Fully reusable launch vehicle with airbreathing booster

The performance of a two-stage, fully reusable scramjet-Shuttle launch vehicle is examined analytically. The first stage of the hybrid vehicle would be a hydrocarbon/hydrogen fueled air breathing hypersonic aircraft. The winged booster, in one configuration, would be equipped with both turbojets and scramjets, and the Orbiter would be a scaled-up version of the present STS Orbiter. The nominal mission would involve placing a 65,000 lb payload into a 92.5 x 185 km orbit. The size of the manned first stage is dictated by the ventricle gross weight, density, and contents, with the fuel carried in integrated tanks. A delta planform is presented, with an elliptical cone forebody, an elliptical cross-section afterbody, and a smooth transition surface from the end of the forebody to the straightline leading edge. Formulations are defined for the wing loading, gross density, fatness ratio, and breadpoint ratio, as well as for the propulsion, aerodynamics, and trajectories.