Abstract
The air turborocket (ATR) possesses design, performance, and operation characteristics of the turbojet, ramjet, and rocket in a single air-breathing propulsion system. The basic design tradeoff of ATR design is specie c thrust and specie c impulse. There are many possible variations to this basic cycle, but this research has concentrated on the solid-fuel gas-generator-driven ATR. Because overall vehicle performance is more important than engine-only operation, the evaluation of any propulsion system must be done at the vehicle level. The results of this study show that an 807-lbm solid-rocket-motor- (SRM-) powered vehicle achieves a range of 28.2 miles in 98.1 s. A 750-lbm ATR-powered vehicleattains a rangeof 49.8 milesin 192 s. A525-lbm turbojet-powered vehiclewilltravel 49.6 miles in 290 s. This means that the ATR will provide nearly double the range of an SRM-powered vehicle with roughly double the e ight time. Compared with the equal volume turbojet-powered vehicle, the ATR-powered vehicle achieves the same range in about two-thirds of the turbojet e ight time with a 43% greater initial system mass.
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