Abstract: A soft shell camper top for use on pickup truck cargo compartments is disclosed. The invention consists of a space frame and a flexible outer covering. The frame is removably attachable to the pickup truck bed and includes provisions for the attachment of a roof rack. The outer covering includes front and rear curtains and side curtains. The curtains may be securely fixed to attachments on the frame to protect cargo from the elements or may be rolled up to facilitate easy access to the truck bed.

Abstract: A Non-Protrusive Expandable Clamping Device fastens together two bodies when conventional fastening devices cannot be used because of the unique space constraints and/or the shape of the joining surfaces of the bodies. The expandable clamping device, which has two tenons on opposite sides of its housing, can be slid into the bodies that have corresponding mortises on their joining surfaces to accommodate the tenons. The clamping device connects the bodies in one linear plane using motion in an orthogonal plane. When the clamping process is completed, facilitated by the rotational motion of a threaded bolt within the cavity inside the housing, what results is a joint that is strong in all directions as well as flush and airtight between the surfaces when an appropriate gasket or O-ring is utilized. Such a joint ensures proper alignment of the bodies while providing fixity in six degrees of freedom.

Abstract: A thrust chamber assembly for liquid fueled rocket engines and the method of making it wherein a two-piece mandrel wrapped with a silica tape saturated with a phenolic resin, the tape extending along the mandrel and covering the combustion chamber portion of the mandrel to the throat portion. The phenolic in the tape is cured and the end of the wrap is machined. The remainder of the mandrel is wrapped with a third silica tape. The resin in the third tape is cured and the assembly is machined. The entire assembly is then wrapped with a tow of graphite fibers wetted with an epoxy resin and, after the epoxy resin is cured, the graphite is machined to final dimensions.

Abstract: An integral, lightweight combustion chamber/nozzle assembly for a rocket engine has a refractory metal shell defining a chamber of generally frusto-conical contour. The shell communicates at its smaller end with a rocket body, and terminates at its larger end in a generally contact contour, which is open at its terminus and which serves as a nozzle for the rocket engine. The entire inner surface of the refractory metal shell has a thermal and oxidation barrier layer applied thereto. An ablative silica phenolic insert is bonded to the exposed surface of the thermal and oxidation barrier layer. The ablative phenolic insert provides a chosen inner contour for the combustion chamber and has a taper toward the open terminus of the nozzle. A process for fabricating the integral, lightweight combustion chamber/nozzle assembly is simple and efficient, and results in economy in respect of both resources and time.

Abstract: A thrust chamber assembly for liquid fueled rocket engines and the method of making it wherein a two-piece mandrel having the configuration of an assembly having a combustion chamber portion connected to a nozzle portion through a throat portion is wrapped with a silica tape saturated with a phenolic resin, the tape extending along the mandrel and covering the combustion chamber portion of the mandrel to the throat portion. The width of the tape is positioned at an angle of 30 to 50° to the axis of the mandrel such that one edge of the tape contacts the mandrel while the other edge is spaced from the mandrel. The phenolic in the tape is cured and the end of the wrap is machined to provide a frustoconical surface extending at an angle of 15 to 30° with respect to the axis of the mandrel for starting a second wrap on the mandrel to cover the throat portion.

Abstract: A thrust chamber assembly for liquid fueled rocket engines and the method of making it wherein a two-piece mandrel having the configuration of an assembly having a combustion chamber portion connected to a nozzle portion through a throat portion is wrapped with a silica tape saturated with a phenolic resin, the tape extending along the mandrel and covering the combustion chamber portion of the mandrel to the throat portion. The width of the tape is positioned at an angle of 30 to 50° to the axis of the mandrel such that one edge of the tape contacts the mandrel while the other edge is spaced from the mandrel. The phenolic in the tape is cured and the end of the wrap is machined to provide a frustoconical surface extending at an angle of 15 to 30° with respect to the axis of the mandrel for starting a second wrap on the mandrel to cover the throat portion.

Abstract: An integral, lightweight combustion chamber/nozzle assembly for a rocket engine has a refractory metal shell defining a chamber of generally frusto-conical contour. The shell communicates at its larger end with a rocket body, and terminates at its smaller end in a tube of generally cylindrical contour, which is open at its terminus and which serves as a nozzle for the rocket engine. The entire inner surface of the refractory metal shell has a thermal and oxidation barrier layer applied thereto. An ablative silica phenolic insert is bonded to the exposed surface of the thermal and oxidation barrier layer. The ablative phenolic insert provides a chosen inner contour for the combustion chamber and has a taper toward the open terminus of the nozzle.A process for fabricating the integral, lightweight combustion chamber/nozzle assembly is simple and efficient, and results in economy in respect of both resources and time.

Abstract: An injector for liquid fueled rocket engines wherein a generally flat core having a frustoconical dome attached to one side of the core to serve as a manifold for a first liquid, with the core having a generally circular configuration having an axis. The other side of the core has a plurality of concentric annular first slots and a plurality of annular concentric second slots alternating with the first slots, the second slots having a greater depth than said first slots. A bore extends through the core for inletting a second liquid into said core, the bore intersecting the second slots to feed the second liquid into the second slots. The core also has a plurality of first passageways leading from the manifold to the first annular slots for feeding the first liquid into said first slots.

Abstract: The booster motors, each attached to and surrounding a centerbody, are mully connected to each other via one or more hollow manifold legs through which propulsive gases flow freely. At a predetermined time, the manifold cutter receives a signal activating the cutter to sever the manifold leg. Upon severance, the cut manifold leg still attached to the booster acts as a nozzle by venting residual propulsive gases and thereby propelling the booster away from the centerbody.

Abstract: Upon the occurrence of a preset event, compressed gas is released from a mber and travels to fill a bellows. The bellows inflates and provides the power to eject a force transfer strut from the cavity of one body. The strut being fixedly attached at one end to a second body, this ejection accomplishes the separation of the two bodies from each other.