The Russian who did this early at 20th century is Tzokovsky. He first wrote down the rocket equation and rushed it in. Get the maximum amount of exothermic reaction and you get the maximum thrust. According to Newton, you cannot move forward unless you spew something else back out the other side. And that's why you have this huge plume coming out the otherside.
What is the rocket equation? How do airplanes fly? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic Chuck Nice go through some things you thought you knew about how airplanes fly, x-rays, and how to fuel a rocket.
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Photo Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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