This relatively innovative concept promises to capitalize on the shortcomings of the early bell-shaped nozzle rockets, which were inefficient, expensive, and heavy.

These inside-out rocket engines trade bell-shaped exhaust manifolds for a narrow spike, building the rest of the bell out of air. Test flight of a rocket equipped with an aerospike nozzle.

The conventional rocket engine uses a bell-shaped nozzle at the bottom of the apparatus. This allows the rocket to ignite and funnel the force of its burning fuel downward in a linear direction.

Aerospike engine trial Most rockets are designed to work efficiently within a specific altitude range, which is determined by the shape of their bell-shaped exhaust nozzles.

Essentially, the aerospike design doesn't use a traditional nozzle – it fires its rocket exhausts down the sides of a central surface shaped to mimic one side of the interior wall of a bell ...

For decades, an engine concept known as aerospike has been an elusive rival to the traditional bell-nozzle rocket. Although capable of delivering higher payloads while decreasing overall rocket ...

The plug aerospike is basically a bell-shaped rocket nozzle that’s been cut in half, then stretched to form a ring with the half-nozzle now forming the profile of a plug.

Unlike the conventional bell-shaped nozzle we are all familiar with, the aerospike channels supersonic exhaust along a cone-like spike that extends outward.

The bell-shaped nozzle extension, which measures 9 feet (2.7meters) tall and 8 feet (2.4 m) in base diameter, is made of an alloy metalwith a melting temperature high enough to boil steel.

For the fourth experiment, the engineering team used the same oxidizing agent that was used in the third experiment, as well as a bell-shaped nozzle, to keep the variables consistent in the new test.

However, there were visual indications of a plume of hot exhaust appearing just above the bell-shaped nozzle, possibly near where it was bolted onto the booster's main body.

A classic 'bell-shaped' nozzle, on the other hand works efficiently at only one flight level, thus requiring multiple stages.