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During the cold war, Boeing developed plans to turn the 747 into a cruise missile carrying bomber.
https://www.militaryaerospace.com/comme … enal-ships
The modified 747 would have carried up to 72 air launched cruise missiles in a set of rotary magazines. This would have been a huge amount of fire power. Enough to decimate practically any target due its combination of bomb load delivered with high accuracy.
This leads me to wonder if a similar thing could be pursued for air launch to orbit capability? Would it be possible to modify a 747 to carry multiple small reusable, air launch rockets in rotary magazines? Rather like the Pegasus, but with reusability. The superior expansion ratio allowed by being in the stratosphere and the improved propulsive efficiency allowed by igniting the rocket at a starting speed of Mach 0.8, improve the mass ratio of these rockets to the point where is should be possible to operate them as LOX/Kerosene SSTOs. Strictly, this is a TSTO concept, because the 747 is the first stage.
Last edited by Calliban (2025-07-24 15:45:49)
"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."
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This post is reserved for an index to posts that may be contributed by NewMars members.
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If members are so inclined, there are sources that could be linked to this new topic in NewMars...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_launch
https://www.stratolaunch.com/vehicles/a … platforms/
The history of air launch goes back to World War 1 for airplanes, and even earlier if a human with a parachute counts.
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