APPENDIX A
OTHER POSTULATED USES OF POGOs
The Pogo concept is based on the unconventional use of off-the-shelf aircraft jet engines for vertical take-off and landing (VTOL). The engine mounting configuration described in this report is but one possible means of providing launch assist. Further, such use of jet engines could perform a wide range of tasks, both military and civilian. Because the engines are off-the-shelf, a variety of special purpose vehicles could be quickly and inexpensively constructed. The design approach would be brute force application of thrust as opposed to high performance and efficiency. Those latter qualities are more applicable to production systems than to small numbers of special purpose vehicles. The following is just a small list of the potential uses of such brute force jet propulsion applications. It must be noted here that none of these have been studied in any depth, let alone validated by any engineering analysis. They are described here only to indicate what might be possible.
LISTING OF POTENTIAL USES OF POGOs BY CATEGORY
Heavy Lift – Low Velocity. The GE-90 and similar engines are very high bypass fan engines. They are capable of producing over 90,000 lb of static sea level thrust. Eight of these mounted to a tubular framework could lift over 600,000 lb of cargo at sea level and transport it at helicopter speeds. This cargo could be military equipment traveling between ship and shore, logs from a forest, water for firefighting, or crash recovery.
Heavy Lift – High Velocity. Over the past 35 years a number of engines have been developed for high speeds and thrust levels to power vehicles such as the XB-70, Concorde, Russian Supersonic Transport (SST), and the SR-71. For example, the GE4 engine was developed for the Boeing SST and has an augmented rated thrust of 67,000 lb static and unaugmented thrust of 50,500 lb[1]. They could be used for launch assist on current spacelift launchers in place of strap-on solids. They could be used for high speed transport of time-critical military and civilian supplies. And they could be used for launch assist of Trans Atmospheric Vehicles (TAVs).
(…Editors note: Since the writing of this report I found that a Japanese-led consortium is working on technology for a Mach 5 hypersonic transport engine with a rated thrust of 67,000 lb.)
Moderate Lift – Moderate Velocity. The current fighter aircraft engines (20,000 to 30,000 lb thrust class) could provide rapid transport of a variety of materiel at over Mach 2, the rated speed of an F-4 designed in the late 1950s. Ten such engines could transport 50,000 to 150,000 lb of materiel and deliver it hundreds or thousands of miles away. Civilian uses could include very rapid parcel service between coastal cities, islands, or coastal nations.
POSSIBLE BENEFITS OF THE POGO CONCEPT TO OTHER ORGANIZATIONS
The following was compiled as a list of possible uses of Pogos by various organizations. None of these were studied but are offered here as a starting point for considering who might benefit from the Pogo concept.
a. Military
- Space Technologies – improving performance of sounding rockets
- Low cost testing of propulsion technologies in space environments.
- Testing of satellite technologies in space environments.
- Aircraft Technologies
- Flying testbed for propulsion technologies in actual design environments (including supersonic combustion ramjets (scramjets)).
- Flying testbed for advanced aircraft materials testing (including thermal protection systems).
- Heavy equipment and supplies delivery
b. NASA.
- Flight testing of engine technologies.
- Extending capabilities of current sounding rockets.
c. Civilian Use.
- Very rapid parcel service.
- Low G research (minutes of freefall).
- High altitude surveying (radar, photographic).
- Firefighting (75,000 gallons/trip, helicopter type flight profile).
- Logging (600,000 lbs/trip).
- Very heavy and outsized equipment transport.
- Land and sea rescue.
- Cleanup of freeway accidents.