Re: What is the history of the rocket NOZZLE?

Zachmo,

Though rockets have been around for a long time, nozzles hadn't changed at all, until recently.

For most of the history of the rocket, propulsion was provided by gas flowing through a small hole at the base of the rocket. There really was no nozzle to gradually expand the exhaust and get the most efficiency out of the fuel.

It wasn't until the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth that people like Goddard, von Braun, deLaval, and Dryden started to work out nozzle shapes to provide the best efficiency for a rocket motor.

The most efficient conventional design is known as a deLaval nozzle, which is the bell-shaped nozzle seen on the Saturn V booster. A description of the deLaval nozzle can be found in Rocket Design Fundamentals by Sutton and Ross, and even in the book Rocket Boys by Homer Hickham, Jr.

There is some research that may produce a more efficient type going on right now, the most promising being a type called a linear aerospike. A description of the research being done by NASA and Rockwell on the aerospike engine can be found at www.spacer.com.