V1 Engine

The V1 Engine was the first engine to be manufactured with some seriousness.
The propellant is melted KNSB (65% potassium nitrate and 35% sorbitol) or 65% potassium nitrate and 35% regular sugar. The engine chamber is made of aluminum and several types of nozzles were tested. It was the first engine to be tested on the test stand we built.

Engine Chamber

The engine chamber is made of aluminum, cylindrical and with a welded end. It has an inner diameter of 17mm and an inner length of 109mm.

Engine Nozzles

Nozzle 1

This was the first nozzle to be made. It is an aluminum nozzle with the theoretically exact dimensions for the best performance with the propellant in question. It ended up being used only twice because, at the time, we did not know that the aluminum would not withstand the temperatures to which it would be exposed. It was made to take 2 high temperature o-rings to avoid pressure losses. Later, a small screw was also placed to secure the nozzle to the chamber.

Nozzle 2

Since aluminum could not withstand the temperatures to which it would be exposed, it was necessary to make a nozzle with the same geometry as nozzle 1, but in steel.

Nozzle 3

A nozzle such as nozzle 2 is complicated to make and takes a lot of time. To find out if it would really pay off to use these nozzles, a simpler steel nozzle was made with only the converging part. This way it would be possible to observe the difference in performance between the engines with nozzle 2 and the engines with this nozzle.

All the tests of these rockets and their performance data can be found on the tests page.