Space Shuttle Jr.

Although I like Pike's comment about cultural hegemony, I do think there
might be one good application for SS Jr.

As a rapid deployment vehicle for drones. UAVs can be flow over hostile
airspace to very remote areas and deployed from a cargo compartment of
an SS Jr. Deployment anywhere in the world in 2 hrs if you don't care
about drone recovery.

The problem as with all these concepts is that SS Jr. needs a friendly
place to land or there is no 'shuttle' component to the concept.

I would suggest the Air Force seriously talk to the Navy about means
to land SS Jr. on a carrier. Of course I can just see the Air Bosses
freaking out about yeilding deckspace to an incoming USV being piloted
remotely by a wing wiper... Not on my watch Farce boy....

Dave

David Spain writes:

I would suggest the Air Force seriously talk to the Navy about means
to land SS Jr. on a carrier. Of course I can just see the Air Bosses
freaking out about yeilding deckspace to an incoming USV being piloted
remotely by a wing wiper... Not on my watch Farce boy....

A more realizable senario, USAF and USN work out an interservice C&C protocol
for the USV.

USAF is responsible for launch, mid-course corrections, re-entry and UAV
deploy, whereupon USAF takes over control of UAV and hands off recovery of
USV to USN for carrier landing or USN station landing or maintains control
for USAF base landing.

And if the USN wants in on the cool parts, if they have a launch facility that
can handle the USV the roles can be reversed....

Everybody wins... Of course there'll be icicles forming in hell before I see
a practical interservice C&C protocol... Hoping I'm wrong.
Anybody got a good counter-example?

Dave

David Spain writes:

The problem as with all these concepts is that SS Jr. needs a friendly
place to land or there is no 'shuttle' component to the concept.

Well, I overlooked the most obvious solution to this problem. SS Jr. aka
USV is orbital, ergo, UAV is deployed in orbit and retro'd back into the
atmosphere over target. USV then continues orbiting until a return to
launch point window opens then flown home.

Well, duh. Sorry Pat....

Dave

PS: This *does* complicate the UAV a bit, it will need a TPS as well as
the USV. But it's small and fairly lightweight, that should help.

David Spain writes:

David Spain writes:
Well, I overlooked the most obvious solution to this problem. SS Jr. aka

Speaking of duh....

I'm having fun with this idea. Here's another one, use the USV to 'park' a
UAV in orbit. Put a few of these in various orbits then call down the UAV
when needed and return the USV to launch point for refurbishment...

Dave