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Article
Publication date: 29 December 2022

Aleksander Olejnik, Piotr Zalewski, Łukasz Kiszkowiak, Robert Rogólski, Adam Dziubiński, Michał Frant, Maciej Majcher and Łukasz Omen

The purpose of this study was to analyze the possibility of using combat aircraft including decommissioned as a platform for launching and carrying space rockets with satellites…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to analyze the possibility of using combat aircraft including decommissioned as a platform for launching and carrying space rockets with satellites (nano and microsatellites). Thus, an airborne-launcher-to-space-system may be attractive to countries without ground-based space rocket launch sites.

Design/methodology/approach

For considered launch-to-orbit system configurations, simulations of space rocket effects on aerodynamic characteristics were performed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD ANSYS Fluent) methods. In addition, experimental studies were performed in a wind tunnel to verify the numerical simulations. Discrete models of the aircraft structure were developed for analysis using finite element method (FEM). The analysis of simulated structural properties of the models was carried out to test its stiffness and mass characteristics important for solving the static and dynamic problems of the structure. The validation analyses of aircraft models were based on mass distribution estimation and matching the stiffness properties of the individual airframe structural assemblies.

Findings

The results of numerical analyses and tunnel tests indicate that the influence of carrier rockets on the change of aerodynamic and strength characteristics of the airframe is rather negligible. The aircraft can be used as launching platforms for space rockets. Simulations have indicated that the aircraft will successfully perform a mission of taking away and launching a rocket of at least about 1,000 kg total weight with a 10 kg space payload included.

Practical implications

The combat aircraft can be used as launch platforms for space rockets, and the air/rocket set can become the equivalent of responsive space assets for countries with small space budgets.

Originality/value

The work presents original results obtained by the authors during a preliminary design of a low-cost satellite launch system consisting of a carrier aircraft and a space rocket orbiter. The possibility of using decommissioned combat aircraft as air-launch-to-orbit platforms was taken into consideration. In the absence of aircraft design documentation, reverse engineering methods and techniques were used to develop aircraft geometry and airframe strength structure. Use of CFD, FEM and simulation methods to evaluate system capabilities was demonstrated. Numerical results from CFD simulations were finally verified in experimental tests.

Details

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, vol. 95 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1748-8842

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Publication date: 8 November 2010

Narihiko Ito

In the second half of the 1980s, together with Perestroika in the Soviet Union, a process took place to end the Cold War as a confrontation between the United States of America…

Abstract

In the second half of the 1980s, together with Perestroika in the Soviet Union, a process took place to end the Cold War as a confrontation between the United States of America and the Soviet Union. At the same time, this process caused the collapse of the Soviet Union and socialist system and thereafter the separation and independence of the many nationalities that constituted the Soviet socialist system in the East and South Europe. However to our regret, such nationalities could not enjoy freedom by independence, but went to brutal wars between separated nationalities. Even after many local wars and brutalities we cannot yet find the final solution through peace and justice for peoples.

Details

The National Question and the Question of Crisis
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-493-2

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