Project Black Horse
Concept Led By: Air Force/NASA
Companies Involved: Just The U.S. Government
Project Black Horse or well, just Black Horse, was one of the more unique spacecraft designs at the time of its proposal. Black Horse was essentially studying a proposed winged single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane that would use aerial refueling. The idea of this would be to massively reduce the size of the spacecraft, which would allow it to be roughly the size of an F-16 Fighting Falcon. The United States Air Force was actually behind Black Horse’s design, specifically Captain Mitchell Burnside Clapp. Funny names aside, the Captain was very familiar with aerial refueling concepts as it was employed often in the Air Force to extend combat aircraft performance.
Several others worked on the design, including a smaller model that Robert Zubrin came up with, which he named the Black Colt. The initial proposal for Black Horse came in 1993 but Captain Clapp would leave the Air Force by 1996. Upon his departure, he teamed up with Zubrin to form Pioneer Rocketplane. This unit then proposed a slightly larger version of the Black Horse spacecraft, which they called “Pathfinder.” The Black Horse design seems to be one of the most well-liked among those proposing new spacecraft designs to NASA. Several others have taken from Black Horse to develop their own proposals, including a design by Rocketplane Global Inc.