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History of Soviet Rocket and Jet Propulsion

Throughout the 20^th century, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics made great strides in the development of propulsion systems for rockets and jet engines that would be used first for artillery and later for military jets, bombers, space exploration, and nuclear weaponry. Although the Russian propulsion systems were benefited by technology captured from Germany at the conclusion of World War II, there were a multitude of highly talented indigenous scientists and engineers who contributed to Russia’s independent and unique development of rockets and jets. The history of Soviet rocket and jet propulsion is summarized by noting the major technological developments made by the individuals and organizations that worked in this field.

Andrey Tupolev

Andrey Tupolev was a master aircraft designer of Soviet Russia. Tupolev was part of a company that specialized in all metal military aircraft. Tupolev recruited and formed TsAGI which was the Soviet aviation research institute. From 1920s to the early 1930s, Tupolev and his group worked on design and production of Soviet aircraft until 1937. In 1937, Tupolev was arrested by Stalin during the Great Purge. While in prison at Bulshevo Prison in Moscow, Tupolev was recruited by the NKVD to run TsKB-29. This organization utilized political prisoners to produce aircraft for the Soviet state. While in prison, Tupolev began to focus on bomber design and produced the Tu-2 which became the premier Soviet bomber during World War II.

Post World War II, Tupolev was assigned to working on reverse engineering scavenged US B-29 bombers. From his work, he produced the Tu-4. As the Cold war began to take shape, the emphasis began to turn toward speed of aircraft. By 1950, Tupolev’s group produced the USSR’s first turboprop, the Tu-95. Production and design progressed rapidly and by 1952 Tupolev had produced the first Soviet jet bomber, the Tu-16. The Tu-22 quickly followed as a twin engine jet bomber. The Tupolev group merged more into civilian jet aircraft until his death in 1972.

Pavel Sukhoy

Pavel Sukhoy was a senior designer at the Central Aerohydrodynamics Institute in Moscow. This design group was under the control of Tupolev’s TsAGI. In 1939, Moscow ordered Sukhoy to head a new scientific research group called OKB. This organization was based in modern day Kharkiv, Ukraine. This new organization under Sukhoy’s direction began research and design of round attack aircraft. The first of these was these was the Su-6. The onslaught of the Nazi invasion disrupted fighter development for the OKB. Following the end of World War II, Stalin directed Sukhoy to begin investigations into jet aircraft.

Early development issues combined with political prejudice doomed the first Soviet jet fighter, the Su-9, to never being put into production. Stalin thought the group’s designs were too close to captured German jet aircraft. As a result, the design bureau was closed and moved back to Tupolev’s department in Moscow. Sukhoy’s luck changed again in 1953 when Stalin died. The new government permitted him to once again create an independent jet fighter design group. By 1954, the group was officially named OKB-51 which remains to this day an active research group. The early 1950s and 60s yielded tremendous results in the form of the Su-7 and delta wing Su-9. These two fighters were individually updated with new technology to later become the Su-11 and Su-15 fighter interceptors. Upon his death in 1975, Pavel Sukhoy’s name was added to the bureau name in recognition of his services.

Rockets

The Russian story of rocketry began in 1903 when a man by the name of Kamstantin Tsiolkovstvi published a paper on liquid propelled rockets (often shortened to LPREs).This work began to inspire the young minds in Russian science. The idea of rockets is as old as the 1600s though what made Tsiolkovstvi’s idea so radical was the fuel type. Traditionally, the Russian military had used only solid fuel (generally black powder).This challenged traditional thought sparked revolution in science that was overshadowed by a real revolution, the Bolshevik Revolution of 1920. However, this revolution seemed to embrace the new ideas it presented.

Early pioneers in the field began to postulate that liquid fuels were more powerful than solid fuels.Some of the early fuels used by these scientists were oxygen, alcohol, methane, hydrogen, or a combination of any contained in this list.There were two schools of thought in the new USSR (formerly Russia). The first was the GIRD which supported the LPRE. The second group was the GDL which were hard line solid fuel rocketeers. A bitter rivalry developed between the researchers of these institutes.

In order to obtain maximum military benefit, the Red Army’s chief-of-staff Marshal Mikhail Tukhacheskii merged the GIRD with the GDL to study both fuel types. This institute was given the designation RNII.The GDL previous to its merge had conducted liquid fuel tests and used nitric acid. The GIRD before entering into RNII was using liquid oxygen. A brilliant though often confrontational Sergei Korolev headed the GIRD in RNII and was originally RNII’s deputy director. Korolev’s boss was a hard-nosed man from GDL by the name of Kleimenov. Bitter in fighting slowed the pace and quality of the research at RNII.

Despite the petty infighting, Korelev began to produce designs of missiles with liquid fueled engines. By 1932, RNII was using liquid oxygen with kerosene as a coolant as well as nitric acid and a hydrocarbon.In 1933, the Soviets had developed a rocket engine. The GIRD 09 was rudimentary liquid fueled engine. To test it, the engine was tested on a glider. The glider reached a propelled altitude of 1300 feet before its thrust chamber failed

The Soviets began to redesign the thrust chambers as well as investigate better ignition systems. These research endeavors were receiving more attention and funding as Europe began its escalation into chaos. The Soviet rocket program had developed rocket engines with two stage ignition, variable thrust nearly two years before Germany rolled out their Me-163. Unfortunately, the Soviet engine was only on gliders for testing and not available for flight. Also, the engine had too low of a thrust output, and pressure build ups were causing system failure. Nineteen forty-two was an important year for Soviet research teams. The soviets had finally produced a combat ready and tested engine, the D-7-A-1100. Unfortunately, the Nazi invasion had the Soviet high command centered on other matters, and the engine was never produced for use. This engine utilized a nitric acid liquid fuel with a kerosene coolant.Over the course of the Cold War, the Soviet Union developed an estimated 500 LPRE platforms in rocketry. The Soviets in 1982 began testing of the RD-170. This nitric acid and kerosene propelled rocket was capable of producing more thrust than any engine available. The RD-170 had 4 variable thrusters with staged combustion. The engine experienced early technical difficulties. The engine experienced massive damage as it was shut down in stages. To fix this, Soviet engineers had to reduce its thrust capacity. The engine was officially flight tested successfully in 1985.

