AIRCRAFT WITH HYBRID AERODYNAMIC AND SPACE FLIGHT, AND ASSOCIATED FLIGHT CONTROL METHOD

摘要

This aircraft comprises both thrusters (7, 16, 17) for conventional aircraft flight through the atmosphere and for high-altitude use as a rocket. It is divided into a payload compartment (8) and a compartment (13) chiefly containing the rocket motor propellants. It comprises a long, low-backsweep transverse wing (3) near the rear to provide better wing lift in the dense strata of the atmosphere and allow the aircraft to climb to high altitudes at subsonic speed before the rocket motors are used. Return to earth is in gliding flight or flight controlled in the same way as a conventional aircraft.