Hmx, Inc.

Rotary Rocket Company

Bevin C McKinney

Gary Charles Hudson

Anthony Martin

An orbital stage system has an orbital stage and one or more launch stages. The orbital stage incorporates an orbital maneuvering system (OMS) and an abort propulsion system which both utilize the same propellants, propellant tankage, and propellant pressurization system, but which employ radically different engines. The OMS engines are comprised of at least two engines which have a combined thrust in the neighborhood of 1/10 the weight of the orbital stage, an area ratio of 50 or more and an operating life of many hundred seconds, preferably many thousands of seconds or more. The abort engine may be a single engine and typically has a thrust of three, four, or more times the weight of the vehicle and an area ratio in the neighborhood of two and an operating life of at most a few tens of seconds.

Integrated abort rocket and orbital propulsion system

A turbojet engine with improved thrust and high-altitude capabilities. Arrangements are provided for injecting liquid oxygen or other oxidizer into the turbojet engine before the compressor section. Cooling the incoming air by the liquid oxygen reduces the air volume, which allows a fixed inlet to be matched to varying flow conditions, allowing a greater mass of air to be ingested by the compressor section and results in a lower compressor outlet temperature. Increased mass flow, combined with more fuel results in higher exhaust gas temperatures and greater thrust. The addition of oxygen to the inlet air flow allows the engine to operate at higher altitudes by preventing flameout due to rarefied air.

Turbojet with precompressor injected oxidizer

A thermal protection system is composed of multiple panels, each of which has an ablative layer of cork thermal protection which is adhesively bonded to a flexible film. The rear surface of the film is coated with two types of adhesive. A first, high strength adhesive is applied at the edges of the cork panel and where aerodynamic forces may be higher. A second, lower strength adhesive is applied to the remaining surface of the film. Following the return of the launch vehicle from space, the thermal protection panels are removed by peeling away the high strength attachment edges with a knife, or other blade tool, and then removing the remainder of the panel, which is only lightly attached to the vehicle skin, without the aid of tools.

Rapidly removable thermal protection system for reusable launch vehicle

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 ascend vertically. As the vehicle exits the atmosphere the rocket engines are aligned with the flight path of the vehicle. After reentry from earth orbit the vehicle utilizes the spun up rotor to fly the vehicle to a soft landing.

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Gig Harbor, WA, United States of America

Bevin C McKinney