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> By "many" you perhaps mean "many American".

And by "many American," do you perhaps mean "pretty much just the Space Shuttle Main Engine?" Since that one, has America launched any new staged combustion engine off the ground?

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I believe GP meant that not for closed cycle engines, but for all turbo-pump driven engines, which in USA mostly means open loop (gas generator) engines. In USA the tradition was to add complexity in form of gears and extra axes to get pumps running with more optimal speed, while in Russia (USSR) it was to reduce efficiency and gain in simplicity, robustness and mass.

So even U.S. gas-generator engines like the RS-68 have this extra gearing?

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