FIRST STEPS TOWARD SPACE - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

NUMBER 10 239
by transmitting a considerable amount of residual
heat. In a closed loop, the water finally is taken in
by the pump. The steam turbine drives the fuel-,
lox-, and water-fed pumps mounted on a common
shaft.
The patent, "Verfahren zum Betrieb eines Raketenmotors
mit Dampfkraftmaschinenhilfsantrieb"
(Procedure for Operating a Rocket Engine with a
Supplemental Steam-Driven Prime Mover), was
granted on 15 March 1940, and filed as German
secret patent 380/40, class 46 g. It contained 5 claims
(the concepts described in this patent are shown in
Figure 1):
1. Procedure for operating a rocket engine, the propellants
of which are entirely carried on-board the propelled vehicle,
with cooled thrust-chamber walls and supplemental
steam-driven prime mover for feeding propellants and
coolants, characterized by a combustion-chamber coolant
which evaporates solely by cooling the combustion-
chamber wall and is then used to power the supplemental
steam-driven prime mover.
2. . by circulating in a closed loop the coolant used for
cooling the chamber wall and driving the steam engine.
3. . . by exhausting the coolant for the chamber walls and
the steam engine into the open directly after exiting from
the steam engine or after passage through the thrust
chamber.
4. ... by a coolant which cools the chamber wall, drives
the steam engine, consists of rocket propellants and, after
having performed its turbine work, is fed into the rocket
engine combustion chamber to burn.
5. Process according to claims nos. 1 and 2, characterized by
using a coolant with high thermal conductivity; for example,
mercury.
On 9 January 1939, assembly began of a test
stand for the first rocket engine with 1000-kg thrust
and regenerative forced-flow cooling; and on 24
February 1939, the test area G 1 was officially turned
over to Sanger. On 27 June 1939—still with pressure-fed
propellants—the first test firings with
FIGURE 2.—Supersonic exhaust gases from the nozzle of 100-kg experimental rocket motor using
aluminum dispersed in diesel oil fuel.