Aeronautics and astronautics – Composite aircraft
Reexamination Certificate
2002-01-29
2003-04-08
Swiatek, Robert P. (Department: 3644)
Aeronautics and astronautics
Composite aircraft
C244S063000, C244S137100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06543715
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to aerospace technology and canl be used, in particular, to place different payloads, such as communication, navigation, monitoring satellites (including ecology monitoring satellites), and scientific instruments, into low and medium earth orbits, as well as to promptly deliver payloads to remote terrestrial and oceanic areas.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
According to estimates of Euroconsult, a European firm, it will be necessary within the period of 2000-2015 to place about 1800 satellites in accordance with more than 200 projects into earth orbits at an altitude of up to 3000-5000 km with different inclinations. The launch service market potential will add up to about 15-20 billion USD.
A continuing demand for light-class launch vehicles has brought about development activities in the U.S.A., Germany, Great Britain, Ukraine, Russia, Japan and China.
The U.S.A.-developed Pegasus Aerospace System with a payload capacity of about 450 kg is currently in operation in the USA, development of the Oril project is under way in the Ukraine, and the SHTIL-3A and Burlak-Diana projects are being developed in Russia.
In the Oril and SHTIL-3A projects, the launch vehicles are based on ICBM-class rockets with the toxic AT-NDMT propellant and this does not ensure ecologically safe operation.
Aerospace systems are known for piggyback-launcling of vehicles such as launch vehicles or small-size orbiters from a carrier aircraft (RU Pat. No. 2061630, IPC
6
B64G
1/14).
A drawback of such systems is the necessity of firing rocket engines to depart from the carrier aircraft, which is extremely dangerous in the case of a launch vehicle's launch failure.
The Burlak-Diana project (Aviation Week and Space Technology, U.S.A., Jan. 11, 1999, p.444) and the German Daimler-Benz Aerospace P.G. project (RU Pat. No. 212039S.IPC
6
B64G 1/14) employ a winged launch vehicle suspended under the fuselage or wing of a carrier aircraft.
Drawbacks of these projects are the launch vehicle diameter limitations which are determined by the available space between a carrier aircraft's bottom surface and the runway as well as the necessity to equip the launch vehicle with airfoils to perform an ascent maneuver after horizontal separation of the launch vehicle from the carrier aircraft.
A Rockwell International Corporation aerospace system is known (U.S. Pat. No. 5,402,965. IPC
6
B64G 1/14), which comprises a carrier aircraft and a ventral launch vehicle mated with a recoverable orbiter (payload). The system provides for horizontal runway takeoff, delivery of the payload-carrying launch vehicle to the launch vehicle—carrier aircraft separation point, injection of the payload into target orbit by the launch vehicle, and release of the payload with its subsequent return to Earth.
A technical Solution is also known according to RU Pat. No. 202679S, lPC
6
B64D 5/00 (Orbital Science Corporation, which is a launch vehicle dropped from a carrier aircraft and containing power stages, a wing and payload.
Drawbacks of the aforesaid technical solutions according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,402,965 and RU Pat. No. 2026798 repeat the drawbacks of the Burlak-Diana system described above and furthermore they make system control more complicated as a result of the need to ensure flight control both during winged aerodynamic flight and during jet flight.
The analog most similar to the present invention is the Pegasus Aerospace System according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,949, IPC
6
B64G 1/14, comprising a carrier aircraft, launch vehicle with powder engines, wing and payload.
Drawbacks of this system are the aforesaid limitations in respect to the diameter of the launch vehicle suspended under the carrier aircraft, the presence of a wing on the launch vehicle to gain height after horizontal separation from the carrier aircraft, a more complex control system (for two modes: winged aerodynamic flight and jet flight), and also, as a result, a low payload capacity of this system and a high specific cost of the injected payload.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to enhance the payload capacity of an aerospace system, to reduce the specific cost of payload injection, to enlarge the payload envelope, and, simultaneously, to ensure carrier aircraft and crew safety and to provide ecological safety of the system.
This object is accomplished in that in an aerospace system comprising a carrier aircraft, a launch vehicle and a payload, the launch vehicle with liquid-fuel propulsion units is placed inside the fuselage of the carrier aircraft within a transport and launch container fitted with a pneumatic ejection unit, airborne elements of units for supplying the launch vehicle with propellant and working mediums, elements of units for draining and for replenishing the liquid-fuel propulsion units with propellant.
The launch vehicle is mounted in the transport and launch container by support units in at least in two areas, and an airtight pneumatic chamber is formed between the end of the launch vehicle and the blind end of the container, which chamber incorporates the airborne elements of the aforesaid units for supplying, draining and replenishing, which are connected to the end of the launch vehicle by pull-off couplings, wherein the pneumatic ejection unit is made in the form of a high pressure source connected to the pneumatic chamber of the container by stop valves, which chamber is provided with thermal insulation. The free end of the container coincides with a port in the fuselage of the carrier aircraft and is hermetically connected to the perimeter of the point, wherein the free end of the container is provided with a frangible membrane.
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patent: 4697764 (1987-10-01), Hardy et al.
patent: 4901949 (1990-02-01), Elias
patent: 5257758 (1993-11-01), Hassel
patent: 5279199 (1994-01-01), August
patent: 5295642 (1994-03-01), Palmer
patent: 5402965 (1995-04-01), Cervisi et al.
patent: 5626310 (1997-05-01), Kelly
patent: 5740985 (1998-04-01), Scott et al.
patent: 6260802 (2001-07-01), Hampsten
patent: 2026798 (1989-03-01), None
patent: 2061630 (1996-06-01), None
patent: 2068169 (1996-10-01), None
patent: 2120398 (1998-10-01), None
patent: 2129508 (1999-04-01), None
William B. Scott, Aviation Week & Space Technology, Jan. 11, 1999, p. 444.
Borisov Andrei Vladimirovich
Ivanov Robert Konstantinovich
Karpov Anatoly Stepanovich
Kovalevsky Mikhail Markovich
Monakhov Jury Vladimirovich
Burns Doane Swecker & Mathis L.L.P.
Karpov Anatoly Stepanovich
Swiatek Robert P.
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