INTRODUCTION

A hundred years ago, on December 17, 1903, Wilbur and

Orville Wright successfully achieved a piloted, powered
flight. Though the Wright Flyer I flew only 10 ft off the
ground for 12 seconds, traveling a mere 120 ft, the
aeronautical technology it demonstrated paved the way for
passenger air transportation. Man had finally made it to
the air. The Wright brother’s plane of 1903 led to the
development of aircrafts such as the WWII Spitfire, and
others. In 1926 the first passenger plane flew holiday
makers from American mainland to Havana and Bahamas. In 23
years the world had moved from a plane that flew 120 ft and
similar planes that only a chosen few could fly, to one
that can carry many passengers. Today air travel is worth
billions. The military has produced planes for special
purposes like SR-71 for high speed and high altitude
flying, F-117 Nightbird the stealth fighter, and other
world class dogfighters like Russian Sukhoi 37, French
Mirage, British Harriers, and American F22 Raptor.

In October 1957, man entered the

space age. Russia sent the first satellite, the Sputnik,
and in April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first man on
space. In the years since Russia and United States has sent
many air force pilots and a fewer scientists, engineers and
others. But even after almost 50 years, the number of
people who has been to space is close to 500.
 The people are losing interest in
seeing a chosen few going to space and the budgets to space
research is diminishing. The space industry now makes money
by taking satellites to space. But a major factor here is
the cost. At present to put a single kg into orbit will
cost you between $10000 and $20000. This is clearly
prohibitively high and a major objective for the coming
years is to drop the cost to a fraction of today's value.
Despite the fact that the space shuttle has regularly gone
into orbit over the last two decades there is still no
tourist business. This is due to the fact that to build an
orbital hotel under present conditions will cost 100's of
billions of dollars (at least). It is clear why there has
been so little progress in orbital developments.

The development of a plane which

can fly to space at lower cost, which is reusable and can
take more payloads, is very much required for further
development of space industries. The Reusable Launch
Vehicle, usually called Spaceplane or Hyperplane which can
take crew and payload into orbit is being developed by
various space agencies and private companies. The
Spaceplane would make space travel cheap and will help in
increasing space tourism and just like in the aviation
industry, within a few decades, the space tourism
industries would be worth billions.
The Advantages

The rockets which take satellites and other payloads have

to carry the fuel and oxidizer with them as it uses
conventional rocket engines. The combined weight of the
fuel and oxidizer is very large due to the fact that a lot
of energy is expended pushing the plane forwards. This is
why today's rockets launch vertically as it maximizes the
rocket's potential by allowing all the energy expended to
be focused in the direction we want to go - upwards. With
present technology it is the easiest and cheapest method of
reaching space.

Clearly then the way forward is to

utilize jet engines in some manner. The main advantages of
jet engines over rocket engines are that they do not need
to carry their own oxidizer; instead they suck in air and
use the oxygen present in the air as their oxidizer. This
will greatly remove the need to carry oxidizer, as it will
only be needed when at an altitude that the air contains
insufficient oxygen for jets to operate. At this point the
rocket engines will fire and burn the much smaller quantity
of onboard oxidizer. This will dramatically reduce the
take-off weight and also the cost of the craft. Reduction
in take-off weight means the payload can be increased.
Further to this the use of jet engines will make a
substantial saving on the expensive rocket fuel. As a
comparison to produce the same thrust, jet (air-breathing)
engines require less than one seventh the propellants (fuel
+ oxidizer) that rockets do. For example, the space shuttle
needs 143,000 gallons of liquid oxygen, which weighs
1,359,000 pounds (616,432 kg). Without the liquid oxygen,
the shuttle weighs a mere 165,000 pounds (74,842 kg).

