Re: Lift Assisted Launch Vehicles

In your letter dated Thu, 30 Jan 1992 12:46 CDT, you wrote:
>
> However, in my view, anything that is going to 'Fly' ie with wings and lift
> and not rockets pointing down, you HAVE to design it with COACC.  I sort of
> agree with Rob about the extra cost of the airframe, but I'm not really sure.
> The X-15 was a hypersonic airframe, and it could have handled re-entry if
> it came in slow enough.

There is a diagram of an X-15 flight profile in the proceedings of the
"30th anniversary of the first X-15 flight" conference that was held at the
NASA Dryden center a few years ago, which showed that the X-15 climbed above
99% of the atmosphere.  I suppose that qualifies for re-entry, although it
did not have orbital speed, and the heat would therefore have been less.

I agree with Scott, though, it really shouldn't matter to the players since
I would not expect them to own one.  Operate one, yes, but not own one.

Rob Dean