Suborbital Spaceflight Vehicle Analysis for Single Pilot Operations

• ¹ Flight Research, Inc, Flight Test, United States
• ² Drexel University, Biomedical Engineering, United States

Commercial suborbital spaceflight vehicles (SSVs) are brining the dream of spaceflight to the common man. The very specific mission of SSVs brings about new questions, different from those of traditional aircraft. One such question is the number of crewmembers required to operate an SSV. If these vehicles can be flown with one pilot, vehicle weight can be reduced or payload can be increased, the number of trained pilots per flight is reduced in addition to other minor factors that will continue to draw down the per flight cost of traveling to space, make it even more accessible to the general public. Modern SSVs are being designed for two pilots. This configuration has been a traditionally accepted path without any controlled study to investigate it. No studies have been conducted yet on the workload required for modern SSV piloting tasks due to the novelty of the industry, nor have similar relevant studies been performed in adjacent disciplines. The FAA’s requirements for jet transports are the most similar to spaceflight vehicles but are generic and at times do not apply. Hence there is a need to determine, quantitatively, if one pilot can operate an SSV. Single pilots have flown similar vehicles in the past such as the X-15 rocket plane and SpaceShipOne, the first manned commercial space vehicle. These vehicles did not carry passengers, however, their trajectories and workload were very similar. SSVs are not available for testing such questions as the vehicles themselves are still in the early stages of development. A dynamic flight simulation capable of high performance human centrifuge, known as a continuous G device (CGD), can be modified with an SSV representative aeromodel and utilized as a surrogate for an actual vehicle. Rating scales for vehicle handling and pilot workload are also established in the aerospace industry. CGD’s have been utilized to mimic in-flight accelerations, however, actual performance against vehicle flight data must be established. Further, a CGD must be demonstrated as a simulator for an SSV specifically. Lastly, the ability of pilots to maintain a launch trajectory with sufficient ratings on known rating scales will answer if one pilot can fly these vehicles. Utilizing these new advances in flight simulator technology, this experiment will study a single pilot’s ability to maintain a spaceflight boost trajectory given a number of vehicle parameters. The resulting data and conclusions will be of value for manufacturers and operators of winged, rocket-powered vehicles. These vehicles will be operable by a single pilot. This will then translate into better efficiency of crews and therefore safer and less expensive vehicles for public passenger space travel.