Soviet rocketry
Soviet rocketry commenced in 1921 with development of Solid-fuel rockets, which resulted in the development of the Katyusha rocket launcher. Rocket scientists and engineers, particularly Valentin Glushko and Sergei Korolev, contributed to the development of Liquid-fuel rockets, which were first used for fighter aircraft. Developments continued in the late 1940s and 1950s with a variety of ballistic missiles and ICBMs, and later for space exploration which resulted in the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, the first artificial Earth satellite ever launched.
Origins
Russian involvement in rocketry began in 1903 when Konstantin Tsiolkovsky published a paper on liquid-propelled rockets. Tsiolkovsky's efforts made significant advances in the use of liquid fuel. His work challenged traditional thought and sparked a revolution in science which embraced new ideas in rocket technology.Solid Fuel: The first rockets
The first Soviet development of rockets was in 1921 when the Soviet military sanctioned the commencement of a small research laboratory to explore solid fuel rockets, led by Nikolai Tikhomirov, a chemical engineer and supported by Vladimir Artemyev a Soviet engineer. Tikhomirov had commenced studying solid and Liquid-fueled rockets in 1894, and in 1915 he lodged a patent for "self-propelled aerial and water-surface mines." In 1928 the laboratory was renamed the Gas Dynamics Laboratory. The First test-firing of a solid fuel rocket was carried out in March 1928, which flew for about 1,300 meters These rockets were used in 1931 for the world's first successful use of rockets to assist take-off of aircraft. Further developments were led by Georgy Langemak. and 1932 in-air test firings of RS-82 missiles from an Tupolev I-4 aircraft armed with six launchers successfully took place.The research continued from 1933 by the Reactive Scientific Research Institute with the development of the RS-82 and RS-132 rockets, including designing several variations for ground-to-air, ground-to-ground, air-to-ground and air-to-air combat.
The earliest known use by the Soviet Air Force of aircraft-launched unguided anti-aircraft rockets in combat against heavier-than-air aircraft took place in August 1939, during the Battle of Khalkhin Gol, a flight of five Polikarpov I-16 equipped with RS-82 engaging Japanese aircraft. In the same year, as part of the attempted annexation of Finland, in the Winter War, PC-132 rockets were fired, from Tupolev SB bombers, against Finnish ground targets.
In June 1938, the RNII began developing a multiple rocket launcher based on the RS-132 rocket. In August 1939, the completed product was the BM-13 / Katyusha rocket launcher. Towards the end of 1938 the first significant large scale testing of the rocket launchers took place, 233 rockets of various types were used. A salvo of rockets could completely straddle a target at a range of.
Electric rocket engines
On 15 May 1929 a section at GDL was created to develop electric rocket engines, headed by 23 year old Valentin Glushko, Glushko proposed to use energy in electric explosion of metals to create rocket propulsion. In the early 1930s the world's first example of an electrothermal rocket engine was created. This early work by GDL has been steadily carried on and electric rocket engines were used in the 1960s on board the Voskhod 1 spacecraft and Zond-2 probe.Liquid Fuel: The early contribution
In 1931 Glushko was redirected to work on liquid propellant rocket engines. This resulted in the creation of ORM engines to. To increase the resource, various technical solutions were used: the jet nozzle had a spirally finned wall and was cooled by fuel components, curtain cooling was used for the combustion chamber and ceramic thermal insulation of the combustion chamber using zirconium dioxide. Nitric acid, solutions of nitric acid with nitrogen tetroxide, tetranitromethane, hypochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide were first proposed as an oxidizing agent. As a result of experiments, by the end of 1933, a high-boiling fuel from kerosene and nitric acid was selected as the most convenient in operation and industrial production. In 1931 self-igniting combustible and chemical ignition of fuel with gimbal engine suspension were proposed. For fuel supply in 1931–1932 fuel pumps operating from combustion chamber gases were developed. In 1933 a centrifugal turbopump unit for a rocket engine with a thrust of 3000 N was developed. A total of 100 bench tests of liquid-propellant rockets were conducted using various types of fuel, both low and high-boiling and thrust up to 300 kg was achieved.File:GIRD.jpg|thumb|Members of GIRD. Left to right: standing I.P. Fortikov, Yu A Pobedonostsev, Zabotin; sitting: A. Levitsky, Nadezhda Sumarokova, Sergei Korolev, B.I. Cheranovsky, Friedrich Zander.|alt=|260x260px
Concurrently with the work at GDL Friedrich Zander, a scientist and inventor, had begun work on the OR-1 experimental engine in 1929 while working at the Central Institute for Aircraft Motor Construction; It ran on compressed air and gasoline and Zander used it to investigate high-energy fuels including powdered metals mixed with gasoline. In September 1931 Zander formed the Moscow-based Group for the Study of Reactive Motion, better known by its Russian acronym "GIRD". Zander, who idolized Tsiolkovsky and the German rocket scientist Hermann Oberth, oversaw the development of Russia's first liquid fueled rocket, the GIRD 10. The rocket was launched successfully in 1933, and it reached an altitude of, but Zander died before the test took place.
GIRD began as the Jet Engine Section of a larger civil defense organization known as the Society for the Promotion of Defense and Aerochemical Development. GIRD's role was to deliver practical jet engine technology to be employed in aerial military applications. Although branches of GIRD were established in major cities all throughout the Soviet Union, the two most active branches were those in Moscow and in Leningrad.
MosGIRD worked on the development of space research, liquid-propellant rockets, rocket design as it pertained to aircraft, and the construction of a supersonic wind tunnel, whereas LenGIRD developed solid-fuel rockets used for photographing the upper atmosphere, carrying flares, and atmospheric sounding.
