PRELIMINARY DESIGN AND SIZING OF A CABIN ESCAPE SYSTEM FOR A SUBORBITAL VEHICLE AIMED AT PARABOLIC FLIGHTS

This paper deals with the conceptual design and sizing of a cabin escape system for a hypersonic transportation vehicle. At first, the role of hypersonic transportation systems within the current market is sketched. Then, after the identification of the reasons why an escape system is so interesting for this type of vehicles, a proper design methodology for the conceptual design of complex aerospace products is applied to the definition, design and sizing of an escape system for a single stage suborbital transportation system taken as reference case study. During the description of the case study, the nominal mission trajectory is examined in detail, pointing out the major mission phases and the subsystems’ modes of operation. The proposed design methodology starts with the identification of the major requirements that will lead the design and sizing activities. Then, a special attention is devoted to the identification of the major functionalities of the Cabin Escape System and to the selection of the proper subsystems able to guarantee them. Indeed, considering the high level of complexity of such a system, during the design process, specific attention should be paid to the impact of onboard systems integration on the overall transportation system architecture and layout. At this purpose, a proper utilization of CAD model can ease the integration process allowing fast verification of mass and volume budgets. Furthermore, the possibility of exploiting this system during the different phases of the mission has been evaluated and, eventually, a preliminary impact risk analysis is reported.