Posted on 03/05/2006 7:23:35 PM PST by anymouse
sailing the dirac sea, are we?
To build a TSTO system in record time, you would throw out the ability to glide back in for a landing. Instead, you'd use an Apollo-era parachute recovery.
In fact, you'd use off-the-shelf technology as much as possible. You'd re-use existing carrier aircraft, existing orbital engines, parachute recovery, avionics, propellant, etc.
Such a classified system wouldn't be seen over Salt Lake City, either.
Wow.
I immediately think of the silent heroes on this project if it was indeed as operational as the article implies. I hope that one day their names are known and that nobody was killed on this project.
No, but if you were going to recover it at sea there would be thousands of witnesses (on the carrier, the destroyers, helicopters, etc), and there is absolutely no way in the world that you could keep it secret.
Not to mention the fact that a vehicle reentering the atmosphere blows a huge hole in the sky, and that would be noticeable all over the world.
Not buying it.
"Dr. Sänger, please pick up the red courtesy phone....."
Art Bell is to busy with fake global warming to be talking
about anything interesting.
The B-52 was also studied as a launch platform for the X-20:
Regardless of whether or not this hypothetical TSTO was actually built, the basic idea continues, such as the Andrews Space "Peregrine" aircraft-based launch system:
And the X-42 demonstrator, capable of lobbing either a military CAV, or as a reusable first stage for smallsat launch:
The XB-70 was too good a plane to entirely disappear, and it didnt, it just went black.
But the whole thing is silly. The United States has no enemies that need spying on and no need at all for classified weapons programs. None. Never had.
Heh heh...
> To build a TSTO system in record time, you would throw out the ability to glide back in for a landing. Instead, you'd use an Apollo-era parachute recovery.
Ah, no. To build a TSTO like this in record time, you'd throw out the bureaocrats. You'd use Marines and Special Forces to guard the engineers and techs, shooting on sight anyone with so much as a whiff of red tape about them.
No, I meant what I said. You'd throw out feel-good ego options such as "glided recovery."
A TSTO craft doesn't need wings, just a parachute.
> A TSTO craft doesn't need wings, just a parachute.
Rather depends on the mission. If you intend to recover it from roughly where you launched it (if it's a one-orbit recon or bombardment bird), you need a recoverable second stage with good hypersonic L/D. You might use parachutes for terminal recovery, but you'd still used a lifting vehicle for crossrange. for a vehicle liek this, drag anjd size constraints are goign to drive the second stage towards being relatively long and thin; and that geometry right there gains you somethign in hypersonic lift. Wings or a lifting fuselage are a relatively small addition at that point.
"And I never saw either of the SR-71's that weren't there in 67 take off at night."
I'm puzzled. What does that have to do with the space plane? Everyone in Okinawa knew about the Habus based at Kadena.
No, wings or a lifting body add weight and complexity to the process...something that you would forego if you were in a hurry or on a budget...simply because you don't need to glide, you just need a parachute (which can land precisely where you want it).
 NASA / Reuters
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The XB-70 had the IR signature of a supernova, with a radar signature to match. You're just not going to fly that thing at speed with nobody noticing. It was a beautiful plane, but it was obsolete almost as soon as it was built.
Furthermore, the Dynasoar program didn't go black either. It was cancelled. I know one of the engineers that worked on that project. That bird was never built.
If you only knew what's going on in the AG field...as to the MEG/zero point energy field, the problem is PEOPLE, you don't just give whole atomic bombs worth of energy to everyone...Actually, back in the 1980's a small slice of the aerospace community had the EMSL concepts all worked out(ElectroMagnetic Space Launch). The best idea was the quenched superconducting rings that got the sabot/10 kg projectile up to 5 mps in a 300' to 500' cannon-length. You probably don't know that one pound in LEO is worth(mv^2/2 + mgh)all of 4 KWH, about 40 cents at 10 cents/KWH. That's 16 times cheaper than a 39 cent stamp for a 1 ounce letter. NASA charges $20,000+ to deliver that same # to LEO. Thus in the late 80s the USSR collapsed, and with it SDI/star wars funding...and NASA killed EMSL, no business(esp with such a horrendous mark-up)ever funds the competition.
WTF????
bump
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