The SEPR 844 reusable liquid rocket engine for Mirage combat aircraft

Abstract

The SEPR 844 rocket engine for Mirage I11 combat aircraft is the last version of a bipropellant rocket engine family developed by SEP for aircraftpropulsion. The SEPR 844 is a 15 kN thrust, single-chamber rocket engine. I t operates with nitric acid and aircraft supplied kerosene. The ignition is made with a hypergolic nitric acid TX2 combustion. Thechamber is fed by twocentrifugalpumps driven by an auxiliary shaft coming from the aircraft turbojet engine. The combustion chamber is regeneratively cooled and operates at 2.35 MPa pressure. SinceDecember 1961,275enginesoftheSEPR84class (SEPR 841 and SEPR 844) have been used operationnaly in six countries and have completed more than 10000 flights with a 99 % success rate and a high availability : These engine demonstrated more than SO ignitions without removal and can be serviced in less than 15 minutes.