Country of origin United States Last flight 2005-10-19 Manufacturer Aerojet | First flight 1964-09-01 Designer Aerojet Application upper stage engine | |
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The LR91 was an American liquid-propellant rocket engine, which was used on the second stages of Titan intercontinental ballistic missiles and launch vehicles. While the original version - the LR91-3 - run on RP-1/LOX (as did the companion LR87-3) on the Titan I, the models that propelled the Titan II and later were switched to Aerozine 50/N2O4.
This engine was vacuum optimized and ran the gas generator cycle. The thrust chamber used fuel for regenerative cooling, with separate ablative skirt. The LR87, which was used for the Titan first stage, was used as a template for the LR91.
Early LR91 engines used on the Titan I burned RP-1 and liquid oxygen. Because liquid oxygen is cryogenic, it could not be stored in the missile for long periods of time, and had to be loaded before the missile could be launched. For the Titan II, the engine was converted to use Aerozine-50 and nitrogen tetroxide, which are hypergolic and storable at room temperature. This allowed Titan II missiles to be kept fully fueled and ready to launch on short notice.
Versions
Improvement and modifications required to comply with the man rating of the RD-0105 led it to have two versions: