AKA: The Hybrid Suborbital-Supersonic Aircraft

50th AIAA-JPC Conference, July 29, 2014

Cleveland, OH

All members:

Space Propulsion Synergy Team – http:spacepropulsion.us

Douglas G. Thorpe, Co-Founder: http://theUSAparty.com

Russel Rhodes: (ret) NASA-KSC, Florida

John Robinson: Propellant Supply Technology, Seal Beach, CA

Affordability Advantages in Integrating the Aircraft and Space Launch Operations – Part 2

Problems with Standard Air Launch Systems:1. Difficulty of separating upper stage from airplane

o Bottom Drop

o Piggy Back

o Back End

2. Subsonic aircraft requires larger rocket vs supersonic

3. Unusable payload capacity for fuel in airplaneo Most aircraft reach cruise speed & altitude in 17 to 30

minutes, but flight can last 3.5 (Concorde) to 15.5 hours

o 232,000 lb of unrecoverable capacity in wings of AN-225

4. High cost of system if it is single purposeo White Knight

o Pegasus

o Peregrine Launch System

Origin of Concept

• Utilize Commercially Successful Supersonic passenger aircrafto Cost to modify aircraft a fraction vs develop single purpose

o Airline market dwarfs space launch market $5,000B vs $2B

642 million passengers on 8.9 million airline flights each year vs less than 543 to EVER go into space

o ACMI costs for 747 size aircraft: $4,600 to $60,000/ flight hour

o We estimated max total cost of $305,000 for aircraft usage

• Once Aircraft is at cruise speed & altitude, utilize unrecoverable payload capacity to fuel liquid rocket engine & propel aircraft to high altitude & speed

• For ETO Version: At max speed & altitude, eject rocket stage

• For PTP Version: At max speed & altitude, guide as far as posso If LOX can be produced in flight, greater range is possible

Notional Solution to Cheap Access to Space

• Concorde as Baseline Aircraft System (but actual aircraft may resemble Valkyrie w/ engine pod hanging underneath).o Mach 2

o 60,000 ft altitude

o 410,000 lb gross weight

o Concorde as a reference aircraft above

o Concorde as a Space Truck below referred herein as HSA-ETO

Baseline Aircraft & Modifications

• 4 versions of Hybrid Sub-Orbital Supersonic Aircraft (HSA)

• Reference aircraft – Concorde

• 3 Versions of Point-to-Point passenger Aircraft – HSA PTP

• 1 version for earth to Low Earth Orbit Aircraft – HSA ETO

Baseline Aircraft & Modifications

ConcordeHSA PTP

(non-regen)HSA PTP

(LOX Regen)

HSA PTP (LOX Regen Lower Inlet

Temp)

HSA ETO (non-regen)

Version Reference Version 1 Version 2 Version 3 Version 4

Maximum Rocket Speed n/a Mach 8.6 Mach 13.2 Mach 5.9 Mach 7.86number of passengers 100 100 100 100 16

Purpose of aircraft passenger

service Concorde sucessor

Ver1 with greater range

Lower inlet air temp on Ver2

Freight transport & Launch delivery

How is Liquid Oxygen (LOX) generated

n/a carried from

ground

generated during subsonic

flight

gen during supersonic

flight

carried from ground

Technology Readiness Level (propulsion system)

9 4 2 2 4

TRL (Airframe) 9 2 2 2 2

Maximum Operating Cruise Speed on Air Breathing engines

Mach 2.04 = 1,350 mph

• HSA can fly overland since it flies too high to produce sonic boom• HSA flies faster than Concorde - should be able to charge premium

• HSA fleet should be much larger than Concorde and so will be more than a novelty flight for a lucky few

• Entire Concorde fleet flew less than two dozen flights/ week. Whereas, HSA fleet could have as many as 300 - 3,000 flights/day

• Greater # flights will spread the development, unit, & maintenance costs of each flight

• In Table below, PTP-HSA V2 vs Qantas Flight 7 (presently record holder for world’s longest non-stop flight)

Concorde vs HSA

Flight distance

(nau. miles)

# of pass-

engers

Ticket - round trip

Revenue per round

trip

Fuel - US gallons

(one way)

Fuel cost (round-

trip)

revenue / 2-flight

minus fuel

Hours per

flight

Flights per 16 hour

work-day

Revenue per 16

hour day

Passenger miles per 16

hour day

Qantas Flight 7 8,578 271 1,716$ 465,036$ 63,705 382,230$ 82,806$ 15.5 1.0 41,403$ 2,324,638 PTP-HSA 4,000 100 1,716$ 171,600$ 20,065 120,390$ 51,210$ 3.0 6.0 153,630$ 2,400,000

• P2P HSA Version 2 w/ 135 klb liquid methane fuel plus LOX regen under 40 km

• Range = 5,500 km = 3,420 miles in 42 minutes of high speed flight!

