The Evaluation of Competing Rocket Power Plant Components for Two-Stage Long-Range Vehicles

A method for establishing the relative desirability of competing rocket power plant components is developed for long-range, two-stage rocket-powered vehicles. The measure of the desirability proposed is minimum net cost wherein missiles of the same class are required to perform identical functions; e.g., same range carrying the same payload. The relationships developed are derived from simple missile performance parameters and lend themselves to readily calculable results. Characteristics of a hypothetical two-stage, long-range rocket vehicle are presented, and for this missile exchange rate curves are given which show the order of compromise allowable between weight and efficiency for any power plant component or between competing power plants. Several power plant arrangements are analyzed for this missile, and the proposed technique for establishing desirability is demonstrated.