Another advantage of jet-engine craft

is that as they rely on aerodynamic forces rather than on
rocket thrust, they have greater maneuverability, which in
turn provides better flexibility and safety, for example
missions can be aborted mid-flight if there is a problem.
This is not the case for staged vehicles, which typically
have complex "range safety" requirements as the stages
detach and fall back to earth. Range safety is one of the
main reasons that the US launches from Florida, where the
rocket's flight path takes it out over open water almost
immediately. The lack of such abort modes on the Shuttle
requires incredible failure avoidance costs and massive
overhauls.

The space shuttle used by NASA is partially

reusable. It still has to take off vertically with the help
of multistage rocket and solid boosters. The use of rockets
increases the cost of manufacturing parts for each launch
as some rocket parts are not reusable. Further more, using
rockets increases the amount of fuel and oxidizer required.
Some of the components of the rocket get added to the space
debris and continue orbiting the earth. This causes
unwanted collisions with other debris or satellites. Thus
using a jet-engine craft as a reusable launch vehicle is
faster, efficient, and has increased affordability,
flexibility and safety for ultra high-speed flights within
the atmosphere and into Earth orbit.
The Different Proposals

Today three main concepts are being proposed. The

difference is in way the RLV is launched. This difference
results in differing levels of complexity in design. The
major concepts are…

Two Stage To Orbit (TSTO)

This is the easiest method; firstly a large aeroplane takes

off carrying a smaller rocket engine craft (called the
orbiter) and reaches a fairly high altitude. Then the
smaller craft launches from the carrier and as it is
already at high altitude before firing its engines, the
need for fuel is minimized. It also means that the wings on
the orbiter can be made smaller. There is no doubt that
this option certainly creates less engineering problems.
This type of technology was around in the 1960's and was
used during the testing of the X-15.

One and a Half Stage To Orbit (OHSTO)

There are various 'One and a Half Stages' ideas that are
certainly innovative ideas and deserve mention. The most
promising is that of mid-air fuelling, taking on the fuel
and oxidizer for space once at a high altitude. These ideas
do not overcome the problems of commercially viability that
the 2-stage models suffer from; however it could be a good
temporary measure.
Single Stage To Orbit (SSTO)

It is a reusable launch vehicle (RLV) that takes off and

lands horizontally like a conventional plane. It is
generally regarded that this method will be more efficient
and safer than the 2-stage model, though that is not to
belittle the 2-stage method which would be a considerable
improvement on the vertical take off craft of today. It is
also felt that while the 2-stage idea would be easier, the
1-stage would almost certainly be more commercially viable
and would achieve a higher level of success in the
objectives of a spaceplane.

What is required here is

further development of jet engines. The only possibility at
the moment is ramjet working together with scramjet
(Supersonic Combustion Ramjet). The major problem is that
the scramjets are far from fully developed, offering many
difficult aerodynamic problems. These, however, offer the
only current hope of sustained hypersonic flight.

Even with the advance of scramjet

development there are still many problems to be addressed
with horizontal take off of spaceplanes. This is because a
Scramjet will only function at hypersonic speeds and a
ramjet will only function at supersonic speeds. The design
will therefore require:
 1. A turbojet, once the air intake reaches to mach 1
(supersonic speed) the ramjet would fire.
2. The ramjet would accelerate the plane to about mach 4
(hypersonic speed) then the scramjet would fire.
3. The scramjet is expected to be able to reach speeds of
mach 15, when finally the rocket engine would fire.
4. The rocket engine would accelerate the plane to mach
25 (escape velocity) and would be used in space
operations.

While this sounds very good in theory, in practice it is

very doubtful whether such vehicles will have the
efficiency to reach orbit, due to the excessive weight and
complexity of such a system. Further to this such a design
will not solve the other problem of heat build-up.
These problems have not, however, removed the interest in
this system and several proposals are currently being
tested by NASA.

