Life cycle cost estimation methodology for hypersonic transportation systems

In this last decade, both the aeronautical and aerospace domains are looking with special interest towards the development of hypersonic transportation systems with different purposes. Indeed, considering the specific technologies that have been installed on-board, the vehicle can allow performing recurrent access to space (with reusable vehicles), suborbital parabolic flights with commercial or scientific purposes or point-to-point connections. In order to enhance the competitiveness of the project, cost analyses should be carried out since the very beginning of the design process taking into account not only Research & Development Costs and Production Costs, but also the Operating Costs. The lack of cost models for the segment of reusable high-speed vehicles is a problem in estimating the total effort from design, production up to exploitation. The formalization of a dedicated model for the estimation of development, production and operative costs of reusable transportation vehicles is therefore a crucial need. In this context, the proposed work deals with the generation of a parametric cost estimation tool, which consists of several Cost Estimation Relationships (CERs) for the overall reusability development, production and operating costs. The derived model is exploited to perform a preliminary cost assessment for the main vehicles designed within the LAPCAT (Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies) projects.