10-10-2016, 10:37 PM
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Master Modeler
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
Posts: 6,507
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tbzep
How does it compare to the early designs before everybody wanted it to tote a Greyhound bus full of lead?
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The USAF spaceplane designs that are under study (the X-37B is the first to become flying hardware) are smaller than the Phase B (winged booster with winged orbiter) Space Shuttle designs, and they are unpiloted. The designs that I've seen in various Space Daily and Spaceflight Now articles have delta-winged boosters (usually without flyback jet engines; they would land on downrange runways) and orbiters with configurations similar to the X-37B's. A few years ago UP Aerospace launched a model of one of the booster designs from their SpaceLoft rocket's rail launcher (there are photos of it on their website: http://www.upaerospace.com/ ); it resembled the McDonnell Douglas Phase B booster, having small delta wings with tip fins at the rear and canards up front. This long-range development program is referred to as a "System of systems" approach, in which multiple booster and orbiter designs are being analyzed.
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