Rocketing Into the Future: The History and Technology of Rocket Planes

366 Pages·2012·10.97 MB·English

by  Michel van Pelt (auth.)

Rocketing into the Future
The History and Technology of Rocket Planes

Michel van Pelt
Rocketing into the
Future
The History and Technology of Rocket Planes
Published in association with
PR
~ Praxis Publishing
Springer
Chichester, UK
Michel van Pelt
Space Analyst
Lei den
The Netherlands
SPRINGER-PRAXIS BOOKS IN SPACE EXPWRATION
ISBN 978-1-4614-3199-2 ISBN 978-1-4614-3200-5 (eBook)
DOl 10.1007/978-1-4614-3200-5
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Contents
mustratioos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vll
Author's preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
1. Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Rocket planes, rocket trains and rocket automobiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Monster rockets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
The perfect spaceplane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2. A crash course in rocket plane design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Rocket engines .. 29
0 ••• 0 ••• 0 ••• 0 ••• 0 ••• 0 ••• 0 ••• 0 ••• 0 ••• 0 ••• 0 •
Orbits ................................................... 35
Lift and drag. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Aeroplane anatomy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Rocket + plane = rocket plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3. Germany's wonder weapoos 57
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Germany gets serious . 57
0 ••• 0 ••• 0 ••••••• 0 ••••••• 0 ••••••• 0 • • • • •
Von Braun's vertical take-off rocket interceptor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Heinkel's He 176, the first real rocket plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Messerschmitt's lethal Power Egg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Bachem's budget interceptor 90
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Last stand rocket planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
4. Non-German wartime rocket fighters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Japan: too little too late . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Russia's troubled start ................................. 119
0 • • • •
UK and USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
5. The rise and fall of the rocket interceptor . . . 141
0 • • • 0 • • • 0 • • • 0 • • • 0 • • • 0
The last rocket fighter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Mixed up; combined jet/rocket interceptors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Zero-length launch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
v
vi Contents
6. Breaking the barrier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Chasing the demon in the air . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Russian roulette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
7. Rocket plane spaceffight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
X-15, higher and faster. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
The NF-104A AeroSpace Trainer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Rocket propelled lifting bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Shuttles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
8. Fntnre spaceplanes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Silbervoge1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Fiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Spaceplane revival. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Modem concepts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Business case. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
9. Joyriding a rocket plane. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
10. Man versos robot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
11. Conclnsions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Appendix: Aircraft maximum velocity and altitude evolution . . . . . . . . . . 343
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Index ................................................... 357
mustrations
Chapter 1
Fritz von Opel in the RAK-2 rocket car .............................. 3
Von Opel drives his RAK-2 rocket car ............................... 4
An Ente replica in the German Sailplane Museum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The two rocket motors at the back of the Ente replica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Trajectory of Valier's transatlantic rocketplane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Fritz von Opel at the back of the RAK-1 rocketplane. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Opel's replica of the rocket-propelled aircraft RAK-1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Fritz von Opel in front of the wrecked RAK-1 rocketplane. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
William Swan flies the American rocketplane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Goddard's rocketplane concept. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
A captured German V-2 rocket fired by the British in 1945. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Saturn Von the launch pad ....................................... 21
Skylon on the runway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Chapter 2
Rocket principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Solid propellant rocket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Solid propellant grain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Space Shuttle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Orbit principle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Soyuz rocket flight proflle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Lift principle 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Lift principle 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
U2 aircraft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
SR-71 aircraft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Airplane parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Rotational axes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Dihedral wings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
A turbojet engine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
A Trent 1000 turbofan engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
An X-15 after hard landing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
An AV -8B Harrier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
vii
viii illustrations
Chapter 3
A rocket-propelled He 112. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Ground testing a rocket engine in a He 112. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Design for von Braun's rocket interceptor launch facility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
The launch configuration of von Braun's updated rocket interceptor. . . . . . . . 66
The He 176 with fixed nose wheel for taxi tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
DSF 194 ..................................................... 72
The first powered flight of the DSF 194 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Me 163A prototype number V4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Me 163B prototype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Me 163B cutaway diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Me 163B taking off. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Deployed landing skid of the Me 163 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
An Me 163B pilot getting ready for flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Leading edge slot of the Me 163 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
The cause of a 'sonic boom' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Me 163B ..................................................... 89
Layout of the Bachem Natter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Preparing an unmanned test version of the Natter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Launch of an unmanned Natter prototype. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
US soldiers with a Natter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Natter replica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Internal design of the DFS 346 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Chapter 4
Japanese J8M rocket interceptor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
An Ohka suicide missile found by US soldiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Ohka dropped by a Betty bomber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Concept for Korolev's RP-218. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Three views on the Kostikov 302. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
One of the Kostikov 302 prototypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
The second BI prototype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
BI prototype number 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
The Sukhoi Su-7 with a tail-mounted rocket engine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Concept for Moskalyov's RM-1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Florov 4302/4303. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
America's first RAT O-equipped airplane. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
MX-324 at Harper Dry Lake. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Chapter 5
Planform of the MiG 1-270 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
MiG 1-270. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
The unmanned Fairey VTO ...................................... 150
The first XF-91 Thunderceptor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
The XF-9l's four-chamber XLR-11 rocket engine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
illustrations ix
The Espadon under rocket power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . !59
S0-9000 Trident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Trident in the museum at Le Bourget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
S0-9050 Trident II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
The second Durandal at the 1957 Paris Air Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
The SEPR 844 rocket pack for the Mirage IIIE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Ground testing of an SEPR 844 on a Swiss Mirage IllS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
A SEPR 844 on a Swiss Mirage IllS operating in flight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Design of the Hawker P.I072 .................................... 170
Design of the Saunders Roe SR. 53 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
The SR.53 at the Farnborough Air Show in 1957 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Artistic impression of an SR.177 in Luftwaffe service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
An F-100 ZEL with its impressive rocket booster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Launch of an F -100 ZEL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
A standard MiG 19. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Chapter 6
Bell X-I number I in flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
X-I number 3 being mated with its B-50 carrier aircraft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Chuck Yeager with his X-I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . . 197
NACA X-1-2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Bell X-lA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Bell X-lA in NACA service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Joe Walker gets into the X-lA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
The cockpit of the X-IB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Joe Walker with the X-IE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
NACA 144, the second Skyrocket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
A Skyrocket being loaded into the bomb bay of its carrier aircraft . . . . . . . . 209
NACA 144 being dropped from its carrier bomber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
NACA 144 returning to Edwards, with an F-86 flying chase . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
The first X-2 with its B-50 carrier, chase planes and support crew. . . . . . . . . 213
The second X-2 with collapsed nose gear following its first glide flight . . . . . 215
An X-2 igniting its engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Captain Mel Apt in the X-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
DFS 346P . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
The 346P under the wing of its B-29 carrier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Design of the Tsybin LL-1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Tsybin LL-1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Bisnovat 5-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Chapter 7
Models of the competing designs for the X-15. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Cutaway drawing of the X-15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
An X-15 taken up by an NB-52A bomber ........................... 232
Diagram of the X-15 ejection seat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235