Because most people who have studied this know that designs for
airbreathing to orbit never close.
On 2019-05-26 11:46, Craig Fink wrote:
Yeah, I agree, NASP most definitely had the wrong approach if they
thought flying low and fast with a dynamic pressure of 2700 psi was
the way to Orbit. Better to fly high with a low "Equivalent Airspeed"
that continues to decrease all the way to Orbit. Almost universally,
research in this area is more about weapons development and not
developing a cargo vehicle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockwell_X-30
On Sun, May 26, 2019 at 10:28 AM Henry Spencer
<hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
As witness NASP, trying to airbreathe almost all the way to orbit,
which
ended up -- even just on paper -- needing close to 14km/s of delta-V
just
to reach LEO.
Not to mention little engineering challenges like a peak dynamic
pressure
of 2700psf (supersonic at sea level is 2200), and a need to
circulate
high-pressure LH2 through the skin for cooling.
At Mach 15, the atmosphere is not your friend.
Bad Attitude! At Mach 15+ the atmosphere had better be your friend.
--
Craig Fink
WeBeGood@xxxxxxxxx