What we are really looking for is

the development of a combined jet engine that operates
across the range, with maybe a switch to a rocket engine
for the last stage and for space operations. The
difficulties of designing a jet engine to perform at these
levels are such that it can not even be seen how it could
be done with present technology. The differences between
the engines are how they physically take the air in.
Nanotechnology could solve the problem by allowing the
engine to reshape itself in flight, whether it could be
shaped fast enough remains to be seen.
Working

The working of a RLV can be divided into 4 stages

1. First stage – subsonic and supersonic stage:

The RLV with its payload takes off from the runway and
climbs to about 100,000 feet or 30km using
conventional jet-engines, or using a combination of
conventional jet-engine and ramjet engine, or using
another plane to carry or pull the plane to a lower
height and using a booster rocket.

A ramjet operates by subsonic

combustion of fuel in a stream of air compressed by
the forward speed of the aircraft. It doesn’t have or
use very less moving parts compared to a conventional
jet-engine with thousands of moving parts. The
compression of air before burning of fuel is done in
the ramjet by the addition of a diffuser at the inlet,
while it is done by the turbine in conventional jet-
engine. The flow of air is subsonic.

The plane is accelerated to a speed of mach 4

or mach 5 and the flow inside the engine becomes
supersonic. Then the scramjet is powered up.
2. Second stage - Hypersonic stage: When the
spaceplane is at an altitude of about 100,000 ft and
at a velocity of about mach 4, the scramjets are fired.

Scramjets are basically ramjets. They introduce fuel and

mix it with oxygen obtained from the air which compressed
for combustion. The air is naturally compressed by the
forward speed of the vehicle and the shape of the inlet,
similar to what turbines or pistons do in slower-moving
airplanes and cars. Rather than using a rotating
compressor, like a turbojet engine does, the forward
velocity and aerodynamics compress the air into the engine.
Hydrogen fuel is then injected into the air stream, and the
expanding hot gases from combustion accelerate the exhaust
air to create tremendous thrust. While the concept is
simple, proving the concept has not been simple. At
operational speeds, flow through the scramjet engine is
supersonic - or faster than the speed of sound. At that
speed, ignition and combustion take place in a matter of
milliseconds. This is one reason it has taken researchers
decades to demonstrate scramjet technologies, first in wind
tunnels and computer simulations, and only recently in
experimental flight tests.
The Scramjet engine takes the RLV to even
greater heights and to speeds of up to Mach 15. This is the
fastest speed an air breathing plane can go using current
technologies. At Mach 15, the RLV is at a great height that
there isn’t enough oxygen to sustain the scramjet engine.
At this point the rocket engine fires up.
3. Third stage - Space stage: When the rocket engine
fires by mixing oxygen from the onboard storage tanks
into the scramjet engine, thereby replacing the
supersonic airflow. The rocket engine is capable of
accelerating the RLV to speeds of about Mach 25, which
is the escape

velocity. It takes the RLV into orbit. The rocket engine

takes the RLV to the payload release site and the
required operations are done. Once this is over it
enters its last stage – the re-entry stage.
4. Fourth stage – Re-entry stage: Once the RLV
finishes its mission in space, It performs de-orbit
operations, including firing its thrusters to slow
itself down, thereby dropping to a lower orbit and
eventually entering the upper layers of the
atmosphere. As the vehicle encounters denser air, the
temperature of the ceramic skin builds to over 1,000
degrees C, and is also cooled by using any remaining
liquid hydrogen fuel. It is here that the structure of
the plane undergoes heavy thermal stress. If the heat
shields do not protect the plane, it would simply burn
off to the ground, just like the space shuttle
Columbia. It enters a radio silence zone as due to the
heat, radio contact is lost. Once it reaches dense
air, it can use its aerodynamics to glide down to the
landing strip. It can also use any remaining fuel to
fire the ramjet or conventional jet (depends on the
design) and change its course. Once on the landing
strip it engages it slows down using a series of
parachutes and engages the brake.

CONSTRUCTION

The construction of a true RLV that can take a payload to

space is still in the design stage. It will sure have lot
of designs taken from the space shuttle. Here are the main
construction details.

