"Jeff Findley" wrote in message
...

In article ,
says...

Boeing's 4 Million lbs Payload Rocket (LMLV) Large Multipurpose Launch
Vehicle Concept
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgtmR9IRalQ

The fantasy part was the 372-inch solid motor to be used as strap-ons.
The largest diameter solid rocket motor ever tested was 260 inches,
which is a lot smaller when you take into account diameter vs area
involves a square term.

Holy crap! This reminds me of the launch in Civilization III if you made it
that far.

That said, I'd be surprised if the acoustic loads didn’t' destroy the rocket
itself!

At any rate, here's a paper on the 260 inch motor testing:

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/c...0000033816.pdf

Actual video of a testing (love that 60s voice-over:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmtzFNy1t3U

On the third test firing (the SL-3 motor), the nozzle blew right off the
motor! So, needless to say, there were serious issues with scaling
solid rocket motors up that big.

If you search YouTube for "Aerojet Dade Rocket Facility", you'll find
several videos of "urban explorers" (fancy name for trespassers)
exploring the long abandoned test facility.

NASA Watch mentioning the motor (comments are interesting):

http://nasawatch.com/archives/2015/0...orgot-the.html

One of the problems with large solids is that the vibrations scale up
with the size of the booster. So, I can't imagine the vibrations that
would have been caused by 10 372-inch solid motors strapped onto this
proposed Boeing SSTO! And we thought the space shuttle provided for a
rough ride with two puny 120 inch solid rocket motors firing!

Jeff

Yeah. Scaling up would have been... interesting.


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