New launch vehicle abilities.

Rand Simberg wrote:

Do any air transports follow such a philosophy?

If not, why not?



Aircraft are either biased toward passenger or cargo delivery- although
the standerdized cargo pallets used on cargo aircraft are a step in this
direction. There was one aircraft that reached the prototype stage with
this idea in mind- the Fairchild XC-120 "Pack Plane"; and the Sikorsky
CH-54 "Skycrane" helicopter used the idea operationally. There still
seems to be interest in the idea, if this is anything to go by:
http://www.terra.es/personal/sanchezv/19en.htm ...in the space line of
things a passenger pod was promulgated for the HOTOL aerospace plane,
with the vehicle normally operating in a unmanned state.
One reason that nothing quite like this has been done before is that we
have only recently developed the technology to make aircraft capable of
totally autonomus operations in an unmanned state...and even though that
technology could probably be brought up to a level of reliability equal
to what a manned aircraft can accomplish inside of five to ten years,
the morale effect on passengers would probably preclude it's
incorperation in passenger aircraft anytime soon. If it was desired to
give the new spacecraft a manned crew-modifiable flight capability, then
an interface could be incorperated between the vehicle's guidence system
and the passsenger pod including forward facing cameras on the flight
vehicle so that the passengers could see their flight path.

Pat