Reaction Motors, Inc. (RMI) was an early American maker of liquid-fueled

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

, located in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. RMI engines with thrust powered the Bell X-1

rocket aircraft A rocket-powered aircraft or rocket plane is an aircraft that uses a rocket engine for propulsion, sometimes in addition to airbreathing jet engines. Rocket planes can achieve much higher speeds than similarly sized jet aircraft, but typicall ...

that first broke the sound barrier in 1947, and later aircraft such the X-1A, X-1E, and the

Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket The Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket (or D-558-II) is a rocket and jet-powered research supersonic aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company for the United States Navy. On 20 November 1953, shortly before the (17 December) 50th anniversary of p ...

. A thrust RMI engine also powered the

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

research rocket, the first large liquid-fueled US high-altitude rocket. RMI was merged with

Thiokol Thiokol (variously Thiokol Chemical Corporation(/Company), Morton Thiokol Inc., Cordant Technologies Inc., Thiokol Propulsion, AIC Group, ATK Thiokol, ATK Launch Systems Group; finally Orbital ATK before becoming part of Northrop Grumman) was an ...

in 1958, where it produced the XLR-99 engine that powered the X-15 rocket aircraft.

History

Formation and the sound barrier

Reaction Motors, Inc. began operation as early as 1930 through the work of then American Interplanetary Society members Lovell Lawrence,

George Edward Pendray George Edward Pendray (May 19, 1901 – September 15, 1987) was an American public relations counselor, author, foundation executive, and an early advocate of rockets and spaceflight. He was associated with Robert H. Goddard and helped org ...

, Hugh Pierce, and engineer John Shesta. This group quickly moved from science fiction discussions to practical rocketry. Pendray contributed heavily to their early designs using knowledge acquired from a trip to Berlin in 1931. In 1938, Princeton University student

James Hart Wyld James Hart Wyld (September 10, 1912 – December 3, 1954) was an American engineer and rocket scientist. James Hart Wild was born on September 10, 1912 in New York City. Recognizing him as a child prodigy, his parents hired private tutors and sen ...

tested a two-pound rocket engine which provided 90 pounds of thrust; this would become the basis for the group's work over the next two decades. Though test flights are recorded from 1933 forward, the group would rename themselves the

American Rocket Society The American Rocket Society (ARS) began its existence on , under the name of the American Interplanetary Society. It was founded by science fiction writers G. Edward Pendray, David Lasser, Laurence Manning, Nathan Schachner, and others. Pendra ...

and continue experimentation in the relatively populous area of Staten Island until incorporating Reaction Motors, Inc. under Lovell Lawrence in 1938 in pursuit of a war-time contract from the United States Navy. In 1938 and prior to incorporation, the group successfully designed and perfected the world's first workable regenerative cooling rocket engine, technology which would for the first time make liquid-fueled rocket engines capable of burning for long enough periods to be practical. All future liquid-fueled rockets would build off this technology. They tested this rocket engine in

Pompton Lakes, New Jersey Pompton Lakes is a borough in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 11,097,Oakland, New Jersey, belonging to Shesta's brother in-law as mailing address and laboratory but soon moved to a former night club in Pompton Plains to provide space for rocket engine testing and machine work. In 1945 RMI was granted a contract from the United States Army to develop a rocket engine for the first of the "X" series of experimental airplanes, designed to break the sound barrier. Undaunted by the 1946 death of British test pilot Geoffrey de Havilland Jr., the company eventually furnished the X-1 project with a design based upon four of Wyld's engines which would provide 1,500 pounds of thrust each. On October 14, 1947, American test pilot

Chuck Yeager Brigadier General Charles Elwood Yeager ( , February 13, 1923December 7, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot who in October 1947 became the first pilot in history confirmed to have exceeded the ...

was the first in the world to break the sound barrier, piloting the X-1 with the four Reaction Motors, Inc. engines. Yeager was able to complete his flight safely due to the remarkably smooth flight provided by Wyld's system and despite the fact that he had broken several ribs while horse-riding the previous day.

Merger with Thiokol and the Space Race

In early 1956, following an extensive bidding war, Reaction Motors, Inc. was awarded a contract from the United States Navy for the development of the proposed XLR30 engine to be used to power the experimental aircraft known as

X-15 The North American X-15 is a hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft. It was operated by the United States Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as part of the X-plane series of experimental aircraft. The X-15 set spee ...

and eventually pursue manned spaceflight. After much misadventure, a massive increase in budgetary requirements, and engineering problems related to fuel injectors and the thrust chamber which resulted in the Navy enlisting the assistance of the

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

Division of North American Aviation, the XLR30 engine project was moved back on track with a new designation of TR-139 to convey the striking changes in design which were required. On April 17, 1958, RMI's acquisition by Thiokol Chemical Corporation was finalized by the approval of the stockholders and RMI was henceforth referred to as Reaction Motors Division (RMD). RMD's engine for the X-15 was completed and 199 flights were made before the X-15 project was discontinued in 1969, years past its due date and having cost more than five times its original budget. The X-15 is credited as having reached a record mach 6.72 at 67 miles above the Earth, being solely responsible for providing the data necessary to insulate and maintain the structural integrity of the

Mercury spacecraft Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un ...

, and a host of additional technical achievements and aviation milestones.

Products

* Reaction Motors XLR11 * Reaction Motors XLR10 - used on

Viking (rocket) Viking was series of twelve sounding rockets designed and built by the Glenn L. Martin Company under the direction of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). Designed to supersede the German V-2, the Viking was the most advanced large, liqui ...

Reaction Motors XLR30-RM-2 Reaction may refer to a process or to a response (disambiguation), response to an action, event, or exposure: Physics and chemistry *Chemical reaction *Nuclear reaction *Reaction (physics), as defined by Newton's third law *Chain reaction (disamb ...

Reaction Motors XLR-99 The Reaction Motors LR99 engine was the first large, throttleable, restartable liquid-propellant rocket engine. Development began in the 1950s by the Reaction Motors Division of Thiokol, Thiokol Chemical Company to power the North American X-15 hy ...

Patents filed

(partial list) *3095694 - Reaction motor which does not require booster at high altitudes *2637973 - "Rocket Engine Having Turbine Located in Nozzle for Driving Auxiliaries" *2479888 - "Controlling System for Reaction Motors"

References

{{Reflist Defunct aircraft engine manufacturers of the United States Rocket engine manufacturers of the United States