Comments on a military transatmospheric aerospace plane
- ANSER 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway Arlington, Virginia22202-3251 (United States)
The conceptual design of a military transatmospheric aerospace plane candidate involves the selection of the mission(s), operating environment, operational concept, payload definition, specific design choices, and a close look at the technology base. A broad range of missions and concepts were reviewed prior to the selection of the mission and concepts presented in this paper. The mission selected was CONUS based global strike. The flight profile selected was a boost-glide-skip unrefuled global range trajectory. Two concepts were selected. The first was a rocket-powered design and the second was a combined air-breathing and rocket powered design. The rocket-powered configuration is a high lift-to-drag ratio modified lifting body. The rocket engine is an advanced dual fuel linear aero-spike. The air-breathing powered configuration is a modified waverider configuration. The engine for the air-breather is a rocket based combined cycle engine. Performance and technology readiness comparisons are presented for the two concepts. The paper closes with a discussion of lessons learned about military transatmospheric aerospace planes over the past twenty years. {copyright} {ital 1997 American Institute of Physics.}
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- OSTI ID:
- 627628
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-970115-; ISSN 0094-243X; TRN: 9808M0044
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 387, Issue 1; Conference: Space technology and applications international forum (STAIF - 97), Albuquerque, NM (United States), 26-30 Jan 1997; Other Information: PBD: Jan 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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