A critical assessment of dual-bell nozzles is given in this paper. First, the principle flowfield development in dual-bell nozzles is discussed. Design aspects for the contour of the base nozzle, the wall inflection and of the nozzle extension are discussed. Special regard is focussed on the transition behaviour from sea-level to vacuum operation and its dependence on the contour type used for the nozzle extension.Performance results of parametric numerical simulations of dual-bell nozzles are presented. These calculations, which give an insight into the additional performance losses caused by the dual-bell nozzle contour, were performed within the ESA-contract FESTIP on advanced space transportation concepts. The necessity of further experimental investigations on dual-bell nozzles is highlighted, which will lead to a better understanding of the flow transition in dual-bell nozzles.Finally, some ideas are discussed for an additional influence on the transition behaviour on system level, by varying the chamber pressure to ensure a sudden and controlled jump of the separation point from the wall inflection (sea-level operation) to the exit plane (vacuum operation) and to improve performance.