PREFACE

The present book contains a seri es of invited papers and prepared

comments on "The Chemistry of Propellants". The meeting at which
these papers were presented was organized at the request of Dr. N.
Ramsey during his tenure of office as Science Advisor to the NATO
Secretary General. It falls outside the seri es of COMBUSTION AND
PROPULSION COLLOQUIA which have been sponsored by the AGARD
Combustion and Propulsion Panel at intervals of approximately two
years since 1953.
Our first reaction in AGARD to the idea of organizing an uncl assi -
fied meeting on propellant chemi stry was one of considerable doubt
since we anticipated difficulty in meeting our technical objectives under
the severe security restrictions which hamper many practical aspects
of propellant developments. Neverthel ess, the Colloquium Committee
of the Combustion and Propulsion Panel proceeded with the organization-
al tasks on the assumption and with the hope that a cl assi fi ed meeting
could be developed at a future date if the initial di scussi ons showed
clear evidence that much important material had been deleted. I
believe that the present volume constitutes a useful contribution and
evaluation of current trends in propellant chemi stry although it i s
apparent that the entire story has not been told, particularly in so far
as solid rocket propellants are concerned.
As Chairman of AGARD, I should like to take this opportunity to
express my appreciation to the Colloquium Committee, the Panel i
Chairman, Dr. S. S. Penner, the Panel Deputy Chairman, Dr. J.
Fabri, and the Panel Executive, Lt. Col. R. M. Horridge, for their
work in organizing and implementing an unclassified meeting on
propellant chemi stry. A special note of thanks i s due to Mes s rs . J . E.
P. Dunning and A. H. Lefebvre who have compiled a written report of
a round-table di scussi on on "Basic Probl ems in Propulsion".
y /
July 1959 THEODORE VON KARMAN
C hai r man, AG A RD
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