Documents / Report

Defense Intelligence Reference Document Space Access Where We ve Been And Where We Could Go

Defense Intelligence Agency · 56 pages · text from the file's own layer

This Defense Intelligence Reference Document, prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency and dated 8 March 2010, was produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) Program. It gives a historical and technical review of how to reach space and return. It covers hypersonic gliders, air-breathing and rocket propulsion, thermodynamics and materials, and launch options. It argues that reliable, schedulable access to low Earth orbit is mainly a hardware and propulsion problem rather than a technology one.

UNCLASSIFIED//f811. 8ffl81"'1, 1,1lii s,11.~r
Flight tested nose
tip design assures
100 °C temperature
Heat pipe leading
edges assures
high L/D leading
edge radii.
Lifting body configuration
eliminates thin wings with
wing-like lift High lift-to-drag
ratio and global glide range
Flat pane
TPS system
Trapezoidal cross
section increases
lift-to-drag ratio
and reduces side
and upper surface
heating by 1/3
AFFDL-7C/D Lifting Body
Configuration Concept
All-flying control
surfaces provide
stability and control
from Mach 0.2 to 22
Anhedral fixed fins
with trailing edge
flaps assure subsonic
lateral-directional
stability and control
Figure 10. FDL-7C/D and FDL-7MC Lifting-Body Configuration. Offers inherent stability and control with
sufficient volume and high lift-to-drag ratio.
The switchblade wing version of the FDL-7MC was the preferred version for 1983
studies that were part of the McDonnell Douglas TAV (transatmospheric vehicle) effort;
that vehicle was powered by either an Aerojet Sacramento air turboramjet or an air-
breathing rocket propulsion system. The inward-turning, variable-capture area inlet 10
provides the correct engine airflow from landing speeds to mach 5.5, as illustrated in
Figure 11.
~---------------
Figure 11. FDL-7C/D with a DuPont Retractable Inward-Turning Inlet
The propellant tanks were cylindrical-segment, multilobe structures with bulkheads and
stringers to support the flat, metal-radiative thermal-protection shingles (very similar to
those fabricated by Goodrich Aerospace for the now-defunct X-33). The nose was
12
UNCLASSIFIED,' }f811. 8ffll!lit.k l!l!il! 8111:¥

Not linked to a story yet.

About this file

Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 56 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.