UNIVERSAL DRAG LAW

The purpose of this report is to present the results of a general examination of the propulsion power requirements of a variety of transport system vehicles in an effort to determine patterns of behavior that might be useful in the preliminary design of high-speed ground-transport systems. The propulsion system will be one of the major sub-systems of any high-speed ground-transport system, and there are several ways in which one can begin making estimates on the magnitude of the power requirements. One way is to extrapolate the performance of existing vehicles into higher speed regions. Another might be to make detailed designs of various HSGT systems. Still a third approach to the estimation of potential power requirements is to base it on the best performance attained by all classes of vehicles with existing technology. The last approach was based on the estimation of potential power requirements on the updating of the Gabrielli-von Karman technology limit line which first appeared in 1947. In addition to adding the performance of supersonic aircraft, supertankers, and missiles on a gross weight basis, we have examined the performance of a variety of transport systems on a payload basis and found a payload performance technology limit line similar to the gross weight performance technology limit line established by Gabrielli and von Karman in 1947. (Author)

  • Supplemental Notes:
    • Rept. on Proj. Transport. See also PB-173 646.
  • Corporate Authors:

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology

    Engineering Projects Laboratory
    Cambridge, MA  United States 
  • Authors:
    • Gouse, SWJ
    • Swarden, M C
  • Publication Date: 1966-12-6

Media Info

  • Pagination: 79 p.

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00039091
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
  • Report/Paper Numbers: DSR-76108-2
  • Contract Numbers: C85-65ct
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: Nov 24 1972 12:00AM