ARO 103L — Introduction to Aerospace Propulsion, Prof. Lam, Fall 2014
Homework #1: Due Next week:
Your assignment is to do a short TYPED report on the power plant of your choosing. A power
plant is a motor, engine, or rocket of some sort that provides propulsion for an aircraft, jet,
launch vehicle, or spacecraft. If you like, you may choose the one that powers your favorite
vehicle (if you have one!).
Your report should be about one or two TYPED pages (use 12 point Times font, 1.5 line spacing)
with the Section and sub-section Numbers and titles exactly as shown below. You should include
at least one picture of the power plant with a figure number and figure title at the bottom of the
figure. Include the figure after you mention it in the text. The report should include the following
information. Don’t worry if you can’t find some of this information; just try to locate most of it.
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Your Name _______________________ ARO 103L
Section # _____ Date ___________
Title of paper (center of page)
Do not just write the name of the power plant. Give it a title that includes a description of
what is was famous for (i.e. “ The Rolls-Royce Merlin Engine; Power Plant for the Best
Allied Fighters of WWII”).
1.0 Power plant Overview
o Power plant name or designation, its type (turbojet? rocket engine? internal
combustion engine?, electric engine? Etc?

Show “Figure 1-1 Name of the power plant…”
o Manufacturer name
o Types of vehicles that used this engine and description of any important missions
that this power plant enabled the vehicles to perform
o Approximate dates of service
2.0 Key Operating Characteristics
2.1 Weight or mass of the system.
2.2 Performance
1) For an aircraft engine: maximum power produced in horsepower or watts, the
maximum thrust, and maximum thrust to weight ratio
2) For a rocket engine: maximum thrust level in pounds or Newtons at sea level,
and in a vacuum.
2.3 Type of fuel used (or fuel and oxidizer in case of a rocket engine)
2.4 Speeds of the host vehicle while this power plant operates
2.5 Duration of operation (minutes for a rocket, thousands of hours for a jet engine)
2.6 Fuel consumption in lb/s or kg/s
o For an aircraft engine, see if you can calculate, or obtain, the specific fuel
consumption. This is abbreviated “SFC” and is the ratio of either power
or thrust divided by the fuel consumption. It is like the “miles per gallon”
values given for automobiles.
o For a rocket engine, calculate or obtain the specific impulse, Isp
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3.0 Other Characteristics
o List anything else you find interesting or unusual, perhaps how the engine is
started, operating temperatures, exhaust velocities, or how the fuel is supplied, etc.
4.0 Power plant Retirement
o If this power plant is largely out of service, describe what caused this power plant
to be taken out of mainline service or be relegated to a minor operational role?
What was the replacement(s) and what characteristics did the replacement have
that made your power plant either obsolete or less effective or less efficient?
o If this power plant is still in service, what is in development that will be superior
to it and may replace it in the future?
5.0 References
List and number all references used in the paper. Include the Reference Number
immediately after the text section in which you used the information (i.e.”… The fuels of
the RL-10A4-2 rocket engine are liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen rocket engine
yielding 22,300 pounds of thrust with an Isp of 451 seconds (Ref. 2.2-3)”. The Reference
Number can first be the Section Number where you use the reference, then a dash (-),
then a sequential number in order of the references. Example of a reference format is:
2.2-3) Griffin, Michael D., and French, James R., Space Vehicle Design, 2nd Edition,
AIAA Education Series, Reston, Virginia, 2004, pp. 205
You may use any source of information you like. The Internet is a wonderful source, as is the
library. Aviation Week magazine has its “Aerospace Sourcebook” which contains information
as requested above, as do books by Janes.
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