Today’s modern liquid propellant rocket engines have a very complicated structure. They cannot be arbitrarily downsized, ensuring efficient propellants’ mixing and combustion. Moreover, the thermodynamic cycle’s efficiency is relatively low. Utilizing detonation instead of deflagration could lead to a significant reduction of engine chamber dimensions and mass. Nowadays, laboratory research is conducted in the field of rotating detonation engine (RDE) testing worldwide. The aim of this paper is to cover the design of a flight demonstrator utilizing rocket RDE technology.
It presents the key project iterations made during the design of the gaseous oxygen and methane-propelled rocket. One of the main goals was to develop a rocket that could be fully recoverable. The recovery module uses a parachute assembly. The paper describes the rocket’s main subsystems. Moreover, vehicle visualizations are presented. Simple performance estimations are also shown.
This paper shows that the development of a small, open-structure, rocket RDE-powered vehicle is feasible.
Flight propulsion system experimentation is on-going. However, first tests were conducted with lower propellant feeding pressures than required for the first launch.
Importantly, the vehicle can be a test platform for a variety of technologies. The rocket’s possible further development, including educational use, is proposed.
Up-to-date, no information about any flying vehicles using RDE propulsion systems can be found. If successful in-flight experimentation was conducted, it would be a major milestone in the development of next-generation propulsion systems.
