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Show . " instiumens -- . . . s ayimam Guide to WARHEAD Rockets and m 1 Missiles if- wm by missiles are smallest in missile family. Fired J from one aircraft against another, their role is air defense. I Air-to-a- ir in . 'iLEil hi )ium w win ,')n n.' i iw Tif.ri nd MAN of missile is thing that's thrown., Military missiles throw warheads. Research missiles throw instruments (sample: satellites). Soon missiles will throw man into space. Pay toad Here, in simple terms, are I Ground-to-ai- missiles I Ground-to-groun- d I replace antiaircraft. I sites include guided r mis-- I Falcon IB with Genie O uddenly, almost bewilderingly, we are living in the age of rockets and missiles. America's giant aircraft industries, which turned out hundreds of thousands of fighters and bombers for World War II and Korea, today are devoting more than half their production to missiles. Other firms are wholly involved in manufacturing components. airmen claim manned aircraft will While old-tinever be replaced, the demand for missiles increases steadily, decreases for pilots and planes. The dramatic impact of the earth satellites, launched by rocket-powermultistage missiles, only emphasized the presence of these weapons of the future. Details of these incredibly complex vehicles some missiles may contain as many as 300,000 individual parts: are understood only by experts. But there are basic principles which the average person can, and should, understand. Here, in simple terms, is a primer course on rockets and missiles. me ed Where did it all begin? In China, more than 700 years ago. As early as 1232 long before the invention of guns Chinese were firing rockets in warfare. They aren't even new in America. In 1812 at Fort McHenry, "the rockets' red glare" inspired Francis Scott Key to write "The Star Spangled Banner." Until modern improvements, however,- rockets were too erratic and much . - 26 - Kevin Y. Brown missiles extend range and accuracy of conventional bombs, can also carry larger warheads. Air-to-grou- ' A Family Weekly, Jtme 29, 1958 B-- 50 bomber drops Rascal Nike-Hercul- less effective than firearms. The first really success- ful rocket and the direct ancestor of today's misr siles was the German V-- 2, used to bomb London during World War II. ' What is a rocket? A toy balloon is a simple rocket. When inflated,! it has internal pressure that wants to get out. Release the nozzle, and the balloon spurts away. Basically, a rocket is just a highly refined toy balloon: a pressurized chamber with one opening. The pressure.-ereateby burning extremely powerful fuels, acts in all directions. Pressures against the side walls balance each other, but the pressure toward the nozzle is released resulting in an un balanced pressure in the opposite direction. 3$us obeys Newton's third law of motion: a force in one direction (toward the opening) creates an equal force in the opposite direction (toward the front). A common misconception is that a rocket moves because its exhaust "pushes" on the outside air. Just the reverse is true: the exhaust merely escapes; it's the "push" pn the front wall that ives the rocket forward. If it needed air to push on, a rocket could never operate in outer space where there is no air. However, to define rockets used in modern missiles, it would be more accurate to call them rocket engines. They perform the same function as jet en- d . es Lacrosse . gines. By itself, a rocket is just a Fourth of July toy. How many kinds of rocket engines are there? Two, solid- - and liquid-fuele- d Solid fuel is a mixture of chemicals which, when ignited, can burn by itself. It looks like a block of chalk, and can be stored in the rocket engine, ready to fire at any time. Liquid fuel is more powerful and longer-burnin- g, but also more complicated Actually, two liquids are needed, a fuel and an oxidizer. The fuel must be mixed with the oxidizer before it can burn, just as gasoline must be mixed with air in a' car engine. systems are complicated because the fuel and oxidizer need separate storage tanks, plus pumps or some other pressure to force them into the rorlcpt chamber for firing. This extra eauiDment adds extra weight and takes up extra space. Also, unlike solid tuel, liquid fuel can't be loaded into the missile until just before take-of- f. Solid fuel, because it's compact and convenient, is widely used in smaller missiles. Liquid fuel, be- cause it produces more power for longer periods, is used in larger missiles, which can accommodate the extra equipment. Liquid-fu- el What is a jet engine? It's the other kind of engine used in modern |