From: clj@panix.com
henry@spsystems.net (Henry Spencer) writes:
> In article <88d21cfd.0401201857.60275b60@posting.google.com>,
> ed kyle wrote:
>>> The RD-171 *looks* like four engines bolted together...
>>
>>Four thrust chambers, but all are driven by a single
>>monster turbopump. That makes it a single engine
>>according to most sources.
>
> Not everyone agrees with that definition, however, and it gets you into
> trouble when you try to apply it everywhere. (How many engines in the
> classic Atlas? Hint: the pump configuration changed several times.)
Oooh! Oooh! I know this one (I hope). Well, first, what do you mean
by classic Atlas? I'm guessing you mean the lettered rather than the
Roman numeraled Atlases and you're leaving out Atlas A since it didn't
have 3 nozzles. In that case, the answer is: it depends on who you ask.
Most people say three, but a case can be made for two (counting the
sustainer as one in all cases, and the booster as either one or two since
it flew with both one or two turbopumps.
Here's another one. If you're going to number the stages, what numbers
do you give them? Classic terminology names rather than numbers them,
calling them the booster and the sustainer, and referring to the Atlas
without an upper stage or solids as a 1-1/2 stage launcher. Then the
upper stage (Agena or Centaur) is called the second stage, implying
maybe that the sustainer is the first (or is it the one and a halfth?)
stage, which would make the booster the first, or maybe the it should be
the zeroth? OK, then what about any solids? Are THEY stage zero (as
some call the solids of the Titan III, since the core stages were
already called one and two from the Titan II it evolved for), or do they
become stage "minus one"?
And if you're so smart, what color should it be?
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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