Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC
Pratt & Whitney has launched a new venture aimed at developing a next-generation rocket engine for use in launch vehicle upper stages.
The US company has teamed with Sweden's Volvo Aero, Japan's Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (IHI) and Russia's Chemical Automatics Design Bureau (CADB) to build a full-scale demonstrator of a liquid-hydrogen-fuelled 60,000lb (267kN) thrust-class rocket engine designated the RL60.
P&W has initiated component fabrication leading to testing later this year and plans a full-scale engine demonstrator test at the end of 2002. If the RL60 proceeds into full-scale development, the engine could be ready for service by the end of 2005, says P&W.
This is a slip of two years over the company's original plan, announced in July 1999, to develop the RL50 upper-stage engine for future versions of the Boeing Delta and Lockheed Martin Atlas launchers. This was rolled into efforts to team with Snecma on development of the SPW2000 upper-stage engine for the Ariane 5, as well as future Atlas and Delta vehicles. Talks with Snecma failed, and last June the European Space Agency decided to pursue its own engine programme, designated Vinci.
The RL60 is intended to cover the same 50,000-65,000lb thrust range as the RL50. The engine will be the same size as P&W's current RL10 upper stage used on the Atlas and Delta, but will produce twice the thrust. IHI will provide the hydrogen turbopump and CADB the liquid oxygen turbopump.
Volvo Aero will provide the regeneratively cooled nozzle, which will use the Swedish company's patented sandwich construction technology. This involves forming a cone from 3-5mm thick sheet metal, then milling out the cooling channels. An outer jacket is laser-welded over the cone, which is then formed into its final bell shape.
Source: Flight International
