On 2 October 2000, a 12.2-cm diameter, 50.6-gram laser-boosted rocket Lightcraft flew to a new altitude record of 71-meters (233-ft) at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in New Mexico. The PLVTS 10-kW pulsed carbon dioxide laser, located on the High Energy Laser Systems Test Facility (HELSTF) powered the record flight, as well as six others -two of which reached 48.4-m (159-ft) and 56-m (184-ft).These were the first outdoor vertical, spinstabilized flights of laser Lightcraft to be performed with assigned launch windows secured from NORAD, with the cooperation of WSMR range control -to avoid illuminating LEO satellites and/or low flying aircraft. Besides nearly doubling the previous altitude record of 39 meters (128-ft) set on 9 July '99, the Model #200 Lightcraft simultaneously demonstrated the longest laser-powered free-flight, and the greatest 'air time' (i.e., launch-to-landing/recovery). With a modest investment of under a million dollars, a string of ever-increasing Lightcraft altitude records have been set over the past four years -since the first flight on 23 April 1997. This embryonic, propulsion concept embodies "disruptive technology" that promises to radically transform our ideas about global flight transportation and space launch systems, over the next 15 to 25 years.
A seven degree-of-freedom (7DOF) dynamic model was developed to provide insight into the flight behavior of Type 200 and other related lightcraft, and to serve as a research tool for developing future engine-vehicle configurations for laser launching of nanosatellites (1–10+kg). Accurate engine, beam, and aerodynamics models are included to improve the predictive capability of the 7DOF code. The aerodynamic forces of lift, drag, and aerodynamic pitching moment were derived from FLUENT® computational fluid dynamics predictions, and calibrated against limited existing wind tunnel data. To facilitate 7DOF model validation, simulation results are compared with video analysis of actual flights under comparable conditions. Despite current limitations of the 7DOF model, the results compared well with experimental flight trajectory data.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.