Body: The body of a RLV has to withstand very high

stresses including thermal stresses during re-entry. The
plane expands due to the high heat of nearly 1500˚C or
more. It also has to cope with the rapid change in
temperatures once in space. It changes from -250 degrees in
the shade to 250 degrees in direct sunlight. This change in
temperature between two sides of the same plane will put a
lot of stress on its body. Titanium alloys are being used,
being very strong and light. To cope with the high
temperatures developed in parts of the wing and fuselage of
the spacecraft today, reinforced carbon-carbon composite
material is being added to the leading edges of the
vehicle's nose and wings to handle the higher temperatures.

Researches are being conducted to

find the best materials for different parts of the plane.
One of these materials, γ-TiAl (Titanium Aluminide), has
superior high-temperature material properties. Its low
density provides improved specific strength and creep
resistance in comparison to currently used titanium alloys.
However, it is inherently brittle, and long life durability
is a potential problem along with the material’s
sensitivity to defects.

Wings: The wing of the spacecraft has to be designed so

that it provides enough lift to fly to space and also
reduce the friction during re-entry.

Cockpit: The cockpit is the place where the astronauts

will stay most of the time during the journey. It will have
many windows, which are special double-paned glass, and
each pane alone can withstand the pressure and force of
flight and the vacuum. This doubling up ensures that if
either window were to crack, the passengers would still be
safe.
 The air inside the cockpit is made
breathable by a three-part system. Breathable air is added
at a constant rate by oxygen bottles. The exhaled carbon
dioxide is removed from the cabin by an absorber system,
and humidity is controlled by an additional absorber
created to remove water vapor from the air. During the
entire flight, the cockpit remains comfortable, cool and
dry.

The avionics system and display unit for

navigating has to be computer controlled and free from
bugs. It should give the pilot all the necessary data to
make his choices. The avionics are very critical, and it
also needs to be very precise for the pilot to do what he
wants to do, and do it well.

Electric Power: The electrical power required for the

running of the spacecraft has to be taken from batteries.
These batteries could be charged, if needed by using solar
energy. Researches are being initiated to find better and
reliable batteries, like the lithium-based (i.e., Li metal
or Li-ion intercalation compound as negative electrode),
polymer electrolyte regenerative battery system. Its
advantages include reduced battery weight and volume,
relative to conventional Ni-Cd and Ni-H2, which permits
greater payloads and greater cell voltage, 3.5 volts vs.
1.2 volts, which permits use of fewer cells and results in
reduced battery system complexity.

Controls: When we're out in space, all you need to do is

release a puff of air in a direction to give you a reaction
force to push you the other way. That is called a reaction
control system. High-pressure air is stored in bottles on
the ship, and on the release of a little blast of air for
about one second, for example, with the right wing tip
pointing up. And that is enough when you're in space to
push that wingtip down. It effectively rolls the aircraft,
and that are the controls when it is out in space.

Fuels: Many challenges have been overcome recently by the

discovery and synthesis of propellants that can have higher
performance than traditional O2/H2, and aircraft fuels.
These propellants include high-density monopropellants for
sounding rockets and upper stages, and onboard propulsion
for small spacecraft. Higher energy fuels, such as N4, N6,
BH4, and others, have a longer range development time and
would be more applicable to future launch vehicles.

Reusable Launch Vehicles

The X-43 Hyper-X from NASA

Hyper-X, NASA's multi-year hypersonic flight research

program, seeks to overcome one of the greatest aeronautical
research challenges - air-breathing hypersonic flight. Far
outpacing contemporary aircraft of supersonic capability,
three X-43A vehicles were built to fly at speeds of Mach 7
and 10. Ultimately, the revolutionary technologies exposed
by the Hyper-X Program promise to increase payload
capacities and reduce costs for future air and space
vehicles.

MicroCraft, Inc. of Tullahoma, Tenn., is the

industry partner chosen by NASA to construct the X-43
vehicles. The contract award announcement occurred on March
24, 1997, with construction of the vehicles beginning soon
thereafter. Orbital Sciences Corporation's Launch Vehicles
Division in Chandler, Ariz. will construct the Hyper-X
launch vehicles.

