Under present conditions, the author of any paper on rocket power plant engineering must inevitably apologise for a certain reticence as regards technical details, which is imposed by security requirements. These arise from the important applications of rocket propulsion for guided weapons and other military purposes, and are less stringent in regard to its use as a means for providing take-off assistance. It is with the latter subject that this paper will be mainly concerned when practical applications are discussed.

Most of the fundamentals are common to all uses of the rocket motor and it is hoped that a general survey of these may be of some value, especially since the field of rocketry has been relatively neglected in the technical publications of this country.