History of Establishing a Source of Potassium and Ammonium Perchlorates for Use in Solid Propellant Rockets.

摘要

An Air Corps Jet Propulsion Project (ACJP) at the California Institute of Technology and Western Electrochemical Company Inc. (WECCO) agreed in December 1942 to establish a domestic source of supply of perchlorates in Los Angeles, California for use in solid rocket propellants. This project was designated GALCIT Project No.1. WECCO, with financial aid from ACJP, designed and constructed a perchlorate pilot plant in Los Angeles. Experimental quantities of potassium and ammonium perchlorates were produced as required by ACJP. The GALCIT project was successfully completed in November 1943. In 1943 WECCO designed and constructed a large-scale plant in Los Angeles to produce potassium perchlorate at the rate of 100 tons/month. Start-up began in January 1944. Expansion of the Los Angeles plant to 200 tons/month was started late in 1944. WECCO designed another potassium perchlorate plant to be constructed in Henderson, Nevada in 1945. This new plant was designed to produce potassium perchlorate at a rate of 1200 tons/month. Start-up of the Henderson plant began in the first week in July 1945. WECCO began production of ammonium perchlorate (AP) in a small plant in Henderson, Nevada in 1947. WECCO designed a new AP plant with production capacity of 50 tons/day. This new AP plant was constructed in Henderson, Nevada and began production in 1953.