[Integza] Reading information about the rocket planes made by the Germans during the Second World War at the end of the war. Heinkel He-176 is not very practical, but he was very interested when he read that the Rockets are cold but not burning. He did a little research and found that the engine is a single-component engine that uses hydrogen peroxide.This resulted in some Interesting experiment And the 3D printed rocket engine, as shown in the video below.
Generally, a liquid fuel rocket engine has a fuel and an oxidizer, which are mixed and ignited, or in a self-igniting rocket, spontaneously ignites on contact. For a single propellant, the thrust comes from the chemical reaction between the propellant (in this case hydrogen peroxide) and the catalyst.
There is a common scientific demonstration, which uses ordinary peroxides and simple catalysts to produce large amounts of foam. However, for rockets, you need concentrated hydrogen peroxide and certain catalysts.For some reason [Integza] Before determining the potassium permanganate used by the Germans, they tried different catalysts. That is more effective.
Since the response was not intense, this is a rocket that can be 3D printed on consumer-grade printers. In particular, he uses resin printers to make nozzles and guides to properly mix peroxide and liquid catalyst.
For this test, the rocket did not go anywhere. Tied to a fixed bracket, [Integza] Simply use a syringe to inject the material. However, the results are impressive, and we would love to see actual flying rockets or airplanes using this system.
This is not his first attempt to print a rocket engine. If you want to take a more traditional route, we also have some suggestions.