For more than a half-century, several types of altitude-compensating rocket nozzles have been proposed and analyzed, but very few have been adequately tested in a relevant flight environment. One type of altitude-compensating nozzle is the dual-bell rocket nozzle, which was first introduced into literature in 1949. Despite the performance advantages that have been predicted, both analytically and through static test data, the dual-bell nozzle has still not been adequately tested in a relevant flight environment. This presentation proposes a method for conducting testing and research with a dual-bell rocket nozzle in a flight environment. We propose to leverage the existing NASA F-15 airplane and Propulsion Flight Test Fixture as the flight testbed, with the dual-bell nozzle operating during captive-carried flights, and with the nozzle subjected to a local flow field similar to that of a launch vehicle. The primary objective of this effort is not only to advance the technology readiness level of the dual-bell nozzle, but also to gain a greater understanding of the nozzle mode transitional sensitivity to local flow-field effects, and to quantify the performance benefits with this technology. The predicted performance benefits are significant, and may result in reducing the cost of delivering payloads to low-Earth orbit.


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    Title :

    Proposed Flight Research of a Dual-Bell Rocket Nozzle Using the NASA F-15 Airplane


    Contributors:
    D. S. Jones (author) / T. T. Bui (author) / J. H. Ruf (author)

    Publication date :

    2013


    Size :

    14 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    Proposed Flight Research of a Dual-Bell Rocket Nozzle Using the NASA F-15 Airplane

    Jones, Daniel S. / Bui, Trong T. / Ruf, Joseph H. | NTRS | 2013


    Proposed Flight Research of a Dual-Bell Rocket Nozzle Using the NASA F-15 Airplane

    Jones, Daniel S. / Bui, Trong T. / Ruf, Joseph H. | AIAA | 2013


    Proposed Flight Research of a Dual-Bell Rocket Nozzle Using the NASA F-15 Airplane

    Jones, Daniel S. / Bui, Trong T. / Ruf, Joseph H. | NTRS | 2013


    Proposed Flight Research of a Dual-Bell Rocket Nozzle Using the NASA F-15 Airplane

    Jones, Daniel S. / Bui, Trong T. / Ruf, Joseph H. | NTRS | 2013