The History of the BATES Motors at the Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory

Abstract

This paper presents the history of the Ballistic Test and Evaluation System (BATES) at what was then the Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory (AFRPL) over the past 40 years. The system maintains the highest accuracy possible (0.2% on thrust) and has become the equivalent of Bureau of Standards for measuring and comparing solid propellant performance. The BATES database covers several thousand firings with several hundred parameters reported per firing. The paper also discusses methodologies developed with the system, scientific discoveries made with the system, and the key role it has played in shaping the entire ballistic testing and analysis efforts in this and other countries.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 1998
Accession Number
ADA405742

Entities

People

  • C. Beckman
  • R. Geisler

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Burning Rate
  • Combustion
  • Composite Propellants
  • Exhaust Plumes
  • Governments
  • Measurement
  • Particle Size
  • Propellants
  • Rocket Engines
  • Rocket Propulsion
  • Solid Propellants
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Two Phase Flow
  • United States
  • United States Government

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Rocket Propulsion.
  • Systems Analysis and Design