[gurps] [VEHICLE] of the week 674 – Improved Spaceplane

[Onno Meyer]

  This is a weekly posting with GURPS vehicles (and the like) to the 
GURPSnet mailing list. I grant the permission for all non-commercial 
redistribution of my work, but I would like to know if you put it on 
a website or the like. My site is down for rebuilding, but sooner or 
later the old stuff should reappear at   omeyer.gmxhome.de
  Onno Meyer, 2007-09-24

Improved Spaceplane v1.0 (TL9)
  Copyright 2007 by Onno Meyer

  Many space exploration scenarios require a cheap and reusable launch 
vehicle. The spaceplane can be used in reasonably realistic far future 
games. It has ten seats and a total payload of 10 tons, including the 
passengers.
  The spaceplane uses a turbofan for horizontal takeoff and the flight 
to 10 km altitude and 3,200 kph. There the rocket engines ignite for a 
climb to LEO (approximately 200 km and 7.8 km/s). A delta-V of 800 m/s 
remains for docking maneuvers and the reentry burn. Reentry takes the 
spaceplane into the upper atmosphere, where drag brings it down for a 
dead stick landing.
  The turbofans burn 1,200 gallons of jet fuel per hour and the rockets 
burn 1,375 gallons of HO per second. A full load of fuel is $23,600.

Subassemblies: Body +8, ten retractable Wheels +3. 
Powertrain: 120,000-lb. afterburning super turbofan; two 500,000-lb.
  chemical rockets; four 270,000-kWs rechargeable E power cells.
Fuel: 1,200 gallons jet fuel (fire on 13); 200,000 gallons HO (fire on
  13).
Occ: 2 RCS, 8 RS.   Cargo: 900 cf.

Armor       F      RL       B       T       U
Body:     4/100   4/100   4/100   4/100   4/100
Wheels:     3/5     3/5     3/5     3/5     3/5

Equipment:
  Body: Two very long range radios; two 10x LLTVs; 10-mile radar, low-
res imaging; 5-mile radar, low-res imaging; two flight data recorders; 
two sets of precision navigation instruments; two inertial navigation 
systems; two C3 small, hardened computers; two terminals; two-man 
airlock; two 10x1 man-day limited life systems; cramped toilet; ten 
G-seats. External: 300 sf solar cells.

Statistics
Size: 240'x30'x20'   Payload: 224 tons      Lwt.: 254 tons
Volume: 50,000 cf    Maint.: 12 man-hours   Price: $93,691,600

HT: 7.   HPs: 3,750 Body, 90 each Wheel

Takeoff (turbofan)
gSpeed:   245   gAccel: 10   gDecel: 10   gMR: 0.25   gSR: 4
Ground Pressure Extremely High. No Off-Road Performance.

Flight (turbofan)
aSpeed: 2,000   aAccel:  8   aDecel:  1   aMR: 0.25   aSR: 5
Stall Speed 235 mph. Ceiling 12,000 yards.

Boost (rocket)
sAccel: 2 to 12.5.   sMR: 2   Delta-V: 20,774 mph

Landing (gliding)
aSpeed:   620   aAccel:  0   aDecel:  1   aMR: 0.25   aSR: 5
gSpeed:     0   gAccel:  0   gDecel: 10   gMR: 0.25   gSR: 3
Stall Speed 95. Glide Ratio 43:1.

Design Notes
  Finely made. Body is 50,000 cf, with lifting body and radical 
streamlining. Wheels are 2,500 cf, retract into body. Structure is 
extra-light and advanced. Armor is advanced, fireproof ablative on body, 
advanced composite on wheels. Sealed. Computerized controls with 
duplicate maneuver controls. There are 270.61 cf of empty space. Empty 
weight is 60,000 lbs.
  The vehicle uses the design rules from Vehicles [2nd edition, 3rd 
printing, Dec 2004 errata], VXi and VXii (including the armor volume 
rule) with the text format from Vehicles Lite.


Next Week: A Liner for Traveller.