An unmanned flying wing as a carrier of small launchers for satellite deployment in LEO

A proposal is presented for a low-weight "carrier-launcher" system for space missions in Low Earth Orbit. The carrier is a remotely controlled unmanned flying wing. As occurs for other existing solutions on the market, the carrier is deputed to cover part of the role of the first stage of actual two- or three-stage earth-to-orbit rockets. The “flying wing” configuration makes it possible to use a carrier significantly lighter than a common aircraft. The launcher is carried on the top of the wing in order to allow a free release during a parabolic manoeuvre at high altitude at “almost zero g”. Starting from state of the art study, a conceptual configuration of the carrier is defined selecting its initial design parameters. A preliminary study of both aerodynamics and flight mechanics was carried out by simulating the carrier with the public Athena Vortex Lattice (AVL) software. The study of the aeromechanical performance concerned the take-off manoeuvre, landing manoeuvre, and the launcher release maneuver at an altitude of approximately 12,000 meters Two configurations having four and two motors respectively were compared. Finally, some numerical analyses were performed with the NASTRAN software to evaluate, as a first approximation, the aeroelastic behavior of the proposed "carrier-launcher" system.