RLV Concepts and Experimental Vehicle System Studies: Current Status

Guedron, Sylvain

doi:10.2514/6.iac-03-v.6.05

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…Note that lift-to-drag ratio (L/D) is the most important feature of the vehicle aerodynamic performance, which has a direct impact on the down-range capability of a reentry vehicle that reaches the nominal landing site (DRLS) at the end of an unpowered gliding flight [5].…”

Section: Vto Hopper: Synthesis Of Results For Clean Configuration Aermentioning

confidence: 99%

Preliminary Aerodynamic and Aerothermodynamic Assessment of the VTO Hopper Booster

Pezzella

2011

ISRN Mechanical Engineering

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Within the framework of the Future Launchers Preparatory Program, carried out by the European Space Agency, the VTO-Hopper reusable launcher is investigated. This concept is a winged sub orbital vehicle designed for vertical take-off with an expendable upper stage, able to deliver a payload up to 8 Mg in geostationary transfer orbit. After the staging, the reusable booster will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere, and then perform a downrange landing. In this paper the current design activities are described. The goal has been to define the preliminary booster aerodynamic and aerothermodynamic databases. Therefore, the aerothermal environment that the vehicle will encounter along its lifting reentry has been provided and analyzed. Different design approaches have been addressed. In fact, aerodynamic and aerothermodynamic analyses have been performed by using both engineering and numerical methods. For instance, a 3D Panel Methods code, typical for hypersonics, has been employed; the heat flux distributions have been evaluated by means of improved boundary layer methods. Increasing the order of complexity, a number of detailed 3D CFD analyses have been performed for different flight conditions along the descent trajectory. Results show that the aerodynamics and aerothermodynamics derived from engineering design approach are valid only for preliminary analysis purposes.

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Section: Vto Hopper: Synthesis Of Results For Clean Configuration Aermentioning

confidence: 99%

Preliminary Aerodynamic and Aerothermodynamic Assessment of the VTO Hopper Booster

Pezzella

2011

ISRN Mechanical Engineering

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“…6. (Guédron et al, 2003) As one can see this vehicle concept is characterized by an aerodynamic configuration very close to the VTO one, except for canard flight control surfaces mounted in front of launcher. Therefore, the preliminary ascent AEDB of the VTO-Hopper has been built by properly scaling the RFS's AEDB on the base of VTO aerodynamic configuration features.…”

Section: The Vto-hopper Aerodynamic For Ascent Flightmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For the RFS launcher configuration the aerodynamic coefficients are summarized in Fig. 7 ( Guédron et al, 2003). …”

Section: The Vto-hopper Aerodynamic For Ascent Flightmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The aerodynamic performance of VTO Hopper in ascent flight has been carried out starting from the results summarized in (Guédron et al, 2003) for the French concept RFS. The geometry of RFS launcher configuration with booster, expendable upper stage and fairing is shown in Fig.…”

Section: The Vto-hopper Aerodynamic For Ascent Flightmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the frame of the Future Launchers Preparatory Program, carried out by the European Space Agency, the vertical take-off (VTO) Hopper -reusable launch vehicle concept is investigated (Guédron, 2003) (Kauffmann, 2006). The VTO Hopper is a reusable, winged sub-orbital single stage vehicle, featuring a circular cross-section, designed for vertical take-off.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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