BENT-BICONIC SINGLE-STAGE-TO-ORBIT VEHICLE CONCEPTUAL STUDY

A new design concept is proposed for an all-propulsive, vertical-takeo ff/horizontal-landing, reus able single-stage-to-orbit space transport ation system. The vehicle is to carry an unmanned payload of 11 tons t o a 400-km orbit inclined at 51 deg. It is shaped in a bent-biconic ge ometry, has no wings but horizontal and vertical stabilizers, and reli es on a para-wing for landing. Its tripropellant propulsion system use s both RP1-LOX and LH2-LOX. The vehicle is sized and the weights of it s components are estimated using an existing methodology, The ascent a nd entry flight scenarios are calculated, and their features are compa red with those of the existing reference winged-body design, The bent- biconic design is found to be competitive with the reference design in its performance, The new design is advantageous in that it can avoid aerodynamic instabilities at transonic speed range and is free from th e problem of excessive heating at the wing leading edge as a result of shock/boundary-layer interactions, leading to a lighter liftoff weigh t, However, the viability of this new design is dependent on further d evelopment of para-wing technology.