Rocketdyne
The Rocketdyne Division was founded by North American Aviation (NAA) in 1955, and was later part of Rockwell International (1967-1996) and Boeing (1996-2005). In 2005, the Rocketdyne Division was sold to United Technologies Corporation, becoming Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne as part of Pratt & Whitney. In 2013, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne was sold to GenCorp, which merged it with Aerojet to form Aerojet Rocketdyne.
Expansion deflection nozzle
Rocketdyne carried out their work during an initial surge in interest in the 1960s, initially developing the E-D 50k nozzle, which had a chamber pressure of 20.7 bar (2.07 MPa) delivering a thrust of 50,000 lbf (220 kN) and was uncooled, allowing it to be tested for a couple seconds at a time. The E-D 10k nozzle had a chamber pressure of 15.5 bar (1.55 MPa) delivering 10,000 lbf (44.5 kN), a cooled-thrust chamber and was tested in an altitude simulation facility. The smaller E-D nozzle developed 9900 lbf (44 kN) and was also used to test the altitude compensation ability. These tests confirmed a performance advantage over equivalent bell nozzles.