Weight trends for a fully reusable advanced single-stage Shuttle

The rate at which subsystem weights grow with vehicle gross weight is assessed and is shown to be critical to the efficiency of large earth-to-orbit transports. Some subsystems grow as the square of vehicle size, others grow as the cube of vehicle size, and still others remain nearly constant irrespective of vehicle size. The overall trend, however, is a reduction in the inerts as a percentage of gross as the vehicle size is increased. For this reason, the larger the vehicle, the greater the payload weight delivered per pound of vehicle manufactured. Other critical issues addressed include the effects of wing loading and wing size on wing weight, the effect of entry planform loading on thermal protection system weight, the impact of power demand on cooling system and prime power weight, and tank fineness ratio on insulation weight. The effects of body shape and various internal packaging arrangements on weight and balance are also discussed. Of greatest impact on overall vehicle weight is body shape and internal packaging and could account for weight savings of up to 30 percent in body structure. Other subsystems are important but the savings are much smaller in relation to overall vehicle weight - individually less than one percent.