3 ms·
Nice article, but this part is a bit misleading: > American engineers went in the opposite direction. They believed that a fuel-rich mixture in the preburner w
by le-mark 8y ago
Nice article, but this part is a bit misleading:
> American engineers went in the opposite direction. They believed that a fuel-rich mixture in the preburner was possible and could be done with existing metal alloys, so long as hydrogen was used as the fuel instead of kerosene. This ultimately lead to the development of the Space Shuttle Main Engine, which to date remains the most efficient liquid fuel rocket engine ever flown.
SSME performance was due to H2 vs kerosene, it was not a full flow engine.
Edit; also no mention of Blue Origins BE-4 which is also a full flow engine.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- Palptine 8y agoNot true. Be-4 is a staged combustion metholox engine.
- itp 8y agoBe careful with terminology. BE-4 and Raptor are both staged combustion methalox engines. Raptor is full-flow staged combustion, while BE-4 is oxidizer-rich staged combustion.
- itp 8y agoThe article does not claim that the SSME is full flow; as described in the quote you pulled, it's fuel-rich. BE-4 is not full flow, but oxidizer-rich (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staged_combustion_cycle#Oxidizer-rich_staged_combustion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staged_combustion_cycle#Oxidiz...).