Misplaced Pages

Rolls-Royce RZ.2

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
(Redirected from RZ.2)

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (May 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Rolls-Royce RZ.2" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
This article may require cleanup to meet Misplaced Pages's quality standards. The specific problem is: Article contains personal reflections in an unencyclopedic style. Please help improve this article if you can. (May 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
(Learn how and when to remove this message)
RZ.2
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Application1st stage booster
Liquid-fuel engine
PropellantLOX / kerosene
Performance
Thrust, sea-level137,000 lbf (610 kN)

The RZ.2 was a British design for a liquid oxygen (LOX) / kerosene-fuelled rocket engine to power the Blue Streak (missile).

The design was a development of the Rolls-Royce RZ.1 rocket engine, which had in turn been a development by Rolls-Royce of the Rocketdyne S-3D. Rolls-Royce, Ansty was the design authority.

Two variants of this engine were developed: the first provided a static thrust of 137,000 lbf (610 kN) and the second (intended for the three stage satellite launch vehicle) 150,000 lbf (670 kN). The engines could be vectored by seven degrees in flight for guidance.

Some disconnected facts for arrangement:

The Efflux chamber of the engine was made of nickel tubes brazed together through which flowed kerosene down one tube and back up the adjacent tube via a manifold at the mouth of the chamber. After static firings, these chambers were checked by climbing inside the engine from beneath. The mouth was 6 feet (1.8 m) in diameter but that of the throat was smaller, which restricted access to the inspector. In addition, during firing, the inside of the chamber became coated with fine carbon, making inspection a filthy procedure. However, the chamber required careful inspection because firing would occasionally create small holes in the walls.

At the head of the chamber was the injector plate with concentric circles of LOX and kerosene injectors arranged in such a way that the liquids jets hit one another, like on like. The outer ring, of kerosene injectors helped cool the tubes that formed the chamber walls. From memory, the LOX pressure was 720 psi (5.0 MPa) and the kerosene 450 psi (3.1 MPa). The start sequence was as follows: -10 secs The start tanks were pressurized. -7.5 secs The blade valves opened to allow fuel and oxidant to flow to the gas generator and on to the pump turbines. These turbines accelerated from 0 to 30,000 rpm in 32 ms and drove pumps through a 6 to 1 reduction gearbox which forced the propellants into the engines. -4 s main engine burn commenced. -2.5 s Full thrust was achieved. 0 s Vehicle release.

Lift off was required to be at 1.3 g to enable the ground equipment to be cleared. Bearing in mind the nature of the autopilot the vehicle tended to rotate about its long axis and move laterally at release as a result of standing small corrections implemented through the vectoring of the engines. With the RZ2 Mk 3 developing 150,000 lbf (670,000 N) of thrust this meant that the all up weight of the vehicle at lift off was about 230,000 lbf (1,000,000 N). Because of the limited gain change abilities of the autopilot, as the weight of the vehicle fell the corrections applied by vectoring the engines were more vigorous; at lighter weights and even on ground tests the engines were seen not to be entirely rigid as the mouth of the chamber moved slightly after the corrections were applied by the hydraulic rams. These rams were fed by hydraulic fluid at about 3,000 psi (21 MPa).

The dynamic pressure at the chamber mouth was about 6 psi (41 kPa).

Display examples

References

  1. "United Kingdom Aerospace and Weapons Projects: Rocket Engines". Skomer. Archived from the original on 22 April 2008.
  2. "Flight Global" (PDF). Retrieved 4 September 2018.
Rolls-Royce Limited aero engines
Piston engines
By name:
By company designation:
Rocket engines
Turbojets
Turbofans
Turboprops/Turboshafts
Rolls-Royce Barnoldswick (RB)
designations
Aero-derivative industrial
and marine engines
Piston engines:
Gas turbines:
Designers
See also Rolls-Royce Holdings and Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust
Rocket engines and solid motors for orbital launch vehicles
Liquid
fuel
Cryogenic
Hydrolox
(LH2 / LOX)
Methalox
(CH4 / LOX)
Semi-
cryogenic
Kerolox
(RP-1 / LOX)
Storable
Hypergolic (Aerozine,
UH 25, MMH, or UDMH
/ N2O4, MON, or HNO3)
Other
Solid
fuel
  • * Different versions of the engine use different propellant combinations
  • Engines in italics are under development
Categories:
Rolls-Royce RZ.2 Add topic