posted 04-29-2006 09:55 PM
cSpace Historygram: Douglas Proposes an Intercontinental Ballistic Transport for 1200 TroopsSource: MISSLES AND ROCKETS (Feb 17, 1964)
Douglas Aircraft Co.’s Missile & Space System Division is seeking military interest in a single-stage inter-continental ballistic troop transport concept that could deliver 1,200 combat-ready men or 132 tons of equipment anywhere on Earth within 45 minutes.
By coincidence, spokesmen say, the company was developing the concept last fall when Lt. Gen, Wallace M. Greene, new Marine Corps commandant revealed that the Corps was seriously studying the idea of rocketing 1,200-man battalions over intercontinental distances. Greene declared at the time that this application of space technology to conventional warfare could have a staggering impact on sea power and amphibious operations and on future national military capability as a whole.
Based on Douglas’ ROMBUS conceptual vehicle and dubbed ICARUS (Inter-Continental Aerospacecraft-Range Unlimited System) the concept grew out of an in-house study into the role of the reusable booster. As outlined by Philip Bono, advance projects engineer, and George C. Goldbaum, advance program manager, such a 17,000-mph global transport could be developed with existing technology.
The Douglas study notes that while last October’s “Operation Big Lift” was successful in transporting 15,700 troops and 500 tons of cargo to Europe in 235 missions, that method of troop movement would appear to be “completely impractical” under hostile conditions, being dependent upon, in addition to good weather, long landing runways and other support easily detected and destroyed.
Ahead of SST?—A point made by Douglas spokesmen is that the technology for ICARUS is at least as far advanced as that for a supersonic transport vehicle, which also requires prepared landing strips, They also point out that the concept would be a “fall-out” application of reusable boosters developed for orbital, lunar and planetary missions. Or, developed first as a troop carrier, the vehicle could be scaled down for space station re-supply.ICARUS would be a modified version of the ROMBUS (Reusable Orbital Module-Booster and Utility Shuttle) vehicle designed for land recovery. With a pressurized, six-level troop compartment as the payload, it would be 210 ft. high and 70 ft. in diameter. A four-man crew compartment would be located in the center-body.
The vehicle would consist of this center-body surrounded by perhaps 8 disposable but recoverable liquid hydrogen tanks. It would use an isentropic plug-nozzle engine in order to survive aerodynamic heating during a stable base-first entry. Four landing legs would extend following use of the same engine to provide retro-thrust for soft-landing. Fins would be added to the center-body between hydrogen tanks to reduce entry decelerations to a maximum of 3 G’s.
A one-fifth smaller configuration requiring 4 million lbs. thrust could be utilized as a commercial global transport carrying 172 passengers and 36,000 lbs. of cargo to any point on Earth in less then 45 minutes.
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Scott Schneeweis
URL http://www.SPACEAHOLIC.com/
posted 04-29-2006 09:55 PM
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