Pegasus Upgrades: A continuing Study into an Air-breathing Alternative

摘要

For the past two years, Wright Laboratory (WL) has been examining the application of air breathing engines to a Pegasus class air launched space vehicle.~1, 2 Air TurboRocket (ATR) research conducted by CFD Research Corporation (CFDRC) for the US Air Force~3 4, (USAF) has illustrated the fact that the selection of a good solid fuel gas generator (SFGG) propellant in an ATR is one of the critical components for the performance of the ATR engine. Applying those findings to this study, a selection of current and near term SFGG propellants were tested in an updated WL ATR computer software engine deck. ATR performance data was then fed into a WL Earth-To-Orbit (ETO) trajectory analysis code to predict the vehicle flight path and staging points. Final trajectory points were designed to match published staging points for the original Pegasus vehicle to insure matching of orbital altitudes and velocities.