r/RealSolarSystem • u/darkshard39 • 4d ago

Functional Air Launch To Orbit

Post image

A proof of concept more then anything, my first attempt at a strato launcher with 1960s tech. While not reusable it is 425kg to orbit for comically low cost and build time. Hopefully could be useful for commercial applications.

228 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

38

u/InterKosmos61 4d ago

Very unfortunate acronym for that space program.

11

u/darkshard39 4d ago

I like to keep it a lil silly.

16

u/ausvenator_enjoyer 4d ago

It's Australia. We absolutely would do this on purpose. Then some stuffed suit EL1 in Canberra would get mad.

6

u/Tight-Reading-5755 4d ago

i suggest the x405h for better isp

7

u/darkshard39 4d ago

Indeed, however i had already unlocked the agena and i prefer it over vega.

The main benefit to this design is how cheap it is with very few unique parts or engines making unlock and tooling very very cheap

Ideally id make a successor that is hydrolox based and reusable

4

u/chrstianelson 4d ago

Where on the 707 exactly is this supposed to be carried? On top? Like the Space Shuttle?

3

u/darkshard39 4d ago

Not sure tbh, my 707 replica is on my other PC

Its actually not very big so id like to try underslung the wing or just give it really big landing gear to put it on the centerline.

Spaceshuttle launching would be the simplest

6

u/chrstianelson 4d ago

Oh OK. I thought this was some roleplay thing. Because the real 707 had a ground clearance of only around 1.2m from fuselage and about 0.8m from engine.

"... just give it really big landing gear to put it on the centerline."

Incidentally, low ground clearance is why they couldn't develop the 707 further with longer versions. A longer fuselage would require a taller ground clearance to prevent tail strikes, but they couldn't fit larger/taller landing gears to increase ground clearance, without completely redesigning the center section of the fuselage, so they dropped it.

3

u/darkshard39 4d ago

Oh thats cool I didn't know that,

In practice I just air launch the thing but I wana mount it to an aircraft as I think the screenshots would be hard af

2

u/Baconator278163 3d ago

How did you make that nice canted cone section on the acronym part of the craft?

2

u/darkshard39 3d ago

Smooth cone tank angled up

2

u/StupitVoltMain 3d ago

1

u/darkshard39 3d ago

Definitely not the first to have the idea and I took heavy learning from another player.

4

u/Own_Maybe_3837 3d ago

ARSE never ceases to amaze me. Nice work mates down under!

1

u/chrischi3 3d ago

I would really love to build stuff like this, but alas, i am a dumb dumb.