Liner, Cooling, Liquid-Propellant Rocket Engine

This is an early cooling liner for a Reaction Motors, Inc. (RMI) liquid-propellant, regeneratively-cooled rocket engine. The helical wrapped wires promoted the flow of fuel between the inner liner and outer cooling jacket of the motor. It was constructed and tested as part of the development of a JATO (Jet-Assisted-Take-Off) unit for use by heavily loaded seaplanes. RMI undertook the JATO project under contract to the U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics during World War II. RMI's motors used company founder James H. Wyld's design for the fuel circulating around the motor in a cooling jacket before being injected into the combustion chamber.

In the end, the Navy decided to use solid-propellant JATOs, rather than liquid-propellant ones, but RMI went on to be a significant rocket-engine company in the 1950s. Thiokol Chemical Corporation, which acquired RMI in 1958, gave this motor to the Smithsonian in 1975.