The integrated powerhead demonstrator (IPD) was a

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...

project in the 1990s and early 2000s run by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

and the

Air Force Research Laboratory The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is a scientific research organization operated by the United States Air Force Materiel Command dedicated to leading the discovery, development, and integration of aerospace warfighting technologies, p ...

(AFRL) to develop a new

rocket engine A rocket engine uses stored rocket propellants as the reaction mass for forming a high-speed propulsive Jet (fluid), jet of fluid, usually high-temperature gas. Rocket engines are reaction engines, producing thrust by ejecting mass rearward, i ...

front-end ("powerhead", sometimes also termed a powerpack) that would utilize a

full flow staged combustion cycle The staged combustion cycle (sometimes known as topping cycle, preburner cycle, or closed cycle) is a power cycle of a bipropellant rocket engine. In the staged combustion cycle, propellant flows through multiple combustion chambers, and is thu ...

(FFSCC). The prime contractors were

Rocketdyne Rocketdyne was an American rocket engine design and production company headquartered in Canoga Park, California, Canoga Park, in the western San Fernando Valley of suburban Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles, in southern California. The Rocke ...

and

Aerojet Aerojet was an American rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer based primarily in Rancho Cordova, California, with divisions in Redmond, Washington, Orange and Gainesville in Virginia, and Camden, Arkansas. Aerojet was owned by GenCorp ...

. The long-term design goal was to apply the advantages of FFSCC to create a reusable engine with improved life, reliability and performance. The powerhead demonstrator project was to develop a demonstrator design of what could become the front-end for a future engine development project. No subsequent funding was made available by public policymakers, so no full engine design was ever completed. The turbines were also planned to feature

hydrostatic bearings Fluid bearings are bearings in which the load is supported by a thin layer of rapidly moving pressurized liquid or gas between the bearing surfaces. Since there is no contact between the moving parts, there is no sliding friction, allowing flui ...

instead of the traditional

ball bearings A ball bearing is a type of rolling-element bearing that uses balls to maintain the separation between the bearing races. The purpose of a ball bearing is to reduce rotational friction and support radial and axial loads. It achieves this ...

. More details can be seen at: https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA430218.pdf Videos: Integrated Powerhead Demonstration (IPD) 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J__5BmBJDR4 Integrated Powerhead Demonstration (IPD) 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7Cn_ly87aw

History

On July 19, 2006 Rocketdyne announced that the demonstrator engine front-end had been operated at full capacity. According to

, the Integrated Powerhead Demonstrator project was the first of three potential phases of the Integrated High Payoff Rocket Propulsion Technology Program, which was aimed at demonstrating technologies that double the capability of state-of-the-art cryogenic booster engines. The project's goal in 2005 was to develop a full-flow, hydrogen-fueled, staged combustion rocket engine. In 2007,

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military tec ...

announced it had received an

AFRL The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is a scientific research organization operated by the United States Air Force Materiel Command dedicated to leading the discovery, development, and integration of aerospace warfighting technologies, pl ...

contract to design and test a turbopump for liquid hydrogen propellants that could be used for these engines. Future engine development work beyond the powerhead demo was never funded by the

US government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

, and neither Rocketdyne—nor later

Aerojet Rocketdyne Aerojet Rocketdyne is an American manufacturer of rocket, hypersonic, and electric propulsive systems for space, defense, civil and commercial applications. Headquartered in Sacramento, California, the company is owned by Aerojet Rocketdyne Hold ...

after a 2013 merger—chose to pursue such development with their own or other private funding.

References

External links

* (Includes info on tech hurdles and development of IPD.) * (Test firing news with pictures.) * Rocket engines using hydrogen propellant Rocketdyne engines Rocket engines using full flow staged combustion cycle Rocket engines of the United States {{rocket-stub