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Aviation History
2003
2003 - 1757.PDF
Future of FLIGHT — counterparts, which envisage continuing to develop their current generation of ELVs well into the next decade while maturing technology for a future generation of RLV. Europe missed out on the first generation of reusable spacecraft, cancelling the Hermes spaceplane and concentrating instead on development of the Ariane fam ily of expendable launchers. This has culmi nated in the heavylift Ariane 5, which has established itself as a formidable competitor in the commercial launch market. There are growth plans in place that would see the Ariane 5 evolve well into the next decade, and Europe does not see a compelling need to begin development of a reusable replace ment in the near future. NASA's original SLI programme worried Europe because it offered the prospect of a government-developed, commercially oper ated second-generation US RLV entering the satellite market with significantly lower launch costs as early as 2010. But the revised programme presents less of a threat to Ariane, which with European government support will able to hold its own against the latest generation of US ELVs. Europe has looked at repackaging Ariane 5 elements into a reusable spacecraft, but sees greater sense in waiting for technology to mature to the level where a third-genera tion RLV is feasible. This aligns closely with Japan's latest thinking, which involves con- Third- generation RLV designs combine an air- breathing first stage with a reusable rocket- powered second stage tinuing to upgrade its current generation expendable booster while working on tech nology development for an aircraft-like, air- breathing RLV that can offer a truly revolu tionary reduction in launch costs. Hypersonic work Work on potential hypersonic air-breathing propulsion systems is under way in Europe and Japan as well as in the USA, where an array of programmes is pursuing develop ment of different engine types and vehicle configurations. NASA is working on rocket- based and turbine-based combined-cycle (RBCC and TBCC) engines for a third-gener ation RLV, while the US Air Force is pursuing development of hydrocarbon-fuelled super sonic-combustion ramjets (scramjets) for hypersonic aircraft and missiles. RBCC and TBCC propulsion systems combine scramjets with either rocket The truth is that spaceflight is hard, arguably the hardest thing man has tried to accomplish motors or turbine engines to allow the third-generation RLV to take off from a run way. The leading candidate is an unmanned, hydrogen-fuelled hypersonic aircraft with a propulsion system that uses turbine engines from zero airspeed to Mach 4, where ramjets take over and transition to supersonic combustion as speed increases, and with integrated rockets to take the vehi cle out of the atmosphere to release its pay- load, which could be a manned spaceplane. The concept looks promising, but high speed turbine, ram/scramjet and com bined-cycle engines have yet to be tested in flight. That is planned for later this decade, using a series of X-43 demonstra tors in NASA's case. Even if these tests are successful, a hypersonic air-breathing RLV would not fly before 2022, more than 40 years after the Space Shuttle first flew, and more than half a century after the Pan Am Clipper Orion SSTO docked with the space station in 2001: A Space Odyssey. There are many ideas for even more advanced methods of getting into space, including craft that would ride a beam of laser light or microwave energy, or climb a ribbon-thin space elevator thousands of kilometres long, but the reality is that development of new technology will take far longer, cost far more and involve far greater risk of failure than the pioneers of spacecraft could have ever imagined. • www.fliqhtinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 8-14 JULY 31
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