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Old 05-02-2017, 07:32 AM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
Posts: 6,507
Default *Scale* F9/FH B/G

Hello All,

SpaceX is now employing a model rocket boost-glider configuration to reduce the amount of rocket propellant that must be kept in reserve for the boost-back, re-entry, and landing engine burns of their Falcon 9 first stages (the two boosters of their "triple-barreled" Falcon Heavy launch vehicle will also utilize it). This method--which could also be adapted for use in flying scale Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy models (at various levels of scale realism and sophistication, depending on the model size and the budget & ambition of the builder)--works as follows:

There is a type of low-L/D boost-glider (B/G), called a tail-slider (see: http://web.archive.org/web/20071015...ealway/srrg.htm ), which consists of a long-bodied but otherwise ordinary model rocket that uses a recovery streamer. Because of its high fineness ratio (its length/diameter ratio, which is similar to that of "Superrocs" such as the Estes Cobra 1500 and Mean Machine) and the aerodynamic effects of its tail fins and deployed streamer, it assumes a nearly-horizontal, nose-high attitude, which causes it to glide while sliding backwards through the air, and:

As Reply #507 on this page of the NASASpaceFlight.com Forum says (see: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/in...topic=40328.500 , about halfway down the "screen-page"), SpaceX is--during launches in which this maneuver is practical--using the "tail-slider" boost-glide technique in order to bleed off much of the horizontal velocity of re-entering Falcon 9 first stages, so that the remaining onboard propellant can be utilized mostly for the vertical portion of the final descent. This will be particularly useful for the two boosters (strapped-on Falcon 9 first stages) of the Falcon Heavy, which will have appreciable downrange velocity when they separate from the core vehicle but must return to the launch site when flown in reusable mode. The propellant savings enabled by the boosters' "tail-slider" glide-back will permit the vehicle to orbit more payload mass than it could otherwise.

I hope this information will be useful.
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