Study of Waverider-based Point-to-Point Suborbital Rocketplane

Abstract

As a high-speed manned transportation system in the future, point-to-point (P2P) suborbital rocketplane is currently studied in Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) space transportation mission directorate. The vehicle was designed on the basis of the concept of waverider allowing high L/D in hypersonic regime, which is required for longer flight range and smaller load factor. Compared with an ideal waverider, the designed P2P suborbital rocketplane has outer wings for the improvement of the low-speed aerodynamic performance, finite thickness in the leading edge for the reduction of the aerodynamic heating, and twin vertical tails for directional stability. The aerodynamic performance of the P2P vehicle was investigated through numerical simulation of both subsonic and hypersonic flows, and the baseline aerodynamic shape of the P2P vehicle was discussed. The L/D in the trim condition at hypersonic speed was 2.6.