LIQUID-PROPELLANT ROCKET DEVELOPMENT 



By ROBERT H. GODDARD 

 Clark University 



(With ii Plates) 



The following- is a report made by the writer to the Daniel and 

 Florence Guggenheim Foundation concerning the rocket development 

 carried out under his dii'ection in Roswell, N. Mex., from July 1930 

 to July 1932, and from September 1934 to September 1935, supported 

 by this Foundation. 



This report is a presentation of the general plan of attack on the 

 problem of developing a sounding rocket, and of the results obtained. 

 Further details will be set forth in a later paper, after the main 

 objects of the research have been attained. 



INTRODUCTION 



In a previous paper' the author developed a theory of rocket 

 performance and made calculations regarding the heights that might 

 reasonably be expected for a rocket having a high velocity of the ejected 

 gases and a mass at all times small in proportion to the weight of 

 propellant material. It was shown that these conditions would be 

 satisfied by having a tapered nozzle through which the gaseous prod- 

 ucts of combustion were discharged/ by feeding successive portions 

 of propellant material into the rocket combustion chambers/ and 

 further by employing a series of rockets, of decreasing size, each fired 

 when the rocket immediately below was empty of fuel/ Experimental 

 results with powder rockets were also presented in this paper. 



Since the above was published, work has been carried on for the 

 purpose of making practical a plan of rocket propulsion set forth 

 in 1914" which may be called the liquid-propellant type of rocket. 

 In this rocket, a liquid fuel and a combustion-supporting liquid are 

 fed under pressure into a combustion chamber provided with a conical 

 nozzle through which the products of combustion are discharged. 



^Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 71, no. 2, 1919. 



'U. S. Patent, Rocket Apparatus, No. 1,102,653, July 7, 1914. 



"U. S. Patent, Rocket Apparatus, No. 1,103,503, July 14, 1914. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 95, No. 3 



I 



