Robert Truax
| Robert Truax | |
|---|---|
Captain Robert C. Truax (USN)
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| Born | September 3, 1917 |
| Died | September 17, 2010 (aged 93) Vista, California |
| Fields | Aerospace engineering |
| Institutions | 1939–1959: United States Navy 1959–1966: Aerojet 1966– : Truax Engineering |
| Alma mater |
U.S. Naval Academy (BSc ME, 1939) NPS (BS Aero) Iowa State College (MS nuclear eng) |
| Known for | Skycycle X-2: "I asked Evel [Knievel] to postpone the Snake River shot until I ironed out the difficulty." |
| Influences | Robert Goddard |
| Spouse | Marisol |
| Children | four with 1st wife Rosalind two (Scott, Dean) with 2nd wife Sally |
| Notes | |
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The Salvage 1 TV character was loosely based on Truax: "Yeah, they got it from me. They knew what I was doing. Pure imitation."
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| X-3 Volksrocket | |
|---|---|
| Type | manned, sub-orbital, single-stage |
| Place of origin | United States |
| Service history | |
| Used by | never used |
| Production history | |
| Manufacturer | Truax Engineering |
| Specifications | |
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| Engine | 4 Rocketdyne LR101 vernier engines |
| Propellant | Liquid oxygen & Jet-A kerosene |
| Flight altitude | 50 miles (80 km): burnout at 113,000 feet (34,000 m) |
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Guidance
system |
X-15/Dyna-soar inertial platform |
| X-3 Volksrocket testing |
Captain Robert C. Truax (USN) (September 3, 1917 – September 17, 2010) was a rocket engineer in the United States Navy, and companies such as Aerojet and Truax Engineering, which he founded. Truax was a proponent of low-cost rocket engine and vehicle designs.
As a teenager, Truax was inspired by Robert Goddard articles in Popular Mechanics magazine to build his own rockets while residing in Alameda, California. From 1936 to 1939, midshipman Truax tested liquid-fuel rocket motors and published a February 1939 report in Astronautics. In 1938, he showed a thrust chamber that he had constructed to the British Interplanetary Society and wrote technical reports published by the American Rocket Society.
Following two years' sea duty, first on the USS Enterprise (CV-6) and then a destroyer, then-Lieutenant Commander Truax worked at the Engineering Experiment Station at Annapolis in the Bureau of Aeronautics Ship Installations Division under Commander C. A. Bolster. Truax headed the Navy Development Project (ensigns R. C. Stiff, J. F. Patton, W. Schubert and MIT civilian Robertson Youngquist), where hypergolic propellant was discovered—fuel that burst into flame spontaneously when brought into contact with nitric acid, leading to the use of aniline plus 20% furfuryl alcohol for the 1945 WAC Corporal (the first free-flight rocket to use the fuel). By early 1943, the Truax group had developed a 1,500 lbf (6.7 kN) thrust JATO using hypergolic fuel before the introduction of solid fuel JATO units.
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