Comparison of glideback and flyback boosters

The aim of the present study is to investigate alternative reusable launch vehicle concepts and to provide a comparison of two different vehicle confi gurations. The first concept vehicle uses airbreathing engines to perform a powered booster flyback mission, whereas the second concept employs only a erodynamic lift to achieve booster flyback. The optimization software emplo ys a system parameter optimization, in conjunction with a trajectory parame ter optimization, to calculate the optimal mass split and corresponding opt imal trajectory, A reference mission is used to compare launch vehicle payl oads for a fixed gross liftoff weight, assuming launch from Woomera Prohibi ted Area, South Australia. The payload for a vehicle using a powered flybac k strategy is found to be considerably higher than that obtained by a vehic le employing an aerodynamic glide return flight.