Customer Reviews

Modern Engineering for Design of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines (Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics)

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i have most of the books on rocket engines that are sold today.
i must say that this is the best book about DESIGN of LIQUID ROCKET ENGINES: if you want to design a LRE, this book gives to you a chance. it's QUITE easy to read, taking in consideration that the topic is very complicate. consider that i'm a computer science university student, and i have no problem in understanding it. this book is about DESIGN, LIQUID ROCKET and ENGINES: so if you are interested in general infos about rockets, missile guidance, solid rocket, apollo on moon, illustrated books about missiles and rockets, cold war secrets etc., you are out of the way.i reported this obvious consideration because sometimes "an AMAZONer" buy some engineering book for his 5 years child and, being the son less than a genius, give to the book 1 star because he lost his money OR, since he doesn't read entirely the title of the book, he thinks that the book is something of *erotic*.

this book is an improvement of the huzel's "st-125" NASA's book, one of the first book used to introduce rocket design elements to nasa's workers when no textbooks on this topic were available. if you already have the st-125, probably you'll find "some" informations redundant. i have also the st-125. i know that
you can find this book for less, but i suggest you to buy "modern engineering.." because st-125 is a '71 pubblication,
and its perspective on liquid rockets engines is 35 years old, and 21 years older; in addition, it is a perspective that not consider the progresses of the nineties: after the end of the cold war, american engineers could collect benefits by the disclosing of russian tecnologies, and this changed some trends in aerospace.
remember that if you know little about rockets but you have a scientific background, there are better books for you. try first the sutton's "rocket propulsion elements" or "Rocket and Spacecraft Propulsion : Principles, Practice and New Developments" by Martin (but i think the first of the two is better worth the price).

i think that the only things that can be improved is the exposition of detailed infos about high pressure rocket engines,
that is to say staged combustion cycle rockets. the most powerful (thrust/weight ratio speaking) engines were all closed cycle engines(including space shuttle's SSME,russian moon rocket's nk-33,atlas' rd-180).

i'm waiting (if possible) for a newer edition of this book. i'd buy it for sure.

The book "Modern Engineering for Design Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines" is undoubtedly the best book on liquid fueled rockets. The information is not just valuable, it is priceless. Few textbooks of any subject go as much into detail as this book. Do NOT question the price. The value of the information given in this book goes way beyond the price tag. If you are interested in learning the aspects of this subject, or want to build your own rocket engine, this book is definitely for you.

This is a very well written reference book and is packed full of useful information. I work in liquid propulsion design and I have been able to find very detailed subsystem information. Well worth the price.

The other reviewers are correct when they say the text is worth the money. However the copy I received had pages that where wrinkled where they formed the spine of the book. The first and last 20 pages or so where effected. It feels as if the stitching was applied while the pages where not completely flat, resulting in a wave in the paper as its attached to the spine. The book cracked as it opened because the pages flexed (oil canned at the spine) as you turned them. Disappointing because it was carefully shrink wrapped when I got it.


Of course Amazon quickly replaced it but the next specimen off the publisher assembly line was far worse, all the pages where effected, and in the end it is probably the 'replacement' I will sent back.

I still recommend this book, its just that good.

This is a fine book for the rocket scientist wannabe. The book is really great, but only scratches the surface since it does not "reveal" all the details behind the art of designing liquid rockets. I was surprised to hear from many Russian specialists that this book brings "stupid solutions" (in their own words) to such simple an "elementary" problems - an example of this being the resonance igniter sketch shown on page 125 - "it simply doesn't work" they said. Well, the fact is that Russian books are much more detailed. And although they are written in Russian, it is not quite difficult to understand the equations and the design criteria. In short: this book is a must have for any serious rocket designer and you should buy it - but don't forget to grab some "foreign" literature - take a look at "Gakhun - Construction and Design of LPRE (in Russian)", it will tell you a whole different story.

I got this for one of my kids, who was young, and wanted to know why it was difficult to make rockets.

For this purpose, the book is great. It shows you several aspects of the design problems. You can see this from the table of contents - it tries very hard to cover as much ground as is sensible.

The diffculty for European readers is that the units are all imperial, that is, Gallons, Pounds, feet, inches, and so forth. This makes the numerical details - a sense of scale for what is being discussed - quite inaccesible for most of us over here. It's worth noting that also lead to the downfall of at least one recent space mision to Mars.

Remarks like "its not rocket science" can certainly be shown as having a truthful sort of origin by looking at this. To "do" anything with this book, you would absolutely have to develop further and deeply in the following disciplines;

1. Chemistry
2. Metallurgy
3. Thermodynamics
4. Mechanics
5. Experience with CAD, esp. simulation with solid and liquid state systems.
6. Maths
7. Electronics,
8. Reliability...
9. ???

I wonder if any single mind could get round all of these, possibly, but you would be pretty lucky to get the chance nowadays. Education isn't cheap.

I don't think, though that there is any harm in wanting to get as close to this as you like. The book is truly wonderful, almost a work of art, and even if jobs in this area are scarce, this has got to be worthwhile. Read this, do the background study, get a degree or two, and you may eventually get into industrial plant design, maybe even medical electronics, aerospace, or something. Why not? The world would be a better place if more people would dream a bit and aspire to do the hard stuff. I am full of admiration for people who did better than I did and are working in these kinds of fields.

I'm going to get a few more books in this series, though I have to say, I'm a bit nervous about ordering books with titles including the words "missile propulsion". We live in troubled times.

As already mentioned above....do not question the price! It is really worth every single cent! I am not a LRE-designer nor do I work in any similar branche...you'll need to work yourself through the subject and especially through the mathematics, but you will be able to design your own rocket motor. It really goes into detail.
This is not only one of the best books I own...it is THE BEST!

GO GET IT!

The book has about everything one needs to know as a liquid rocket engine designer. A must for any propulsion engineer.

Information very precise and very technical, suitable for those with aeronautics experience, and to deepen knowledge.