From: skunk-works-digest-owner@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu To: skunk-works-digest@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V4 #29 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Tuesday, 5 October 1993 Volume 04 : Number 029 In this issue: Aeroballistic rocket See the end of the digest for information on subscribing to the skunk-works or skunk-works-digest mailing lists and on how to retrieve back issues. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: urf@ki.icl.se (Urban Fredriksson) Date: Mon, 4 Oct 93 10:34:10 MET Subject: Aeroballistic rocket A couple of interesting paragraphs from an article I just found: >From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) >Date: Mon, 4 Oct 1993 03:54:22 GMT >Newsgroups: sci.space.news >Subject: space news from Aug 17 AW&ST >Lockheed Skunk Works proposes its own SSTO concept, intended to deliver >payload to low orbit at $500/lb (or less) not long after 2000. The >"Aeroballistic Rocket" would use a flat lifting-body shape and a linear >aerospike rocket engine. [Note: this is not an airbreather.] Payload >capacity would be 40klbs, comparable to the shuttle or Titan IV. The >vehicle would launch vertically and land horizontally, with a 12-72hr >stay in orbit. Initial flights would be manned, but the intent is that >routine operations be unmanned. > >The linear aerospike ties in well with a wide flat body shape, resembling >the X-24 flown 25 years ago, with a near-vertical fin at each "wingtip". >Thrust:weight ratio at takeoff will be 1.4, and the vehicle has full >engine-out capability, with a failure of an aerospike segment resulting >in shutdown of a matching segment on the other side, and diversion into >a trajectory that will burn off fuel and return to the launch site. >The lift:drag ratio at hypersonic speeds will be poor, below 1:1 due >to a very high angle of attack (45deg), but it will be a respectable glider >at lower angles (10deg), with an L/D of 5.5-6 for landing. Lockheed claims >a unique lower-surface contour that will manage airflow and heat >buildup; the underside will be a high-temperature metallic structure, >not ceramic tiles (which are seen as heavy and costly). - -- Urban Fredriksson urf@icl.se "It's like the '64 Air Force mission to the moon -- you want to be on the cutting edge, you gotta live with the secrecy." "What Air Force mission to the moon?" "See?" -'In the Hole w/ the Boys w/ the Toys' G.Landis IAFSM Oct 93 ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V4 #29 ******************************** To subscribe to skunk-works-digest, send the command: subscribe skunk-works-digest in the body of a message to "listserv@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu". If you want to subscribe something other than the account the mail is coming from, such as a local redistribution list, then append that address to the "subscribe" command; for example, to subscribe "local-skunk-works": subscribe skunk-works-digest local-skunk-works@your.domain.net To unsubscribe, send mail to the same address, with the command: unsubscribe skunk-works-digest in the body. Administrative requests, problems, and other non-list mail can be sent to either "skunk-works-digest-owner@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu" or, if you don't like to type a lot, "prm@ecn.purdue.edu". A non-digest (direct mail) version of this list is also available; to subscribe to that instead, replace all instances of "skunk-works-digest" in the commands above with "skunk-works". Back issues are available for anonymous FTP from harbor.ecn.purdue.edu, in /pub/skunk-works/digest/vNN.nMMM (where "NN" is the volume number, and "MMM" is the issue number).