Just thought of something interesting.

[gmpd2000]

The Space Shuttle (as an aircraft rather than a spacecraft, so Saturn V doesn't really count since it doesn't "fly") has the largest detachable fuel tank of all "aircraft"!

 

This might be obvious to you but I find it rather amusing.

[Bill Phil]

But is it really an "aircraft" if it's primary operation theatre is space?

Technically the Apollos used aerodynamics during reentry.

[razark]

As an aircraft, the shuttle was just a glider. 

So the largest aircraft fuel tank belongs to an aircraft that only flew unpowered.

[p1t1o]

I've always wondered what it would be like if they fitted the shuttle cargobay with LOx/LH2 tanks and fired up the engines on the runway to see what that baby can do!

[StrandedonEarth]

 

10 hours ago, p1t1o said:

I've always wondered what it would be like if they fitted the shuttle cargobay with LOx/LH2 tanks and fired up the engines on the runway to see what that baby can do!

I think it would run out of propellants before reaching the end of the runway...

[Whizzkid]

2 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said:

 

I think it would run out of propellants before reaching the end of the runway...

Not to mention the angled thrust.

[p1t1o]

On 2/29/2016 at 11:26 PM, StrandedonEarth said:

I think it would run out of propellants before reaching the end of the runway...

Probably, but how fast would we be going?

On 3/1/2016 at 2:15 AM, Whizzkid said:

Not to mention the angled thrust.

The gimbals could take care of this.

Edited March 2, 2016 by p1t1o

[jf0]

On 29/2/2016 at 1:59 PM, p1t1o said:

I've always wondered what it would be like if they fitted the shuttle cargobay with LOx/LH2 tanks and fired up the engines on the runway to see what that baby can do!

 

On 29/2/2016 at 0:26 AM, StrandedonEarth said:

 

I think it would run out of propellants before reaching the end of the runway...

Well, apparently the cargo bay is 4.6 x 18m (I'll assume that means 4.6 x 4.6 x 18m), so it has a volume of 380000 L. Going by the capacity and volume of the external tank which is about 553000L of LOX + 1500000 L LH2, with masses of 629000kg and 106000kg, the combined 'density' of LH2 and LOX propellent in the correct ratio is about 0.36 kg/L, so lets say you could get about 133000kg of propellent in the cargo bay. according to this http://bado-shanai.net/Speculative%20Engineering/SESpShMainEngine.htm the ssme uses 466.3 kg/s of propellent, so with three engines firing it would burn for about 95 seconds. Apparently according to this http://www.braeunig.us/space/specs/orbiter.htm the dry mass of the obiter is 84t (lighter than I thought...) so this would give a delta v of about 4200m/s, and a starting thrust to weight ratio of about 2.94 ... so actually I reckon it would get well beyond the end of the runway, even with these approximate numbers...

 

That being said, I seriously doubt it would be structurally capable of holding 133t of propellent in the cargo bay!

Edited March 2, 2016 by jf0