Re: How Rockets Differ From Jets

"tomcat" <jlavine@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

:Fred J. McCall wrote:
:> :One of the nice things about a hypersonic plane is that winds have
:> :little affect on it. A mach 15 airflow is so much greater than a
:> :measly 200 knot wind that it is scarcely felt.
:>
:> There is a big difference between 'rigid airship' and 'hypersonic
:> plane'. Pick one.
:>
:> :Not to mention the 5 million pounds of thrust an 11 SSME engine
:> :spaceplane would have.
:>
:> And I'm sure the magic would be a big helper, too.
:>
:> :Military jet pilots rarely feel the weather in the newer fighter
:> :aircraft. The one exception is when they are flying slow to land or
:> :takeoff.
:>
:> Know a lot of military jet pilots, do you? I do and they worry a LOT
:> about winds aloft.
:
:Nothing magical about a SSME. Rocketdyne makes them. They work. They
:produce 450,000 pounds of thrust each at sea level, 500,000 pounds of
:thrust each in Space.

I don't see any spaceplanes using 11 of them flying to Venus today.
Perhaps you do?

:They call me "pedal to the metal" for a reason. I don't slow down for
:thunderheads, or try to go around them. Sometimes I'm referred to as
:the "what me worry? guy". I don't worry much.

"There are old pilots and there are bold pilots. There are no old
bold pilots."

:A good spaceplane would be a combination of extremely light materials,
:like carbon nanotube fabric, and . . . vacuum. It just might float.

In which case it is not acting as a spaceplane and will be in pieces
from forces hitting it from the wrong directions.

Engineering ain't magic, Tomcat.

--
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable
man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore,
all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
--George Bernard Shaw
.