Some of the issues that affect the flight control and guidance system designs for vertical-takeoff and horizontal-takeoff vehicles were investigated. A two-stage all-rocket vehicle was used to represent the vertical-takeoff system and a generic aerospace plane concept to represent the horizontal-takeoff vehicle. Two flight control issues for the vertical-takeoff rocket were uncovered. The first was the large gimbal angle range required for pitch trim when using parallel mated vehicles. The second was control during staging. Two issues were also identified for the air-breathing vehicle. The first is that the drag losses due to aerodynamic trim are a significant fraction of the total ideal velocity required to achieve orbit. The second issue is that since the vehicle flies at high dynamic pressure for most of the ascent, the guidance system design will be more difficult to ensure accurate insertion than that for the vertical-takeoff rocket system.
Flight control issues of the next generation space transportation launch vehicles
1990-06-01
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Keine Angabe
Englisch
Next-generation launch vehicles
Springer Verlag | 2009
In-Flight Demonstration Plan for the European Next Generation Launch Vehicles
British Library Conference Proceedings | 1998
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