FIRST STEPS TOWARD SPACE - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

NUMBER 10 181
FIGURE 2.—Second stage of ramjet-rocket vehicle being lowered onto launching rack.
For launching the torpedo into the air, it was installed
in a launching ramp.
The launch took place at 22.40.
The torpedo tests yielded the following results.
The torpedo left the launching device and rose vertically.
A second later, due to the aerodynamic brake, the powder
rocket separated from the torpedo and fell. At that moment
die ramjet engine cut in. A trace of hot exhaust products
directed downward followed the exhaust nozzle. The engine
burn was smooth and steady, and lasted 5.5 sec (according
to the fuel available). The engine cut-in resulted in a great
increase in flight velocity, the torpedo moving upwards with
an increasing velocity during the entire period of the engine
burn. The fuel having been consumed, the torpedo went on
coasting. The whole flight was stable and precisely vertical.
The rocket flight allowed us to establish the fact that the
operation of the ramjet engine was reliable and the flight
velocity increased owing to this engine operation.
The rocket tests clearly demonstrated the fact of an accelerated
vertical flight upward of the ramjet vehicle.
These tests proved in practice the possibility of creating
a ramjet that can develop at subsonic velocities a positive
thrust that will exceed the drag and even the sum of drag
forces and weights
That was the end of the second phase of the efforts
by Soviet scientists and designers to create ramjets.
Ramjet Flight Tests in Aircraft
The creation of a ramjet engine for aircraft was
also of great importance. It opened the way for the
development of those engines and their subsequent
use in rockets. Aircraft could serve as excellent flying
laboratories for carrying out thorough investigations
of ramjets in flight.
On 3 July 1939, Merkulov presented to a meeting
of the Technical Council of the Aircraft Industry
Peoples' Commissariat a report that gave
the experimental results on ramjets used in rockets
and set forth further objectives for ranijet investigations,
including improvement of its structure, and
its application in aviation.
He proposed to use the ramjet in combination
with the engine of a propeller-driven aircraft. The
ramjets were to be used as auxiliary engines to increase
maximum flight velocity. At that time the
internal-combustion unit was the only powerplant
applicable in aircraft in practice. It provided a high
take-off and cruise economy plus good maneuverability
of the aircraft in flight. At the same time a
lightweight ramjet could allow the pilot to in-