Nozzle Details on Titan IV

The missile display at Evergreen Aerospace Museum is impressive.  They have sourced a lot of different types and they have a Titan IV section lying on its side.  You can get up close to the nozzle of the rocket motor and it is a cool thing to see in detail.  Looking from a distance, they look very simple but, once you are close up, the complexity of the structure and the cooling structure to stop the plume from burning right through the nozzle are really impressive.  The shaping of the nozzle itself, in contrast, is very simple.  The expansion ratios are calculated carefully and the profile is a smooth transition to minimize the losses.  Quite the contrast.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *