Re: DC-X/Y tail-heavy?


"Pat Flannery" <flanner@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:12kvictbsmeaj0d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Make a virtue of necessity and go with the plug-nozzle like used on
ROMBUS/Pegasus:
http://www.abo.fi/~mlindroo/SpaceLVs/Slides/sld008.htm
http://www.abo.fi/~mlindroo/SpaceLVs/Slides/sld012.htm
The center of your plug-nozzle is your heatshield, and it can be actively
cooled with left-over cryogenic propellants during reentry.

Well, yeah, but ... there's not much experience with such things. Would it
really work?
I can't see how it's ok to leave the thrust chamber(s) hanging out in the
wind, regardless
of the bow shock out front. Don't discontinuities anywhere on a hypersonic
body give rise
to new shock waves, local heating, etc?

Here in California, some students flew an aerospike sounding rocket a few
years ago. I
believe that's the only flight experience anywhere with aerospikes/plugs.
Has
anyone anywhere has tested an entry body based on these principles, even in
a wind tunnel?
Sure would be nice if the ideas were practical, though.


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