SummaryBoost-gliders offer the possibility of rapid long distance travel (e.g. England-Australia in 75 minutes) and boosters using similar technology offer the possibility of “everyday” travel between the earth and space stations. This paper uses simple parametric methods to assess conditions for boost-gliders to be commercially competitive and to discuss their evolution in relation to other boosters and advanced aircraft. It is concluded that booster-gliders using a similar state of the art to presently-projected aerospace transporters (i.e. winged, two-stage, hydrogen-fuelled vehicles) would be reasonably economical given cheap hydrogen fuel and a market large enough to support about 50 aircraft each making 5 antipodal flights per day. In addition, numerous problems would be involved in developing this type of vehicle to an acceptable level of design and operational familiarity but, at first sight, none of these appears to be insurmountable.
The NASA Quiet Engine Program
