HISTORY - Page 59
that propellant sloshing was caused by the tilting
program to such a degree that the missile became
dynamically unstable
78
.
A rather ingenious testing device was rigged by ABMA
in the attempt to cope with the sloshing problem. A
JUPITER center section was placed on a railroad flat
car, with proper attachments that would simulate
flight environment forces on the propellant tanks, and
several types of baffles were placed inside the tanks
as a means to reduce the sloshing. Success was
attained by installing a turncated-cone type in the fuel
tank and an accordion type in the LOX tank. The full-
scale IRBM flight of JUPITER 1 in May 1957 aptly
demonstrated two major points: (1) quick reaction of
an in-house R&D team and the resulting brevity in
time between problem isolation and component fix,
and (2) the validity of heavily instrumented R&D
flights.
The above represented the major problem areas in the
propulsion system development program. This is not
to say that problems of the moment were not
experienced with other components. For example,
during the early flights of the solid propellant vernier
engine, some failures did occur, but quite often it was
hard to tell whether or not the difficulty had been
caused by main engine failures. In any event,
development progress was not deterred by the other
propulsion components, which never became major
problem areas.
_____________________________
78. Hist, ABMA, Jan-Jun 57, pp. 42-46; JUP Prog Rpt for May 57, 6 Jun 57; JUP Prog Rpt for Oct
57, Hist Off files .