Method of liquid-propellant rocket engine operation and liquid-propellant rocket engine

RU patent № 2116491

The engine is intend for use in rocketry, also for single-stage launch vehicles used to deliver payloads in near-earth orbit. It comprises a gas generator, fuel and oxidizer turbopump units, a chamber with a regeneratively-cooled passage, units of the engine parameter automatic control system. Fuel line units operate on methane and hydrogen in a sequential and uninterrupted manner. All fuel is converted into a fuel-rich generator gas, a small part of which is supplied to the turbine and then it is discharged into the chamber nozzle whereas the rest of this gas is combusted using liquid oxygen. The engine is equipped with an assembly for the sequential feed of liquid methane and liquid hydrogen which is located upstream of the fuel pump, the gas generator is located coaxially relative to the chamber. The gas generator outlet is at the same time the chamber inlet. The use of this engine allows an increase in reliability and efficiency of launch vehicles designed to deliver payloads in near-earth orbit owing to the substitution of the single-stage launch vehicle for the two-stage carrier using the proposed methane-hydrogen-oxygen engine.