Rockets world wars

The first large-scale use of hydrazine was as fuel for the rocket-powered German ME-163 fighter plane during World War II. Production in the United States began in 1953 at the Lake Charles, Louisiana plant of the Olin Corp., a facility then having a capacity of 2040 metric tons. In 1992 world capacity was about 44,100 metric tons N2H4. 

Lindner, Foreign Propellants. Evaluation of Some German and Japanese Rocket Propellants Used in World War II , PATR 1817 (1951)... 

Dr. Warner Von Braun was a German rocket engineer who helped to develop the V-2 rockets in World War II. He was involved in the first efforts to use liquid hydrogen as a rocket fuel. After the war, Von Braun had a major part in the development of the rocket engines for the U.S. space program. 

History. The cast double-base process was developed under U.S. Government auspices during World War II, the initial work being done by Kincaid and Shuey (7). The process filled a need for rocket charges significantly larger than those conveniently made by the then existing extrusion processes. 

Admiralty views on future battleship design unduly conservative an Admiralty paper for the Cabinet in July 1945 stated that it was likely that the battleship of the future would bear little resemblance to capital ships of the Second World War for example, if the rocket replaced the gun it might be possible to build a smaller ship to fulfil the function of destroying the most powerful surface ships of the enemy. ... 

Liquid explosives came into extensive use during World War I when nitro compounds and ammonium nitrate became scarce panclastites were most commonly used for military purposes and oxyliquits in the mining industry. During the World War II the Germans employed liquid mixtures for jet propulsion including a newcomer in this field—a mixture of concentrated (80-85%) hydrogen peroxide with hydrazine for the propulsion of V2 rockets. 

The Germans used hydrogen peroxide of 80-85% concentration, alone or in mixtures with combustibles, as a fuel for the big V2 rockets during World War II. The utilization of hydrogen peroxide for rocket propulsion and the explosive properties of hydrogen peroxide and its mixtures will be discussed in later sections (pp. 299, 307). 

During World War II the Germans experimented with liquid mixtures consisting of tetranitromethane and combustibles as a liquid fuel for the propulsion of the big V2 rockets. 

Concentrated hydrogen peroxide was widely used during World War II as an oxidant in a mixture with hydrazine hydrate, for the propulsion of Y2 rockets. Hydrogen peroxide mixed with hydrazine reacts spontaneously according to the equation ... 

In World War II a variety of picrate powder consisting of ammonium picrate, potassium or sodium nitrate and a binding agent was introduced in Great Britain and in the U.S.A. as the propellant charge for small rockets. This was reported more fully in a chapter devoted to mixtures for rocket propulsion (p. 365). 

Blackpowder was the oldest known and the only propellant used in rockets up to time of World War II. It is a slow-burning powder with a high content of charcoal (p. 330). 

During World War II mixtures were developed in Great Britain with ammonium picrate as the chief component for rocket propulsion, on the suggestion of the author of the present book. These mixtures also contained sodium or potassium nitrate and a combustible binder. 

The composition of German rocket propellants manufactured during World War II are given in Table 193. 

Tetranitromethane was first obtained by Shishkov [48] in 1857, but it was only during the World War II that the Germans experimented with it on a laige scale, using mixtures of tetranitromethane with various combustible materials as rocket propellants. 

The use of missiles for tactical military applications has also been an area of major development since World War II. Among the first such applications were the JATO (rocket assisted takeoff) units used to provide power to boost launching of airplanes. Tactical missiles have become an important component of weaponry and include U.S. rockets such as the Navy Sidewinder and Standard Missile, the Army Hawk and Hellfire, and the Air Force Sparrow, AMRAAM, and Phoenix. 

Diglycol dinitrate was used extensively in the Second World War by the German side as one of the main components of -> Double Base Propellants. The explosion heat of diglycol in powder form can be kept lower than the heats of the corresponding nitroglycerine powders they represented the first step towards the so-called cold powders. Diglycol dinitrate and triglycol dinitrate are also employed as rocket propellants. 

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