Launch vehicle with engine mounted on a rotor
US5842665A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 9, 1996 |
| Grant date | Dec 1, 1998 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 9, 2016 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC B)Performing Operations; Transporting
- CPC primaryB64G1/623
- WIPO fieldTransport
- WIPO sectorMechanical engineering
Abstract
A launch vehicle which employs a rotor similar to a helicopter. The vehicle has a four bladed rotor which is mounted on the vehicle body. The body of the vehicle includes propellant tanks and a payload compartment contained within an integral aeroshell. Rocket engines used to propel the vehicle into earth orbit are mounted at the ends of the rotor blades. The engines are connected by propellant feed lines to a propellant transfer hub surrounding the axis of rotation of the rotor. Propellants are fed from an oxidizer tank and a fuel tank through a propellant transfer coupling to oxidizer and fuel lines which extend to the engines at the rotor blades ends. The rotor blades incorporate air foils. To operate the vehicle the vehicle is positioned on a concrete or asphalt pad and fueled with liquid oxygen and kerosene. The engine are positioned tangent to the blade paths and ignited. The thrust of the engines which is tangent to the rotor causes the rotor to turn which accelerates the rotor thus increasing the pressure developed by the propellants as they flow towards the engines. When the rotor has reached operational speed the airfoil creates sufficient lift that the vehicle begins to …
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.