Convair's flying Wing
- Thread starter Bill-Higdon
- Start date
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pwood66889
Well-Known Member
Isn't that "deployable wings" kinda what Rutan used on the SpaceShip 1?
Sort of ...
Rutan's space ships have fixed wings but tail surfaces that can be rotated almost 90 degrees up, aligning wings almost 90 degrees off the relative wind. This creates so much aerodynamic drag that the wings are stalled and it can never descend fast enough to overheat.
Aesquire
Well-Known Member
The Shuttlecock solution to heat.
One Skylab escape system proposal used a big balloon, with such a high drag to weight ratio that it would not heat up too much. Keep in mind you hit the upper atmosphere at more or less Mach 24. ( after reentry rocket burn ) IIRC it was heavier than the "plastic bag you fill with foam" alternative, so they never did a full scale test from orbit. Then they never did a full scale test on the Bag o Foam. Then they never did a full scale test on the Escape Capsule... Or used any of them. Just park an old school manned meteorite Soyuz capsule on Stations.
The International expensive...
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The joyride cheapie...
www.defensetech.org
There was a time I'd have volunteered to be the Second manned successful test subject for that early one. Doubt my back would enjoy it today.
Rutan's Spaceship One solution has too low a drag/mass ratio for orbital reentry, but is nearly perfect for just falling from space from essentially a dead stop.
One Skylab escape system proposal used a big balloon, with such a high drag to weight ratio that it would not heat up too much. Keep in mind you hit the upper atmosphere at more or less Mach 24. ( after reentry rocket burn ) IIRC it was heavier than the "plastic bag you fill with foam" alternative, so they never did a full scale test from orbit. Then they never did a full scale test on the Bag o Foam. Then they never did a full scale test on the Escape Capsule... Or used any of them. Just park an old school manned meteorite Soyuz capsule on Stations.
The International expensive...
NASA’s X-38: Designed to Be a Real World Space Escape Pod
The craft was meant not as a “space taxi” to get crews to and from the ISS, but rather was simply meant as a lifeboat to get folks back to earth. It was small enough to have fit into the payload bay of the shuttle and would have been semi-permanently docked to the ISS
The joyride cheapie...
“Deadlies” Nominee: Inflatable Space Pod
Nominated by Richard R. The Deadlies, our contest to find the most insanely-dangerous gear of all time, is well under way. A bunch of folks have already
There was a time I'd have volunteered to be the Second manned successful test subject for that early one. Doubt my back would enjoy it today.
Rutan's Spaceship One solution has too low a drag/mass ratio for orbital reentry, but is nearly perfect for just falling from space from essentially a dead stop.
So long as you remember to light the dethermalizer fuse 
