Hypergolic Propellant - History

History

Soviet rocket engine researcher Valentin Glushko experimented with hypergolic fuel as early as 1931. It was initially used for "chemical ignition" of engines, starting kerosene/nitric acid engines with an initial charge of phosphorus dissolved in carbon disulfide.

Starting in 1935, Prof. O. Lutz of the German Aeronautical Institute experimented with over 1000 self-igniting propellants. He assisted the Walter Company with the development of C-Stoff which ignited with concentrated hydrogen peroxide. BMW developed engines burning a hypergolic mix of nitric acid with various combinations of amines, xylidines and anilines.

Hypergolic propellants were discovered independently, for the third time, in the US by GALCIT and Navy Annapolis researchers in 1940. They developed engines powered by aniline and nitric acid. Robert Goddard, Reaction Motors and Curtiss-Wright worked on aniline/nitric acid engines in the early 1940s, for small missiles and jet assisted take-off (JATO).

In Germany from the mid 1930s through World War II, rocket propellants were broadly classed as monergols, hypergols, non-hypergols and lithergols. The ending ergol is a combination of Greek ergon or work, and Latin oleum or oil, later influenced by the chemical suffix -ol from alcohol. Monergols were monopropellants, while non-hypergols were bipropellants which required external ignition, and Lithergols were solid/liquid hybrids. Hypergolic propellants (or at least hypergolic ignition) were far less prone to hard starts than electric or pyrotechnic ignition. The "hypergole" terminology was coined by Dr. Wolfgang Nöggerath, at the Technical University of Brunswick, Germany.