X-30 NASP composite configuration evolution

[Tuomasn]

Following discussion in the late 1980s whether the National Aero-Space Plane (NASP) program should go for a traditional award to one airframe and propulsion manufacturer to build the actual X-30 test aircraft, or form a team among the remaining companies (McDonnell Douglas, General Dynamics, Rockwell, Rocketdyne and Pratt & Whitney), the teaming approach eventually gained official approval in 1989 and a unified contractor team was formed in early 1990. Instead of basing their work on the existing design of one company, the team developed a new composite configuration. This apparently went through four major iterations: Configurations 200, 201, 202 and 300.

The very first composite design of October 1990 might have been Configuration 200. Google shows it mentioned in https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/1.31134, and there's a three-view for Configuration 201 that points out "More camber to fuselage top & sides" and other differences, which might be changes from Configuration 200.


Air Vehicles Integration and Technology Research (AVIATR) Task Order 0015 contains a "NASP Airframe Development Master Schedule" that shows Configuration 202 3-view for October 1991 and Configuration 300 3-view for July 1992. While we have good three-views of Configurations 201 and 202 and could make a fairly good estimate about 200, the final appearance of NASP before cancellation in 1993 remains a bit of a mystery. I've based my "Configuration 300" on Airbreathing/Rocket Single-Stage-to-Orbit Design Matrix, which contains cross-sections of a SSTO vehicle based on the NASA Access to Space Study from 1993. I think it is reasonable to assume the ATS study group would have based its work on the existing NASP design. A NASP render in the AVIATR report is also generally similar.


So here are my interpretations, left-to-right and top-to-bottom, of NASP Configurations 201, 202 and 300:






BTW the "Configuration" nomenclature itself probably comes from General Dynamics, which used similar three-digit designations on its other projects such as F-16. GD's own pre-teaming designs could well have been in "Configuration 100" series.