"John Halliwell" wrote in message
...
In article , Keith Willshaw keithNoSpa
writes
The RD-180 is a closed cycle engine meaning that the expanding
O2 used to power the fuel pumps is used in the combustion chamber
rather than dumped outboard as is the practise in American engines.

Is that the one that was subject to a BBC Horizon (or similar) where
some US rocket engineers were shown a warehouse full of engines they
themselves had considered impossible having failed to get them to work?

--
John

Sadly "Horizon" has been noticeably "dumbed-down" of late, preferring
hyperbole to subtlety, relishing in constantly trotting out the same
"established scientists said it couldn't work/happen/exist, but these
renegades/upstarts/FSU-engineers have proven them wrong" line whether the
programme is about dinousaurs, rockets, asteroids or aircraft. Rockets are
not my field, but I am given to understand that the SSME (noticeably
American when I last checked) is a closed-cycle design.