A Reusable, Rocket and Airbreathing Combined Cycle Hypersonic Vehicle Design for Access-to-Space

Abstract

Several rocket boosted RBCC (Rocket-Based Combined Cycle) designs were created and analyzed for suitability for an access-to-space TSTO vehicle system. Level 1 analysis was performed that included vehicle closure, weight breakdown (to component level), flight trajectory data, propulsion and aerodynamic performance. Various inlet shapes were considered, such as symmetric and non-symmetric inlets. Also, several geometric configurations were studied, such as single flowpath, dual flowpath, engine-on-top and engine-on-bottom. At the end of the study, the number of candidate designs were reduced to two; one as a primary design and the other as the backup design. The primary design, a dual flowpath, engine-on-top design was selected for further analysis. Due to the large volume of the payload, the dual flowpath design was found to be more suitable than a single flowpath design.