WHAT IS AN AEROSPIKE NOZZLE?
The following information comes from an article “Nozzle Design” by R. A. O’Leary and James E. Beck in the Spring 1992 (No. 8) issue of Rocketdyne’s *Threshold* magazine (call (818) 586-2380/2771 or write to Rockwell Aerospace/ Rocketdyne Division, 6633 Canoga Avenue, Mail Code AB57, Canoga Park, CA, USA, 91304-7922 to get a copy). Briefly, a spike (or “plug”) engine uses an exhaust nozzle that can be thought of as a conventional bell shaped nozzle turned inside-out. The aerospike nozzle is a truncated version of an ideal spike. For a diagram, seeGeorge P. Sutton, Rocket Propulsion Elements, 6th edition, J. Wiley & Sons, 1992, p. 70 orDieter K. Huzel and David H. Huang, Design of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines, NASA-SP-125, 1971, p.92. In a bell nozzle combustion gases flow through a constriction (throat) and then the expansion away from the centerline is contained by the diverging walls of the nozzle up to the exit plane. Bells nozzles are a point design with optimum performance at o
