Request North American/Rockwell - Boost/Glide Suborbital Airliner

[Graham2001]

A futuristic airliner concept from the early 1970s, making use of technology that was being developed for the space shuttle.

A Methodology for Boost-Glide Transport Technology Planning (1973)

For those who are interested, I earlier posted details of a more conventional design from around the same period, the Boeing 767-642C...

See:

Boeing 767-642C (1973) & Skins

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Well, if anyone was going to pull it off, it was Rockwell. They made the XB-70 and the X-15, as well as the Shuttle. Lots of big and fast moving aircraft experience there

 

[Andy44]

If I am looking at that right the passengers sit above the oxydizer tanks aft, while the cockpit is way up in the nose on the other side of the fuel tanks, right? Interesting. As long as you have faith in your engines (SSME deriviatives?) it should work.

 

[Graham2001]

If I am looking at that right the passengers sit above the oxydizer tanks aft, while the cockpit is way up in the nose on the other side of the fuel tanks, right? Interesting.

You are correct, I'm going to assume the passenger cabin would be a "Non Smoking" area. The document also discusses freight being carried instead of passengers.

I'm pretty sure that this is the plane that appears in Thomas Blocks novel "Orbit".

I've located a document on the NTRS that discusses routing issues for aircraft like these, it could be useful for scenario planning.

Evaluation of Routing and Scheduling Considerations for Possible Future Commercial Hypersonic Transport Aircraft

 

[Andy44]

Vertical takeoff, I see, and H2-burning turbojets for atmospheric power. Glanced through the pdf, didn't see how you would load passengers. I guess you could board them horizontally and then erect the vehicle once they are all buckled in. After WWII one of the German rocket guys, Walter Dornberger (working for Bell Aircraft), was pushing for a vertically-launched 2-stage suborbital transport which would have seats that rotate so you can sit upright before launch. That seems like a big mass penalty to me.

Reading the PDF, the optimism for the future of the shuttle program is astounding.

Oh, those were the days...

 

[Hlynkacg]

A futuristic airliner concept from the early 1970s, making use of technology that was being developed for the space shuttle.

A Methodology for Boost-Glide Transport Technology Planning (1973)

For those who are interested, I earlier posted details of a more conventional design from around the same period, the Boeing 767-642C...

See:

Boeing 767-642C (1973) & Skins

Thank you for posting this.

It does give one ideas.

 

[Graham2001]

Vertical takeoff, I see, and H2-burning turbojets for atmospheric power. Glanced through the pdf, didn't see how you would load passengers. I guess you could board them horizontally and then erect the vehicle once they are all buckled in.

I looked for that too, I'm assuming that they would have dealt with that little issue had they gotten around to the detail planning.