FIRST STEPS TOWARD SPACE - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

102 SMITHSONIAN ANNALS OF FLIGHT
GIRD were merged into the Jet Propulsion Research
Institute (RNII). Within the walls of this
Institute was formed and tempered the creative
body of Soviet rocket engineers; also developed
here were a number of experimental ballistic and
winged missiles and the engines for them.
At the above Institute, the body of specialists in
liquid-propellant engines, which stemmed from the
GDL, between 1934 and 1938 developed the series
of experimental engines ORM-53 through ORM-
102 using nitric acid and tetranitromethane as oxidizers.
They also designed the first Soviet gas generator,
the GG-1, 3 that could operate for hours
using nitric acid with kerosene and water.
The ORM-65 engine, which passed official tests
in 1936, was the best engine of its time. Burning a
propellant of nitric acid plus kerosene, it had a
controlled thrust of 50 to 175 kg, and a specific impulse
of 210 sec; it could be started both manually
and automatically (see Figure 11). The ORM-65
engine successfully withstood repeated starts. Engine
ORM-65-1 was started 50 times on the ground,
this being adequate for 30.7 minutes of operation,
including 20 stand firings, 8 firing in a KR-212
winged rocket 4 and 21 firings in an RP-318 rocket
glider. 5 Engine ORM-65-2 had 16 starts, including
5 starts in a KR-212 winged rocket and 9 starts in
an RP-318 rocket glider (see Figures 12, 13 and 14).
The research work carried out by the GDL,
GIRD, and RNII was a valuable contribution to
the history of Soviet rocket science and engineering.
It was the GDL, the first Soviet establishment for
the development of rocket engines, that in 1929-
1933 created and successfully tested in operation the
world's first experimental electric rocket engines
and the first Soviet liquid-propellant rocket engines
ORM, ORM-1 through ORM-52 using liquid oxygen,
nitrogen tetroxide, nitric acid and toluene,
gasoline, and kerosene. The body of the research
workers stemming from the GDL, which later at the
RNII and after RNII continued to work on development
of liquid-propellant rocket engines operating
on various fuels, has created many other, more
powerful engines which have found widest application.
NOTES
1. RLA (Reaktivnyy Letatel'nyy Apparat) rocket vehicle.
2. ORM (Opytnyy Raketnyy Motor) experimental rocket
engine.
3. GG (Gazo-Generator) gas generator.
4. KR (Krylataya Raketa) winged rocket.
5. RP (Raketoplaner) rocket glider.