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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 1011.PDF
-JLJ(> T, M-y 23rd, ig.\(>.—519 Possibilities and Limita- tions : Pure-Rocket and Turbine - cum - Rocket Intercepters : Examples from Qerman Practice By H. F. KING T 3is.cn HE unique properties of the liquid-fuel rocket (exceptional thrust for short duration at all heights) have established it as the power unit for supersonic pilotless weapons and for the larger and more elaborate forms of ground-to-air, air- to-air and air-to-ground missiles. It is often predicted that robot weapons will eventually displace piloted aircraft in all strategical and in many tactical roles, and there is little doubt that war rockets, inspired by the German A-4 ("V-2"), are the subject of the most earnest research by the Powers, while the ground-to-air rocket missile, already challenging the fighter as a bomber-destroyer, holds promise as a defence against such monsters. For aircraft propulsion, however, the value of the rocket is severely restricted by its inordinately high fuel consumption—14 or 15 times that of a gas turbine—while attendant disadvantages are the difficulty and danger of manufacturing, transporting, storing and handling the fuels at present required, explosion hazards in combat, and the necessity for providing special airfield installations and maintenance facilities. To some extent these handicaps are off- set by low initial cost, easy production and the possibility of de- veloping a fuel common to the gas turbine and liquid rocket and, serious as they may prove, they should not prevent the useful ap- plication of the rocket, if not as a main power unit, then as a sup- plementary plant to gas turbines The turbine-cum-rocket intercepter offers a higher rate of climb than the straight-turbine machine, with adequate endurance at operational height, but, as Mr. W. G. Carter, designer of the Meteor, has pointed out, the extent of development in this direc- tion depends largely upon the ability of improved gas turbines to benefit performance without rocket assistance.
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