Ramona Adams
Aerojet Rocketdyne has completed a critical design review of the company-built AR1 rocket engine.
The company said Monday it aims to obtain flight certification for the AR1 technology in 2019 to help the Defense Department move away from foreign-made engines.
Independent government and industry experts attended the review, which assessed whether AR1’s design meets performance requirements ahead of full-scale manufacturing, Aerojet Rocketdyne added.
The CDR also validated the production processes that will be used to manufacture the engines.
Eileen Drake, Aerojet Rocketdyne president and CEO, said the company manufactured major components at subscale and full-scale dimensions and ran hundreds of tests to confirm that Aerojet Rocketdyne is ready to build the first AR1 for qualification and certification.
The system-level CDR followed 22 incremental CDRs as well as critical subsystem tests, such as full-scale performance demonstration of the preburner and staged combustion system, the company noted.
Julie Van Kleeck, Aerojet Rocketdyne vice president of advanced space and launch programs and strategy, said the company aims to deliver AR1 as the booster engine of national security launches beginning 2020.
