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US 5,343,698 AGranted
Hexagonal cluster nozzle for a rocket engine
AssigneeUnited Technologies Corporation
InventorsLane Porter, Edward B. Thayer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A rocket engine thrust nozzle assembly is disclosed wherein combustion products from a plurality of rocket engines having hexagonally-shaped exhaust areas flow to the inlet of a main nozzle that transitions the flow of the combustion products from a non-circular flow area to a circular flow area.
Claims10
A thrust nozzle for a rocket engine comprising:
- a plurality of modular rocket engines clustered about a first axis that is perpendicular to a first plane, each modular rocket engine including
- a combustion chamber having a circular cross section and a circular discharge hole for discharging combustion products of the combustion chamber, and
- a modular nozzle having a modular nozzle inlet of the same diameter as the circular discharge hole and connected thereto for receiving the combustion products therefrom, and a modular nozzle outlet for discharging the combustion products from the modular nozzle, said modular nozzle outlet defining a hexagonally shaped exhaust area located in the first plane;
- and,
- a main nozzle having a main nozzle inlet and a main nozzle outlet, said main nozzle inlet located in the first plane for receiving the combustion products from the modular nozzle outlets;
- wherein the modular nozzle outlets are clustered together to form a notched-hexagonal shape in the first plane, and the main nozzle inlet circumscribes and conforms to the notched-hexagonal shape.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.