Space

Gorgeous video imagines doomed Soviet-era hydrofoiling shuttle launch

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The Alexeyev/Sukhoi Albatros launch system would have launched a carrier plane off the back of a hydrofoiling barge. Rendered here by YouTuber Hazegrayart
Hazegrayart
The Alexeyev/Sukhoi Albatros launch system would have launched a carrier plane off the back of a hydrofoiling barge. Rendered here by YouTuber Hazegrayart
Hazegrayart
The carrier plane would fire its rockets, accelerating the hydrofoiling barge up to 180 km/h
Hazegrayart
At sufficient speed, the carrier plane would lift off and take the shuttle up to high-altitude for a second stage separation
Hazegrayart
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The Alexeyev/Sukhoi Albatros launch system, proposed in 1974, would have launched a Soviet space shuttle on the back of a carrier spaceplane, launched off the back of a hydrofoiling barge. It never happened, but here's what it would've looked like.

YouTube channel "Hazegrayart" has created more than 100 beautifully-rendered videos imagining the launch or operation of some of the weirdest aircraft and spacecraft ever proposed in reality or science fiction.

The channel's latest video envisions a Soviet-era space shuttle launch proposal put together by aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi, known for its jet fighters, and hydrofoil/ground-effect vehicle specialist Rostislav Alexeyev, probably best known as chief designer of the Caspian Sea Monster ekranoplan prototype.

The Alexeyev/Sukhoi Albatros, according to Astronautix, was a three-stage shuttle launch system capable of sending a space shuttle skyward without the need for a launchpad or even a runway. All stages would be recoverable and re-usable.

Proposed in 1974, the system's base was a 70-m (229-ft), 2,000-tonne hydrofoiling barge called the "Albatros Momentum Block." On its back would sit the 91-m (298-ft) delta wing Albatros Carrier Aircraft weighing 1,250 tonnes fully fueled and boasting a liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen rocket capable of producing 7.84 million kN (1,762,500 lbf) of thrust.

The carrier plane would fire its rockets, accelerating the hydrofoiling barge up to 180 km/h
Hazegrayart

And on the back of that would sit the much smaller 49-m (160-ft) Albatros Raketoplan space shuttle, weighing just 320 tonnes fully fueled and with its own 1.96-million-kN (440,620-lbf) rocket.

The plan called for the second-stage carrier aircraft to fire its rockets, replenishing its fuel on the move from a 180-tonne reserve in the barge. This would accelerate the barge to hydrofoiling speed, at which point the drag would be greatly reduced, and the barge would then reach a launch speed around 180 km/h (112 mph), less than two minutes after the rockets were fired.

At sufficient speed, the carrier plane would lift off and take the shuttle up to high-altitude for a second stage separation
Hazegrayart

At this point, there would be sufficient lift under the wings of the carrier aircraft for liftoff, at which point it would blast the shuttle up to high altitude before it separated and continued toward orbit under its own rocket power, with the carrier aircraft gliding back down to Earth and landing.

This remarkably weird proposal was never signed off on – just as well, because, as Alexeyev should have been aware, hydrofoiling becomes an extremely dicey business above about 113 km/h (70 mph). At this kind of speed, the low-pressure zone over the "wing" of the hydrofoils drops to a pressure low enough that the water begins to boil.

This is known as cavitation, and creates pockets of vapor in the water, which collapse when the pressure normalizes, causing shockwaves. High-speed cavitation can bend, damage and fatigue hydrofoils – probably not ideal when you're carrying priceless space shuttles and launch vehicles on top.

Still, enjoy Hazegrayart's rendering of this launch procedure below.

Source: Hazegrayart

View gallery - 3 images
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10 comments
David F
Far better to stay on land and use a linear accelerator instead of the barge.
spyinthesky
Even if this mad idea did work why wouldn’t it be better for the base vessel to have rocket power to propel it to a given speed before the carrier aircraft lit its tail. Would that not have saved considerable fuel? What a waste of space in the hull.
darkcook
Nicely done video. The music was a nice touch. The nose-over pitching moment created by the high-mounted rocket motors would be ridiculous, likely too much for the system (hydrofoils and barge) to handle. I'm not sure why they would have picked a boat unless it is imaged to take miles and miles and miles to get up to speed. A conventional wheeled-machine on a runway would make more sense and have much less resistance while attempting to accelerate up to flight speed.
Karmudjun
If this were a possibility, then why wouldn't the barge be equipped with a steam or electromagnetic catapult system? Like Aircraft carriers heading into the wind, the windspeed would be the launch point, not the water speed. Plus if this were a feasible and efficient way to launch, couldn't the USA have considered an Aircraft Carrier as a modified launch platform? Just playing devil's advocate here - why would the Soviets who controlled almost every stage of the rocket piloting from the ground control want to add the complexity of two "uncontrolled stages" like a hydrofoil barge and a high lift aircraft? Just not their style. What could a commissar do until the shuttle disengaged?
Kpar
Cool video, but a silly way to launch. Think of the mass of the barge that needs to be accelerated by the rocket motors. A terrible waste of energy, it'd be better off taking off from a runway, if you could find one long enough.
dave be
Cool find on the video. Yea there are some silly designs that got worked up. Other peeps proposing their solutions so I may as well throw one in. Runways are hard to build and expensive water is unpredictable and hydrofoil at high speed is .. challenging as well as wasteful on expensive fuel. How about a 1 way rail line out into a body of water. Can be designed for huge masses, has been tested to massive speeds, low resistence, cheaper to build, etc.
KaiserPingo
Thats just stupid!
ANTIcarrot
Huh. Okay, that's a genuinely novel concept, but I can see the sense in it, if it could be made to work. Though as always, space planes are inefficient in getting to orbit. TSTO VTOL is the better concept. I'd also be very concerned about the rocket exhaust hitting the barge during the nose up manouver. That looks like a RUD event for both barge and spaceplane.

IIRC cavitation is caused by the wing's inability to bend the water downwards over a short distance. A longer chord should be able to solve that, albeit at the expensve of more drag, which means a larger barge to carry the extra fuel needed to get up to launch speed, which means extra drag...
veryken
Nice theoretical video. But seems to waste a lot of rocket fuel going from 0 to 50 knots on water. Common sense would be self-powered hydrofoil, then firing up the rockets only before disengaging. Also seems underpowered with such low climb angle. Rocket engines should be powerful enough to go vertical.
Howard Chin
I agree. It's impractical. Why lug an entire barge along? Also someone commented about cavitation. There are super-cavitating hydroplane propellers where cavitation is encouraged. As well, for a more practical launching system see https://youtu.be/pkEcF9V6UWs where you can recover part of the energy used to elevate the rocket into the stratosphere.