5 TH EUROPEAN CONFERENCE FOR AERONAUTICS AND SPACE SCIENCES (EUCASS) Copyright © 2013 by the authors. Published by the EUCASS association with permission. Design and Testing of a GOX/GCH4 Igniter for Small Scale Rocket Engine Thrust Chambers. Francesco Battista*, Michele Ferraiuolo*, Adolfo Martucci*, Ainslie French*, Pietro Roncioni*, Manrico Fragiacomo*, Vito Salvatore*, *CIRA (Italian Aerospace Research Centre) Via Maiorise, 81043 Capua (CE), Italy Leonardo De Rose** **AVIO, Via Ariana, 00034 Colleferro (RM), Italy Abstract The work described in this paper is conducted in the framework of the HYPROB Program that is carried out by the Italian Aerospace Research Centre (CIRA) with the main objective to enable and improve National System and Technology capabilities on liquid rocket engines (LRE) for future space propulsion systems and applications, with specific regard to LOX/LCH4 technology. This paper discusses the design and fire-testing results of the gaseous oxygen-gaseous methane torch igniter designed for a subscale experimental “breadboard” (SSBB) LOX/Methane rocket engine. The igniter presented in this work is reliable and easy to interface with different small-scale combustion chambers. 1. Introduction The HYPROB program is carried out by CIRA under contract by the Italian Ministry of Research with the main objective to enable and improve National system and technology capabilities on liquid rocket engines (LRE) using propulsion systems for future space applications, with specific regard to LOX/LCH 4 technology. As far as the System line devoted to the LOX/LCH 4 technology is concerned, a first implementation project has been launched, called HYPROB BREAD, aimed at designing, manufacturing and testing a LRE demonstrator of 3 ton thrust class, based on a regenerative cooling system using liquid methane as refrigerant. Moreover, within the HYPROB-BREAD project the design of various breadboards aimed at the investigation of critical design aspects in the development of the complete system is planned. These breadboards and their position in the work-logic of the project are widely described in [1]. Among these the Sub Scale Breadboard (SSBB, Figure 1) is a scaled down version of the 3 ton thrust LRE Demonstrator with only one injector and represents an important intermediate step of the project to validate the design and the performance of the injector. For this breadboard the igniter, the subject of this paper, has been designed. Figure 1 – Sub Scale Bread Board 3D view In order to fulfil the SSBB system requirements the igniter has to be at the same time reliable, simple and cheap, customized on the SSBB thrust chamber but easy to adapt for the installation on other small-scale chambers. Keeping these requirements in mind and also following the indications reported in [2] the choice of developing a spark-torch igniter has been made. Moreover, it should be noted that most modern restartable rocket engines use either a spark-torch igniter or a pyrophoric (hypergolic) igniter. Spark-torch igniters burn a bipropellant mixture, which is obtained from the main propellant tanks (e.g. RL10) or from a separate feed system (Vinci). Pyrophoric