German Impact

By 1944, Nazi Germany was crumbling underneath a two front war. Both American and Soviet forces were in a race for precious German Rocket facilities. The Soviet army occupied the bombed out rocket facility of Peenemunde on May 2, 1944. Realizing the magnitude of their capture, the Soviets began immediate salvage and repair to the facility. They also began an equivalent operation to Operation Paperclip in order to catch German scientists; the name of this operation was never disclosed. Although the Soviets missed Von Braun’s research group, they did capture Helmut Groettrup and 200 rocket specialists. Also, as part of the Peenemunde occupation, the Soviets obtained the V-2 rocket platform, the A-9/A-10 ocean range rockets, the Rheinbote surface-surface missile, and the R-4/M air to air missile. These represent a few of the notable platforms mostly intact and operational when captured. Groettrup’s team swelled to 5500 personnel and put Peenemunde back into full production. However, not satisfied by the results, Stalin order the facility and its personnel moved to USSR where the scientist were distributed to various facilities.

In 1953, the Soviet Union had developed their own version of the V-2. This system was called the R-11 missile. The R-11 was operational by 1955. The R-11 had a range of 270 kilometer. The engine had a thrust of 8300 kgf. This system, inspired by the German V-2, became the basis for Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBM). However, this application required a change of fuel from the land based fuel of Nitric acid with kerosene to the actual V-2 fuel using a graphite gas jet.

Military System Advances

The need for mobile nuclear forces began to increase as the Cold War escalated in the early 1950s. The idea of naval launched tactical nuclear weaponry began to take hold. By 1950, the USSR had SLBMs. These missiles were multi stage, but due to fuel constraints, they could not be launched from underwater. The initial missile system used land based armaments. The USSR is the only known nation to use LPRE fueled engines for its SLBMs.

Aside from the nuclear aspect of rocket propelled missiles, USSR scientist sought to harness this technology for other weapon systems. As early as 1938, the Soviets were capable of using rockets for anti-personnel. This technology had been honed into the Katyusha Rocket used extensively against the Nazis during the German invasion.During World War II, there is no record of any liquid fueled weapons either produced or designed.From 1958 to 1962, the Soviets researched and developed LPRE propelled anti-aircraft missile systems. These rockets primarily used nitric acid ratioed with a hypergolic amine for fuel.

Space Age Advances

Sputnik I was the first artificial satellite ever launched. On Oct. 4, 1957, the USSR launched Sputnik I into orbit and opened communications with it.Sputnik I was designed to be the forerunner for multiple satellite mission. The technology constantly underwent upgrade as payload increased. The first notable failure occurred during Sputnik IV. The engine for exiting orbit malfunctioned and fired the vehicle into deep orbit where it burned. This failure spurred development for more reliable engines. This success was followed up by the launch of 175 meteorological rockets in the next two years. In all, there were ten of the Sputnik satellites launched.

The ability to even launch Sputnik I came from the nuclear arsenal of the Soviet Union. The Vostok engine for ICBMs was utilized for the launch vehicle for Sputnik. The first Vostok version had 1 core engine and 4 strap on stage engines. The engines were all vectored thrust capable. The original Vostok was fueled by liquid oxygen and kerosene. There were a total of 20 engines each capable of contributing 55000 pounds of thrust.

The Vostok engine was the first true Soviet design. The technical name was the RD-107 and later the RD-108. These engines had two thrust chambers. They were originally monopropellants that use Hydrogen peroxide. This family of engines were utilized not just on the Vostok space mission but also on the Voshkot, Molniya, and Soyuz space vehicles.

By 1959, the space program needed a 3 stage engine platform, so the Vostok or more appropriately the RD-107 was adapted accordingly for the moon probes. As 1963 arrived, the Vostok was now equipped for 4 stage boosting. This platform was used for the first multi-manned flight.As 1964 began, the Soviets introduced a new engine into its booster engine repertoire, the RD-0110. This engine replaced the RD-107 in the second stage boost in both the Molniya and Soyuz space launch vehicles. These engines were liquid oxygen propelled with kerosene coolant. The RD-0110 had four variable thrusters. What was unique about this engine is that it initially was started by a solid fuel propellant, but the fuel once in flight was liquid oxygen.A new problem had reared its head for the Soviet scientific community. The Vostok was too powerful for newer satellites trying to reach low earth orbit. The space community turned once again to the Soviet missile command. The new Intermediate Ballistic Missiles (IBRM) systems provided two engine options: the Sandal (1 stage) or the Skean (2 stage). Both systems were upgraded to a new RD-111 engine. Following these upgrades, the largest satellite called Proton I was launched in 1965.The type of engine used for Proton I was the RD-119. This engine provided nearly 3000000 lbs. of thrust. This engine was used to execute low earth orbit.