The goal of the Hyper-X program is to

flight validate key propulsion and related technologies for
air-breathing hypersonic aircraft. The first X-43 was
scheduled to fly at Mach 7. This is far faster than any
air-breathing aircraft have ever flown. The world's fastest
air-breathing aircraft, the SR-71, cruises slightly above
Mach 3. The highest speed attained by NASA's rocket-powered
X-15 was Mach 6.7, back in 1967.

Hyper-X research began with conceptual

design and wind tunnel work in 1996. Three unpiloted X- 43A
research aircraft were built. Each of the 12-feet long, 5-
feet-wide lifting body vehicles was designed to fly once.
They are identical in appearance, but engineered with
slight differences that simulate variable engine geometry,
generally a function of Mach number. The first and second
vehicles were designed to fly at Mach 7 and the third at
Mach 10. At these speeds, the shape of the vehicle forebody
serves the same purpose as pistons in a car, compressing
the air as fuel is injected for combustion. Gaseous
hydrogen fuels the X-43A. The first flight attempt in June
2001 failed when the booster rocket went out of control and
the booster rocket and X-43A combination—was destroyed by
ground controllers. The second attempt at Mach 7, in March
2004, was highly successful.

At Mach 6.8—or almost seven times

the speed of sound—the X-43A research vehicle was traveling
nearly 5,000 mph during the March 2004 flight, easily
setting a world speed record for a jet-powered (air-
breathing) vehicle. Guinness World Records has recognized
the accomplishment

The tricky part in the development

of this technology is that as the air is in the tube
remains for mere milliseconds, getting such details as the
fuel-air mixture right, is still very difficult. And the
fact that what is right is different at different
velocities makes the problem more complicated. The big
challenge of designing a “variable geometry engine” (as the
professionals call it), which will be able to accommodate
these differences, has not yet been still solved by
engineers. So, for simplicity, the flights of the X-43A
didn’t have to accelerate under its own power. Instead, it
was carried by a booster rocket to the required speed and
altitude.

On 16 November, 2004, NASA's unmanned

Hyper-X (X-43A) aircraft reached Mach 9.6. The X-43A was
boosted to an altitude of 33,223 meters (109,000 feet) by a
Pegasus rocket launched from beneath a B52-Bomber jet
aircraft, which had taken off from Edwards Air Force Base
in California in the U.S. Then the booster rocket lofted it
to a height of 33,223 meters (109,000 feet). Thereafter the
booster separated and the scramjet was ignited. Moments
later the scramjet fired for about 10 seconds and the craft
while flying on its own at about 7000 miles/hour (using its
own gaseous hydrogen fuel) conducted a series of high speed
maneuvers, before gliding away and crashing into the
Pacific Ocean.

The SpaceShipOne from SCALED COMPOSITES LLC

The SpaceShipOne is a RLV built by the company Scaled

Composites LLC for competing in the X – Price. The Ansari X
Prize is a contest that promised a cash prize of $10
million to the first registered team to:

• Build a spaceship able to carry three adults (height

up to 188 centimeters [6 feet, 2 inches] and weight up
to 90 kilograms [198 pounds] each).
• Launch the spaceship with three soon-to-be astronauts
to a height of 100 kilometers (62.5 miles), the
internationally recognized altitude at which sub-
orbital space begins.
• Return the spaceship to Earth safely -- no broken
bones on the astronaut, no severe damage to the ship,
etc.
• Repeat the flight within two weeks using the same
ship, having replaced no more than 10 percent of the
ship's parts (with the exception of fuel), thus
 classifying the spacecraft as a Reusable Launch
Vehicle (RLV).
• Do it all without any government funding, using only
private financing.

