The story of the U.S. Navy’s premier facility for research, development, testing, and evaluation of chemical compounds used in gun and rocket propellants, notably the manufacturing and testing of Jet Assist Takeoff, Zuni, Talos, and Polaris rockets and missiles.

Some 600 pipe bomb explosions have occurred annually in the United States during the past several years. How can technology help protect the public from these homemade devices? This book, a response to a Congressional mandate, focuses on ways to improve public safety by preventing bombings involving smokeless or black powders and apprehending the makers of the explosive devices. It examines technologies used for detection of explosive devices before they explodeâ€"including the possible addition of marking agents to the powdersâ€"and technologies used in criminal investigations for identification of these powdersâ€"including the possible addition of taggants to the powdersâ€"in the context of current technical capabilities. The book offers general conclusions and recommendations about the detection of devices containing smokeless and black powders and the feasibility of identifying makers of the devices from recovered powder or residue. It also makes specific recommendations about marking and tagging technologies. This volume follows the work reported in Containing the Threat from Illegal Bombings (NRC 1998), which studied similar issues for bombings that utilize high explosives.

This third edition of the classic on the thermochemical aspects of the combustion of propellants and explosives is completely revised and updated and now includes a section on green propellants and offers an up-to-date view of the thermochemical aspects of combustion and corresponding applications. Clearly structured, the first half of the book presents an introduction to pyrodynamics, describing fundamental aspects of the combustion of energetic materials, while the second part highlights applications of energetic materials, such as propellants, explosives and pyrolants, with a focus on the phenomena occurring in rocket motors. Finally, an appendix gives a brief overview of the fundamentals of aerodynamics and heat transfer, which is a prerequisite for the study of pyrodynamics. A detailed reference for readers interested in rocketry or explosives technology.

This book, a translation of the French title Technologie des Propergols Solides, offers otherwise unavailable information on the subject of solid propellants and their use in rocket propulsion. The fundamentals of rocket propulsion are developed in chapter one and detailed descriptions of concepts are covered in the following chapters. Specific design methods and the theoretical physics underlying them are presented, and finally the industrial production of the propellant itself is explained. The material used in the book has been collected from different countries, as the development of this field has occurred separately due to the classified nature of the subject. Thus the reader not only has an overall picture of solid rocket propulsion technology but a comprehensive view of its different developmental permutations worldwide.

This newly reissued debut book in the Rutgers University Press Classics Imprint is the story of the search for a rocket propellant which could be trusted to take man into space. This search was a hazardous enterprise carried out by rival labs who worked against the known laws of nature, with no guarantee of success or safety. Acclaimed scientist and sci-fi author John Drury Clark writes with irreverent and eyewitness immediacy about the development of the explosive fuels strong enough to negate the relentless restraints of gravity. The resulting volume is as much a memoir as a work of history, sharing a behind-the-scenes view of an enterprise which eventually took men to the moon, missiles to the planets, and satellites to outer space. A classic work in the history of science, and described as “a good book on rocket stuff…that’s a really fun one” by SpaceX founder Elon Musk, readers will want to get their hands on this influential classic, available for the first time in decades.