History in the Construction of the Constitution LSRV

     The LR-99 rocket engine will be mounted into a triangulated tubular structure fabricated of 6" diameter stainless steel tubing. The chassis will serve double duty as fuel tank holding the Aqueous Ethanol. It will cradle the 10' long by 24" diameter LOX tank and the various diameter Titanium pressure vessels which will be bolted into the chassis for added rigidity .If the chassis should crack during a run. Pressure will be lost and the engine will shut down immediately while venting the alcohol from the crack. The chassis tubes are formed so that in the event of a premature shutdown the fuel will flow forward and down to stabilize and anchor the nose of the vehicle to the ground while assuring that the center of gravity of the vehicle is forward of the center of pressure. The LOX tank is aft so that as LOX is used the center of gravity of the vehicle moves forward. The pressure ant spheres keep the Helium (used to blow the propellants into the engine) from moving as little as possible.

     The driver compartment and roll cage area is in the nose ahead the front wheels and potential fire hazards. Visibility is better but the vehicle will have an overkill of stability in order for the driver to tell what the vehicle is doing in order to maintain control. This is accomplished by making the finnage at the rear of the vehicle slightly larger than actually needed. The roll cage will be built from 3" diameter 1/4" wall stainless tubing using mostly straight sections for added rigidity. The driver is in a semi reclined position in order to better withstand G loads without redding or blacking out.

     I envision controls to be simplified to an arming switch and a firing pedal that arms the braking parachutes at the time of ignition. A semi circle steering wheel will be used as the ten o'clock and two o'clock hand positions are always the most used and comfortable when American drivers are under stress. A simple green "Go" or red "No go" light will be given from an onboard computer if all pressures are dialed up and stable before ignition. There is no need for gauges and needles to watch as all the driver's attention should be focused on the run itself. If there is an anomaly the onboard computer will shut the engine down, vent the fuel and deploy the first parachute. The chute system will consist of two reefed 17 foot diameter super sonic parachutes and an air brake at the rear of the vehicle. Manual deployment of the parachutes will be by pushing the firing pedal beyond the engine firing position with the secondary chute fired by a lanyard attached to the driver's wrist. Any time the chutes are deployed the computer will shut the engine down first, vent fuel and than proceed with chute deployment. All other data will be recorded by a redundant computer system to rule out anomalies. The driver will sit behind a 1/2" thick Polycarbonate windscreen which also acts as cockpit door for entry. It is entirely removed for access and has no hinges. The skin of the vehicle is made from lapped upward 6" wide strips of stainless steel (lapped 1" over each lower strip) stretched and welded to the chassis at each end. The strips are lapped similar to a roofing shingle and will be able to be expanded under internal pressure. Certain areas of the underside of the vehicle will have a mesh skin in order to let air underneath the car pass through to the skin. Essentially the skin will breath to equalize internal air pressure to external air pressure. This will prevent a blow over should air build up under the car. By putting the skin strips under tension along the length of the car and welding them to the chassis. A never before strength of chassis and body will be achieved as all the skin will be under tension in one direction. This will make it much more rigid than a riveted skin or composite. The lapped edges running front to back will also control air flow at the boundary layer. The strips will be scratched from front to back with heavy sandpaper. This will create microscopic grooves in the skin strips along their entire length. These grooves will vacuum in air molecules helping keep the skin boundary layer air laminar. Research on this was done in the early 1980s at Langley. Constitution LSRV is a ground effects vehicle that because of it's triangular frontal aspect, takes all oncoming air and splits it into two sheets on either side, above the vehicle. No air is allowed under the vehicle at the nose and none can slip under the vehicle because there is a 2" wide boundary layer lip that runs horizontally along both sides the entire length of the vehicle at it's base. These two controlled sheets of air and shock are essentially on top of the vehicle. So all air that strikes the vehicle becomes used for negative lift and directional stability. This vehicle is designed to perform best in the supersonic regime as the shock waves created by the air are directed up and away on either side of the vehicle and anchor it to the running surface. It doesn't matter where the shocks move to along the body they will always perform this duty, keeping the nose down and keeping the vehicle moving in a straight line. The rear wheels are contained in solid aluminum carved spats that are triangulated so that all leading edge shocks generate negative lift over the wheels. There are two 60 degree swept back, 45 degree swept up stabilizers at the rear of the vehicle. They pass through the large diameter rear wheels and generate shocks that press against the running surface stabilizing the vehicle in roll and yaw. They will make shock that acts as an invisible lever without any return moment to destabilize the vehicle such as wide tracked rear wheels do. The rear stabilizers are made wider as they extend outward so that the supersonic footprint created by them is uniform along their length.

     The rear wheels are 24" diameter rings cut from an extruded pipe of alloy steel yet to be determined. This will keep the grain radial. The ring/wheels are held in place by three contact bearings at the apex points of an equilateral triangle made of 2" diameter 4130 chromemoly steel. The bearings are mounted on pistons slipped into the points of the triangle. The pistons are under a predetermined pressure to keep the high speed bearings forced into a notch in the ring/wheel with one apex at the ground. Under impact one bearing will push in while another takes up the slack giving a suspension of sorts although a very limited, high powered one. The overall concept here is to have a suspended wheel with very little internal mass. This will keep gyroscopic forces to a minimum and prevent the wheel from tearing itself apart during high speed revolution and immense centrifugal forces. The front wheels will be a series of spaced rings and spacers of about 18" in diameter running about a precisely machined drum to take the loads. All wheels will have a total loss spray lubricant system to minimize friction.