HOLLOMAN
AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. – Rocketplane Global, Inc. (RGI)
of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma announced today a facelift for its
first XP Spaceplane – transforming it into a more
powerful craft that provides a roomier ride for suborbital patrons.
Since 2004,
Rocketplane has been building their XP
Spaceplane, a four-seat, fighter-sized vehicle
powered by two jet engines and a rocket engine.
But things
have changed over the last year and a half, said Dave Faulkner, Program Manager
of Rocketplane Global. "We've learned quite a
bit over that time and realized that we needed to make some changes," he
said.
The revised
XP Spaceplane design revealed today here at the site
of this year's X Prize Cup festivities is a five-passenger, single-pilot craft.
Shipshape
features
Faulkner
told SPACE.com that both computer modeling and wind tunnel testing have
led the firm's design team to reshape their suborbital spaceship.
A key change
is that company engineers are going away from a souped-up
Learjet concept. "We were changing 95 percent of the Learjet to make it a
rocket plane. So it was no longer a Learjet ... it just so happened that we were
using a few Learjet parts," Faulkner said.
The vehicle
now features a new fuselage design, although, like its predecessor, the body of
the spaceplane will be aluminum and utilize titanium
leading edges. On the craft's nose, a set of fixed canards have been added for
control purposes.
Another
alteration can be seen at the spaceplane's tail
section – a T-tail instead of a V-tail is to be used, shaving off some weight
while realizing added redundancy and extra control.
A beefier
landing gear system has also been scoped out, to be provided by Loud
Engineering & Manufacturing, a CIRCOR Aerospace company located in Ontario, California.
One major
change is use of afterburning J85 engines, with the overall thrust to weight
for the spaceplane redesign going up significantly –
about 50 percent more thrust, he added.
Rocketplane
Global has already put their money down – a still hush-hush amount of cash – and is about to take receipt of 11 of those engines from Magellan Aerospace, a
Canadian company.
Flight
plan
Here's the flight
plan for suborbital
customers: The Rocketplane XP would take off from
the runway at the Oklahoma Spaceport, scooting into the air just like a
conventional business jet. The craft jets itself into climb mode, flying to a
little over 40,000 feet. At this point, the spaceship's pilot ignites the
craft's powerful rocket engine, pulling up into a nearly vertical climb for
soaring into space.
As the vehicle arcs over, all onboard will
experience three to four minutes of weightlessness – along with an incredible
view that only a small, select group of people have ever seen.
Within minutes, the descent begins. Under the
load of several Gs pushing passengers down into their seat, they are on a
unique space roller coaster ride. The XP's specially designed thermal
protection system transfers away the heat of re-entry, permitting safe, slow
travel toward terra firma.
As the Rocketplane XP
slows and enters the lower atmosphere, the pilot restarts the jet engines and
begins the final leg of the flight back to the spaceport and a conventional
runway landing.
For the inside look of the passenger
cabin, Rocketplane Global is engaging the talents of
Frank Nuovo, a visionary, world-class designer. He is
a visionary force behind Vertu, the luxury
communications company, and spearheaded Nokia's styling and global industrial
design innovations.
Fee-paying flyers will be treated to
personal video screens, given the ability to pick views from different cameras
on the spaceship. While passengers will be provided a personal DVD of their
flight, don't be shy about stuffing your own camera in your flight suit
for taking those keepsake images of your own.
Investment dollars
Rocketplane Global is deep in discussion with
several investment groups, Faulkner said, "and they are getting serious ...
we're progressing very well on that part."
What amount of investment dollars is
involved? Faulkner remained tight-lipped, noting that this information is
competition sensitive.
"But we need to bring in the
final round of investment to take the craft to flight. So that's what we're
busy doing," Faulkner said. "I believe that we bring in the
investment soon ... we will be in flight test and have revenue operations in
2010."
Initially, the company would start
out with two vehicles, forecasting a fleet of five by 2012.
"We're going to fly each
vehicle about a little over once a week. If there are no issues with the
vehicle, we're going to be able to turn it around in 24-hours," Faulkner
explained. "That's the design goal right now ... and I think that's very
doable. We want to be a service provider for space transportation."
Recycling the spaceplane
to carry the next set of passengers won't require a standing army of thousands,
said Chuck Lauer, Rocketplane Global's
Vice President of Business Development.
How much will a flight on the Rocketplane XP slap your wallet or cause you to dig deep
into your purse? At present, the standard rate after the first 50 Founder
Flights is $200,000 per seat. That up front, right seat next to the pilot, is
at a premium ticket price of $250,000 – given the wrap-around windows to gaze
through, Lauer said.
Degree of difficulty
To get things rolling, quite
literally, the current forecast is for a flight test program of 50 flights.
"We'll have the vehicle instrumented to the hilt ... making sure that we're
not exceeding any limits before going into operation," Faulkner added.
Asked about degree of difficulty in
fashioning the suborbital vehicle, Faulkner responded: "I would say it is
medium difficulty. It is certainly not easy, but I wouldn't call it hard
either. That's because we're not trying to develop new technology. That's one
of the philosophies of our company ... to use existing technology and learn from
those people that have done it before, rather than trying to reinvent the
wheel."
Working on the project are engineers
that have gone through the hard knocks of trial and error, Faulkner added. The
team includes experts tasked to develop the space shuttle main engine, as well
as a rocket designer involved in blasting off Apollo astronauts from the Moon's
surface once their moonwalking missions were
completed.
To date, a little over 200,000
engineering hours have been spent on the new Rocketplane
XP that debuted today, Faulkner said. The company, he continued, is in negotiation
with a major airframe manufacturer, but no details as yet.
Going global
Lauer said the intent of Rocketplane Global is just that – pushing a vision that
such vehicles could constitute a distributed fleet flying from multiple
locations. "Having a site in Asia, Europe
... being able to offer people views of their particular part of the world is
part of servicing the customer," he told SPACE.com.
Use of the vehicle to support other types
of activity has also been detailed as part of the business strategy, Lauer
said.
"We're not basing our business
plan on capturing the whole market," Faulkner noted. "I think there's
enough room, at least from what we've seen, to have a few players in the
market. But I guess we'll see what happens when we get there," he
observed.
Faulkner said that the vehicle, with
the changes that have been made, "just looks right and it's also relatable
to the public out there."
"It is like an airplane that happens
to just pop up into space occasionally," Faulkner pointed out. "And
it just looks good."
"Looks good,
flies good. That
still applies, even in space," Lauer concluded.
For more information on Rocketplane Global, go to: http://www.rocketplaneglobal.com
advertisement