Mikhail Klavdievich Tikhonravov, who would later supervise the design of Sputnik I and the Luna programme, headed GIRD's 2nd Brigade, was responsible for the first Soviet liquid propelled rocket launch, the GIRD-9, on 17 August 1933, which reached an altitude of.
In January 1933 Zander began development of the GIRD-X rocket. It was originally to use a metallic propellant, but after various metals had been tested without success it was designed without a metallic propellant, and was powered by the Project 10 engine which was first bench tested in March 1933. This design burned liquid oxygen and gasoline and was one of the first engines to be regeneratively cooled by the liquid oxygen, which flowed around the inner wall of the combustion chamber before entering it. Problems with burn-through during testing prompted a switch from gasoline to less energetic alcohol. The final missile, long by in diameter, had a mass of, and it was anticipated that it could carry a payload to an altitude of. The GIRD X rocket was launched on 25 November 1933 and flew to a height of 80 meters.
Early pioneers in the field began to postulate that liquid fuels were more powerful than solid fuels. Some of the early fuels used by these scientists were oxygen, alcohol, methane, hydrogen, or combinations of them. A bitter rivalry developed between the researchers of these institutes.
Reactive Scientific Research Institute
In order to obtain maximum military benefits, the Red Army's chief-of-staff Marshal Mikhail Tukhacheskii merged GIRD with the GDL to study both fuel types. The new group was called Reactive Scientific Research Institute. When the two institutes combined, they brought together two of the most exceptional and successful engineers in the history of Soviet rocketry. Korolev teamed up with propulsion engineer Valentin Glushko, and together they excelled in the rocket industry, pushing the Soviet Union ahead of the United States in the space race. Before merging, the GDL had conducted liquid fuel tests and used nitric acid, while the GIRD had been using liquid oxygen. A brilliant, though often confrontational Sergei Korolev, headed the GIRD when it merged into RNII, and he was originally RNII's deputy director. Korolev's boss was a hard-nosed man from the GDL by the name of Kleimenov. Bitter in-fighting slowed the pace and quality of the research at RNII, but despite internal dissention, Korolev began to produce designs of missiles with liquid fueled engines. By 1932, RNII was using liquid oxygen with kerosene as a coolant as well as nitric acid and a hydrocarbon.Applications in early aircraft
As a young adult, Sergei Korolev had always been fascinated by aviation. At college, his fascination towards rocketry and space travel grew. He became one of the most important rocket engineers of Soviet aircraft technology, and became "Chief Designer" of the Soviet space program. Sergei Korolev was a vitally important member of GIRD, and later became the head of the Soviet space program. Korolev would play a crucial role in both the launch of Sputnik in 1957, and the mission which put Yuri Gagarin in space in 1961.In 1931, Korolev had come to Zander with a conceptual design for a rocket-powered aircraft called the RP-1. This craft was essentially a glider, powered with one of GDL's rocket motors, the OR-2. The OR-2 was a rocket engine powered with gasoline and liquid oxygen, and produced a thrust of. In May 1932, about a year before Zander died, Korolev became the director of GIRD. At this point, he continued developing his design for the RP-1, an updated version called the RP-2, and another craft that he called the RP-218. The plan for the RP-218 called for a two-seat rocket powered plane, complete with a pressurized cabin, a retractable undercarriage, and equipment for high altitude research. The design was never realized, though, because at the time, there was not a rocket powerful enough and light enough to make the RP-218 practical.
Instead of pursuing the RP-218, in 1935, Korolev and RNII began developing the SK-9, a simple wooden two-seat glider which was to be used for testing rocket engines. The rear seat was replaced with tanks holding kerosene and nitric acid, and the OR-2 rocket motor was installed in the fuselage. The resulting craft was referred to as the RP-318. The RP-318 was tested numerous times with the engine installed, and was deemed ready for test flights in April 1938, but the plane's development halted when Joseph Stalin's Great Purge severely damaged its progress. RNII was particularly affected with Director Kleymyonov and Chief Engineer Langemak arrested in November 1937, and later executed. Glushko was arrested in March 1938 and with many other leading engineers was imprisoned in the Gulag. Korolev was arrested in June 1938 and sent to a forced labour camp in Kolyma in June 1939. However, due to the intervention by Andrei Tupolev, he was relocated to a prison for scientist and engineers in September 1940. From 1937 to 1944 no serious work was carried out on long range rockets as weapons.
The Soviets began to redesign the thrust chambers of their rocket engines, as well as investigate better ignition systems. These research endeavors were receiving more attention and funding as Europe began its escalation into the chaos of World War II. The Soviet rocket program had developed engines with two-stage ignition and variable thrust nearly two years before Germany rolled out their Me 163. However, the Soviet engine was only on gliders for testing, and was not available for full-powered flight. The engine's thrust was too low, and pressure build-up caused systemic failures.
Toward the end of 1938, work resumed on the RP-318 at the 'Scientific-Research Institute 3' N II-3, which was the new title for RNII. The aircraft was repaired and modified, with the addition of a new, more powerful engine to replace the OR-2. The new engine had been originally designed for a use in a single-launch cruise missile, but was adapted so that it could be employed in a multi-use aircraft. For comparison to the OR-2, the new ORM-65 could produce a variable thrust between. After extensive testing, on February 28, 1940, the new RP-318-1 was successfully tested in a full-powered flight; the craft attained a speed of, reached an altitude of, in 110 seconds of operation, and was landed safely when the fuel was exhausted. Although this was a momentous occasion in Russian jet development, further plans to enhance this aircraft were shelved, and when the German Army neared Moscow in August 1941, the RP-318-1 was burned to keep it away from the Germans.