Could rockets launched from the ground use wings in the stages?

Question

Could a slower or smaller rocket take advantage of lift if all the stages had wings?

Could the stages reduce splashdown impact forces by using a spinning seedpod-like design (as shown in the image below)?

Seed pods twirling to the ground

^{Source: Keith Blenman blogpost}

SpaceX BFR

^{Source: SpaceX via Wikimedia, public domain}

X-37B

^{Source: xairforces.net}

Baikal flyback booster with second stage
The flyback wing is stowed above and parallel to the fuselage

^{Source: Russian Foundation for Advanced Studies (FPI) via russianspaceweb}

After what point are wings not useful on the number of rocket stages, size or weight?

Answer 1

Though it seems noöne has spun an entire rocket stage to slow it, something similar has been tried. The long-defunct Rotary Rocket company was developing the Roton™ reüsable single-stage-to-orbit launcher that would use helicopter-like blades to slow and land. A bit more info on it can be found on Wikipedia.

^{Alan Radecki via Wikimedia Commons, GFDL / CC BY-SA 3.0}

Not present in the photo above, the rotor blades were attached to the dome at the top and folded flush against the fuselage during ascent. Prior to reëntry the blades would fold back to a low-drag configuration. After reëntry, the blades would move to a horizontal orientation and be spun up (I believe) using thrusters on the blade tips (the cap and blades would spin and the fuselage would stay stationary). The craft would then fly as a helicopter (under autorotation) to a controlled landing.

There are some much better images here (under "Photo Gallery" and "Image Gallery") but they don't appear to be licensed for reüse.

Answer 2

Could a slower or smaller rocket take advantage of lift if all the stages had wings?

Wings on the first stage can be useful; the Pegasus air-launched rocket has wings on its first stage that provide some lift.

In most cases wings aren't worth using on orbital launchers; they add drag and weight that usually isn't compensated for by lift. Wings on upper stages are very unlikely to be beneficial.

Answer 3

Vertically launched rockets need thrust (force in the direction of motion), not lift (force perpendicular to it). Wings can only provide lift and drag (force against the direction of motion), and a vertically launched rocket needs neither of those things. What an orbital rocket does need is speed so the less drag the better.

Answer 4

The rocket passes through the dense layers of the atmosphere in the first tens of seconds after launch. Further, these wings are ineffective. Baikal (on render) is a reusable rocket plane. Most of the time being in dense layers of the atmosphere.

Answer 5

Assuming the goal is the Earth orbit (the outcome could be different for Mars), the kinetic energy in a low orbit is about 30 MJ/kg. There is little use to lift a rocket to the, say, 20 km level using air-breathing engines and wings in order to supply 0.2 MJ/kg of potential energy before starting the rocket motors.

Also the initial kinetic energy (e.g. 1 % for an initial speed of 10 % of the orbital speed) would not even compensate the extra structural weight necessary on the part of the rocket to accept and spread the lift force, which is orthogonal to the inertial force with rocket thrust. This aspect is less important for small rockets.

To minimize gravity drag (lost acceleration in vertical direction before reaching orbital speed), a rocket accelerates rapidly, thus spending only few seconds in any speed range wings could be designed for. This aspect is less important for manned rockets (limited acceleration).