Point-To-Point Aircraft Flight Profile

Point-To-Point Data

• HSA ETO (BLUE) and Upper Stage (RED) flight altitude vs distance (meters)

HSA Earth-to-Orbit Flight Profile

Weights & Measures of 4 VersionsWeights and

Propellants (lbs)Concorde

HSA P2P (non-regen)

HSA P2P (LOX Regen)

HSA ETO

Max Taxing Weight 412,000 412,000 412,000 412,000 Max. Take Off Weight 408,000 408,000 408,000 408,000 Max Wt W/o Fuel (Zero Fuel Wt) 203,000 203,000 253,000 149,750 Operating Weight Empty 173,500 173,500 223,500 156,100 Max Landing Weight 245,000 245,000 263,000 245,000 Max. Payload of HSA 29,500 29,500 29,500 100,000 Max. Useful Payload of 2nd Stage n/a n/a n/a 16,100 Max Baggage Weight 6,100 6,100 6,100 n/aMax Weight of Fuel of HSA 207,834 210,940 134,440 160,000 Fuel / Oxidizer to Mach 2.04 Jet-A / Air Jet-A/air LNG/Air Jet-A/air

Fuel / Oxidizer above Mach 2.04n/a RP-1/LOX LNG/LOX

RP1/LOX:HSA LH2/LOX:2nd stage

Max Fuel volume of HSA 119,280 liters = 26,240 imperial gallons = 31,510 US gallons

Data Comparison of 4 VersionsAirspeed and Altitude

LimitsConcorde

HSA P2P (non-regen)

HSA P2P (LOX Regen)

HSA ETO

Maximum Rocket Speed n/a Mach 8.6 Mach 13.2 Mach 7.86Rocket Burn Time n/a 184 seconds 378 seconds 47 seconds

Maximum X- Direction Thrust 1.5 g 1.83 g 1.25 g 3.56 gMaximum Y-Direction Thrust ? 1.76 g 1.6 g 4.66 g

Maximum Permissible Range 4,500 Miles 2,188 miles 3,800 miles 1,570+ milesTotal Flight Time (gate-to-gate) 3.60 hr 1.81 hr 2.00 hr 1.81 hrTotal Cruise Time 2.29 hr 0.51 hr 0.69 hr 0.51 hrTime (Take-off to Cruise)Time (Approach until landing)Time (Taxi from Gate + Taxi to Gate)Time (Off-load & Re-load passengers & payload + refuel)

8 hours

Average Take-off speedAverage Landing speedMaximum landing gear speedMaximum operating altitude on air breathing enginesMaximum altitude w/rockets n/a 127,200 ft 133,750 ft 550,000 ftMaximum positive incidence (angle of attack)Maximum negative incidence (angle of attack)

-5.5 Degrees (Above Mach 1.0)

16.5 Degrees

60,000Ft

270Kts (Mach 0.7)

250MPH185MPH

0.25 hr

0.5 hr

0.50 hr0.55 hr

Maximum Operating Cruise Speed on Air Breathing engines

Mach 2.04 = 1,350 mph

Over 75,000 data points are needed per flight profile:

• Temperature at altitude calculation for 1 data pointo =IF(L25<12000,18-L25*0.006083,IF(L25<20000,-55,IF(L25<48000,-55+((L25-

20000)*((10+55)/(48000-20000))),IF(L25<55000,10,IF(L25<83000,10+((L25-55000)*((-90-10)/(83000-55000))),IF(L25<95000,-90,IF(L25<145000,-90+((L25-95000)*((50+90)/(145000-95000))),50)))))))

• Atmospheric pressureo =101325*EXP((-9.80665*0.0289644*L22)/(8.31432*300))

• X-Forceo =($F$3*($F$8+($F$8-$F$10)*(N23-$O$12)/$O$12)+($G$3*($G$8+($G$8-

$G$10)*(N23-$O$12)/$O$12))*COS(K23/57.3)-B23)/D23

o Multiple engines with thrust & Isp based upon ambient pressure

• Y-Forceo =(($F$3*($F$8+($F$8-$F$10)*(N23-$O$12)/$O$12)+($G$3*($G$8+($G$8-

$G$10)*(N23-$O$12)/$O$12))*SIN(K23/57.3)+A23)/D23)

• X-Velocityo =I22+9.81*F22*COS(K23/57.3)

• Y-Velocityo =J22+9.81*F22*SIN(K23/57.3)-(9.81*(D22-A22)/D22*(1-I23/7600))

Sample Equations

2nd in Series of 5 papers on Cheap Access to Space

• Goal of this paper is to show the economic advantages of using an aircraft to launch an upper stage (and payload) at a very high altitude and at hypersonic speeds.

• Since no such aircraft currently exists, we have presented economic justification for developing and operating a fleet of such aircraft

• We conducted analysis of different versions of aircraft showing:o Flight range,

o wing loading,

o temperature, and

o lift-to-drag ratio among other parameters to determine some figure of method on how well the HSA could function.

• Results were encouraging enough that more research should be devoted to determine the optimum flight parameters for greatest range.

• Please contact:

• Douglas Thorpe, Kyrocketman@gmail.com – 606-723-2289 Please see: http://theUSAparty.com Please see: http://spacepropulsion.us

Summary