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Armadillo Aerospace News: Working engines
We finally have a solid engine configuration!
The angle bar flameholders were causing combustion instability at high thrust and melting things underneath them, so we focused on using the heavy perforated metal plates as flameholders. A single plate retaining the cold pack with the spark plug underneath it worked ok, but if we added a second one right below the spark plug, we got much stronger and more even flameholding. We also started using the longest reach spark plugs I could find – NGK PLFR5A-11, which gives over an inch of reach to get it past the 5.5” to 7” step transition. This would light reliably if the pack was completely cold, but it still had problems when we tried to light it a second time. Read More

posted by Sigurd @ 3/21/2004 12:28:00 AM