Technical Paper
A Comparison of Fixed Wing Reusable Booster Concepts
1967-02-01
670384
Eight fixed-wing reusable horizontal landing booster point design concepts are presented and compared on the basis of weight, cost, technical difficulty, and availability date. The eight vehicle types considered are all basically two-stage systems with a lifting body reusable second stage, with all vehicles normalized to place 40,000 lbs. payload in orbit. All flight vehicles are fully recoverable and capable of flying back and landing at the launch site. Vehicle types discussed are vertical take-off horizontal landing rockets, sled launched horizontal take-off rockets, runway launched horizontal take-off rockets, air breathing first stages, combined air breathing and rocket first stages, oxidizer collection concepts, supersonic combustion ramjets, and in-flight refueling vehicles. Each of these vehicle types is depicted in the paper and its design and performance characteristics are discussed.