Rocket man

Flying the Rocket Beltthe 21-second thrill

In a letter of nomination to the Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP), Brig. Gen. Frank K. Everest-legendary USAF test pilot and the first human to fly faster than Mach 3 with the Bell X-2 in July 1956-wrote the following about Bell Rocket Belt test pilot Bill Suitor:

"I would like to recommend that Mr. William P. Suitor be accepted as a member of the SETP. His records and experiences are such that many other test pilots are novices by comparison. I recall watching one of the Rocket Belt pilots demonstrate the device at an SETP pool party many years ago and thinking to myself, 'Now, there is a way to live dangerously.' As a matter of fact, Bell tried to get me interested, but I told them I thought it was too hazardous; and in those days, I was not afraid of much."

Indeed, Brig. Gen. Everest's nomination of Suitor to the SUP seemed fitting, as Suitor held the world records for speed, distance and atitude in the Rocket Belt. Furthermore, Suitor is the only Rocket Belt pilot ever to have flown three versions: the Bell Rocket Belt, the Tyler Rocket Belt and the last one, the RB-2000. But was flying the Rocket Belt dangerous? Remarkably, it had a 100 percent demonstrated reliability in more than 2,800 flights.

Historical overview

The Rocket Belt is one of the most captivating aerospace flying machines ever conceived and was originally known as the "Small Rocket Lift Device" (SRLD). The concept was first considered by Col. Charles Parkin of the U.S. Army Transportation and Development Command (TRECOM) in the mid-1950s as a way to assist and enhance an infantryman's physical abilities while running, flying up or down high terrain, or swiftly skimming over the surface of rivers. It was also envisioned for use in rescue operations, surveillance and tactical maneuvers. With a nitrogen gas bottle strapped to his back, Parkin conducted crude experiments in which he was able to demonstrate that a man could jump higher with short bursts of thrust. Called Operation Grasshopper by the U.S. Army, in 1959, TRECOM issued a formal request for proposals to the aerospace industry. Three companies with rocket-propulsion backgrounds responded: Bell Aerosystems, Thiokol Corp.'s Reaction Motors Division and Aerojet-General's Aerojet Systems Division. In July 1959, Aerojet-General was awarded a Phase 1 military contract to develop the SRLD. On completion of Phase 1, Aerojet-General determined that hydrogenperoxide (H202) propellant was the most useful fuel.

The use of highstrength hydrogen peroxide as a rocket propellant dates back to WW II. Germany used it extensively in a variety of weapons systems, including submarines and torpedoes. The world's first operational rocket-powered interceptor, the Me 163, used a combination of turbo-pumps to drive hydrogen peroxide (80percent strength) and a liquid catalyst (sodium permanganate) into a thrust chamber. Based on the historical use of hydrogen peroxide by Germany, the Aerojet-General company built on this principle. Its further demonstrations showed that whenever high-strength hydrogen peroxide encounters a catalyst made from pure metals, such as copper or silver, an immediate reaction occurs that converts the H202 into an extremely hot, high-pressure steam at 1,388 degrees Fahrenheit. In less than 1/10 millisecond, the hydrogen peroxide expands 5,000 times in volume and provides thrust. Because hydrogen peroxide breaks down into water and oxygen, it was considered a "clean" fuel.

Meanwhile, Bell Aerosystems, under the direction of Bell X-1 rocket-propulsion engineer and inventor Wendell F. Moore, used company funds to design and build a nitrogen gas rig specifically for investigating tethered SRLD flights. "The rig," as it was affectionately called, used twin longitudinally tiltable nozzles attached to a tubular frame that lifted the pilot using two underarm stirrups. A safety cable was attached to the center of the frame above the pilot's back, and this allowed limited flights. Highpressure (500psi) nitrogen was pumped through a flexible hose from a large, 2,100psi storage tank inside the Bell Aerosystems hangar. The nitrogen gas-rig-testing period would tell Moore and his colleagues where to best place the control mechanisms that eventually evolved into the Bell Rocket Belt.

The success of the nitrogen gas-rig flights led to Bell Aerosystems' being awarded the Army's Phase 2 contract: construction, flight-testing and demonstrations of a fully functional SRLD. The first Bell Aerosystems Rocket Belt consisted of a fiberglass harness to fit the pilot, propellant supply tanks, gas generator, throttle-control assembly, nozzle deflection cables and hot-gas tube nozzles. When fully assembled, the Bell Rocket Belt looked like a futuristic flying machine right out of "Buck Rogers."

The Bell Rocket Belt went through a tethered flight-testing period consisting of 56 flights inside the Bell hangar; each flight told Wendell Moore and his engineering team where to make improvements and modifications. One of Bell's own rocket-testing engineers, Harold Graham, had been chosen as the pilot for all the tethered flights, and he was prepared to make history with the first free flight. On April 20, 1961, less than one month before Alan Shepard became America's first man in space, Harold Graham twisted the Bell Rocket Belt throttle handle and flew 112 feet in a free flight that lasted 13 seconds and was eight feet short of the Wright brothers' first powered flight. The dream of flight without wings had become a reality. Further demonstration flights eventually allowed Bell to develop other Rocket Belt offshoot technologies, including some that would interest NASA for the Apollo flights to the moon (those are another story).