March 16, 1926: The First Liquid-Propellant Rocket Launch
Document Type
Photograph
Date
Winter 1926
Keywords
Robert Goddard, rocketry, liquid-propellant rocket
Description
Photograph of entrance pipes for liquid fuels developed by Robert Goddard between December 1925 and January 1926. These pipes were not used in the March 16, 1926 rocket launch, but represent the final months of trial-and-error testing that made March 16, 1926 possible. These final months were defined by a major late-stage pivot, stripping away the pumps and engines and replacing them with pressure tanks.
Following December 6, 1925 (the day Goddard achieved the first liquid-fuel rocket to lift its own weight), he realized a successful launch required making the rocket as streamlined and light as possible. Despite working for years to develop pumps and engines for rockets, he would now be relying on the pressure of oxygen evaporated within a liquid oxygen tank.
It is important to note that many sources incorrectly claim that forgoing the pumps and engines is the breakthrough that made the December 6 lift possible, but this is untrue. Goddard writes in both his diary and subsequent reports about using pumps and engines in the December 6 test, as well as the realization that he would need to eliminate them in order to produce a light enough rocket to achieve that first launch.
The ring-shaped pipe pictured here was initially made to try and improve the combustion. Multiple entrance pipes would carry each liquid (LOX and gasoline) from the ring-shaped pipe, the idea being that smaller streams would secure better combustion. These tests were not satisfactory, and the multiple entrance pipes were discarded in favor of a single opening for the liquid oxygen and a single pipe for the gasoline. Another angle of this entrance pipe can be seen in Figure 104.
This photograph was used in Goddard's "Report on the Development of a Liquid Propelled Rocket". This is the first time that photographs of these rocket parts have been made available for online viewing, and together they represent the most granular visual documentation of the March 16, 1926 rocket and its leadup in existence. An excerpt of that report covering everything between December 6, 1926 and March 16, 1926 can be found here.
Photographs were scanned at 400dpi.
Recommended Citation
Goddard, Esther C., "Figure 105: Entrance pipes for liquid fuels [2], Winter 1926" (1926). March 16, 1926: The First Liquid-Propellant Rocket Launch. 4.
https://commons.clarku.edu/goddardlaunch/4
Comments