A survey of papers dealing with the optimisation of multi-stage rockets is presented first. These papers contain investigations, in terms of suitable non-dimensional parameters, about the dependence of the performance of rockets on the mass ratios of various components of the structure, the payload, the thrust, and the specific impulse. Then a condition is derived for the most favourable instant at which, for a given trajectory, the transition from one stage of a multi-stage rocket to the next one occurs. If each stage of a multi-stage rocket is ignited at the very moment the preceding stage is burnt out, and if the mass of the burnt-out stage is shed simultaneously from the rest of the rocket, the propellant would have to be distributed over the various stages in such a way that the ratio of the rocket acceleration over the mass flow at cut-off prior to shedding equals the same ratio at ignition of the next stage after shedding, in order to obtain the maximum cut-off velocity of the last stage. In order to achieve a ceiling of the trajectory as high as possible or a range as large as possible, the most favourable time is generally lagging slightly behind that for the maximum cut-off velocity. (Author)
Ein Beitrag zur Theorie der Stufenraketan (A Contribution to the Theory of Multistage Rockets)
1961
10 pages
Report
No indication
English
Contribution to theory of multistage rockets
Engineering Index Backfile | 1961
|COST-OPTIMIZING MULTISTAGE ROCKETS
NTRS | 1963
|Cost Optimization of Multistage Rockets
NTIS | 1967
|Cost optimization of multistage rockets
NTRS | 1967
|On optimization of multistage rockets
Engineering Index Backfile | 1958
|