before, and a brief Google search didn't bring up anything about it, other than the above-linked Thor-Burner article on Wikipedia. There ^was^, however, a reference to an RJ-1 *ramjet* kerosene fuel, which was developed in 1956 for the Navaho missile (see page 8 of this fuels report: https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a186752.pdf ). Its specification was cancelled in March 1983, but there were/are other ramjet fuels up to RJ-6. I can think of a possible explanation for the Thor-Burner vehicles using RJ-1 (which could also explain why RJ-1 isn't mentioned elsewhere in connection with launch vehicles):

Maybe the USAF had stocks of leftover RJ-1 ramjet fuel (which they found would work well in rocket engines, burning with LOX) that they used up in the Thor-Burner vehicles, since it was already bought and paid for? The entire Thor-Burner program--the launch vehicles as well as the satellites that they orbited--*was* developed as a low-cost one, using the old ex-RAF Thor IRBMs from England, mated with commonly-available, Altair-type United Technologies second stage motors (Thor-Burner I, also called Thor-Altair) and with STAR spherical second and third stage motors (Thor-Burner II and Thor-Burner IIA, respectively). There was also an Atlas-Burner II (using retired Atlas ICBMs topped by STAR 37 second stage motors), but the Thor-Burner vehicles were used in larger numbers.

If anyone can shed more light on this, by all means please do so--many thanks to anyone who can help!
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Old 02-23-2019, 11:07 AM
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The Jupiter, Thor, and Atlas engines were offshoots of the Navajo booster. I've never noticed if the Navajo booster used RJ-1. It would make sense logistically to use the same booster fuel as the sustaining ramjet.
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Old 02-24-2019, 03:00 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tbzep
The Jupiter, Thor, and Atlas engines were offshoots of the Navajo booster. I've never noticed if the Navajo booster used RJ-1. It would make sense logistically to use the same booster fuel as the sustaining ramjet.
You're right--all of those engines were descended directly from the Navaho booster engine (which if memory serves, was a single, two-chambered engine, like the earlier Atlas boosters), which in turn was a direct descendant of the V-2 rocket engine. That raises another question, though:

The RJ-X series fuels (RJ-1 through RJ-6, and that DTIC report also describes other such fuels, one of which was/is a blend of JP-10 and one or more other fuels) were/are *ramjet* fuels (hence the "RJ" designation), but did the Navaho's rocket booster burn RJ-1 and LOX, or RP-1 and LOX? It would, of course, have been logistically simpler if both the Navaho's rocket booster and its winged ramjet-powered sustainer could have used RJ-1 (and the Thor-Burner vehicles' apparent use of ^that^ RJ-1 appears to support this hypothesis).
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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
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http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
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