The company designed and built another jet

aircraft which would carry the SpaceShipOne to a height of
about 50,000 feet. This turbofan powered aircraft, called
the White knight takes off like a plane from a normal
airstrip, with SpaceShipOne attached to its belly. The two
ships fly together under White Knight's power to a
predetermined altitude. Then White Knight releases
SpaceShipOne and drifts away. Once clear of White Knight,
SpaceShipOne begins its journey to sub-orbital space. The
White Knight was designed with a high thrust-to-weight
ratio and powerful speed brakes. These features help to
simulate space flight maneuvers.

On October 4 th 2004, the SpaceShipOne

flew to take the $10 million price. It was timed partially
to coincide with the 47th anniversary of the Soviet launch
of Sputnik. When the SpaceShipOne is released, it glides
for about 10 seconds while the pilot sets up the aircraft
for the rocket boost and he throws the switch, and the
hybrid rocket motor in the SpaceShipOne accelerates the
aircraft. The hybrid rocket motor has combined elements
from both solid and liquid rocket motors. This makes for a
unique motor capable of accelerating SpaceShipOne to twice
the speed of sound. SpaceShipOne is propelled by a mixture
of hydroxy-terminated polybutadiene (tire rubber) and
nitrous oxide (laughing gas). The rubber acts as the fuel
and the laughing gas as the oxidizer. The pilot immediately
commences a pullout maneuver to go straight up. The ship
continues to accelerate going straight out for a little
over a minute. It flies for about one minute, straight up
and then burn out about 150,000 feet, roughly. The motor
stop burning at that point, but now the ship is moving over
2,000 miles per hour, straight out, and so it coasts. From
there it coasts up another 150,000 feet roughly, up until
it reaches apogee (the point at which SpaceShipOne is
farthest from Earth). The pilot feels Zero g or
weightlessness for some time at the topmost point. Then it
falls back to earth. The pilot makes changes to the
aerodynamics and the spacecraft slows down. It then glides
down to the landing strip.

In addition to meeting the

altitude requirement to win the X-Prize, pilot Brian Binnie
also broke the August 22, 1963 record by Joseph A. Walker,
who flew the X-15 to an unofficial world altitude record of
354,200 feet. Brian Binnie's SpaceShipOne flight carried
him all the way to 367,442 feet or 69.6 miles above the
Earth's surface.

Conclusion

The recent development in the field of scramjets,

hyperplanes, and truly Reusable Launch Vehicle will result
in the development of space tourism. This advancement of
technology helps us to understand more about science and
also helps us to improve our life.
 In 1927, hotel magnate
Raymond Orteig's announced an aviation contest, a price of
$25,000 to be awarded to the first man to build and fly an
airplane non-stop from New York to Paris. As a result of the
successful flight of Charles Lindbergh's, in the United
States:

• The number of airline passengers increased by 167,623

between 1926 and 1929.
• The number of pilot's license applications increased
by 300 percent in 1927.
• The number of licensed aircraft increased by 400
percent.
• The number of airports doubled within three years.

Once this technology will be common, people will

start their pursuit towards even better technologies. Only
time will tell if the Ansari X Prize will have a similar
effect on the burgeoning sub-orbital flight industry as the
1927 $25,000 Orteig's price did.

References

1. http://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/x43-main.html

Official site of NASA X-43 spaceplane.

2.http://www.thespacesite.com/space/future/spaceplane.php
Contains basic information about the Reusable Launch
Vehicles and current projects.

3.http://trc.dfrc.nasa.gov/Newsroom/FactSheets/FS-040-
DFRC.html
Contains facts about the NASA X-43 Hyper-X plane.

4.http://trc.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Movie/Hyper-
X/index.html
Contains motion pictures of the X-43 .

5.http://trc.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/X-43A/index.html
Contains images of the X-43 spaceplane.

6.http://science.howstuffworks.com/x-prize.htm
For details about X-Price.

7. http://www.lerc.nasa.gov/WWW/RT1999/intro/contents.html
For advance papers on space research

8.http://www.scaled.com/index.htm
For information on SpaceShipOne.