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- 17 January 2006
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They flight tested LAPOT and other lifting body reentry vehicles like our X-20 in the 1960's. Their 50/50: TSTO design looked almost identical to the French Star', but the lower stage is said to have flown to Mach 6 in 1975. They flew the Buran Shuttle unmanned in 1989, but may never bother to man it.
flateric said:worth to look
http://orbicraft.livejournal.com/23487.html#cutid1
http://orbicraft.livejournal.com/23173.html#cutid1
Michel Van said:for those don't know "Doppelganger"
its Gerry Anderson first Sci-Fi Movie with real Actors
DOVE is a VTOL SSTO (crew 2 men)
here as Landingcraft of interplanetary manned probe PHOENIX
launch by "European Space Exploration Council"
the design is from Derek Meddings
for the movie they build next to scale model
DOVE and its Hanger in PHOENIX in real size !
http://www.cloudster.com/Sets&Vehicles/Doppleganger/DopplegangerTop.htm
archipeppe said:The UFO tv series was, actually, a spin-off of this movie.
Andersons wanted to recycle, as much as possible, the expensive sets done for the movie and...voilà, UFO series was born.
Considering that even Space 1999 was a sort of spin-off for UFO, the movie Doppelganger has generated at least two of most popular (in Europe) series ever done.
airrocket said:Seems the Russian were very much into the air launch or air drop concepts. To bad they came up short on funds I think they would have driven a transition to true access to space.
Orionblamblam said:Starting off by working on just about the most difficult and expensive method possible of attaining orbit is not a good approach.
airrocket said:I think Rutan and WK1 and WK2 demo that its not that much harder or more expensive to do winged palnforms.
Rutan has done it manned from the very start something I doubt booster based concepts would attempt.
airrocket said:I think Rutan and WK1 and WK2 demo that its not that much harder or more expensive to do winged palnforms.
And/or expensive.blackstar said:But there's the simple fact that although a lot of winged spacecraft have been proposed, very few have been built. That seems like pretty strong evidence that they are difficult to do.
Orionblamblam said:Many X-Prize competitors were going to try. Rutan picked a winged vehicle. Had he chosen a rocket booster, I've no doubt that he would have made the second stage manned, since that was the whole point.
blackstar said:Where did you photograph that?
Orionblamblam said:airrocket said:I think Rutan and WK1 and WK2 demo that its not that much harder or more expensive to do winged palnforms.
The metric is to compare equivalent first stages. In other words, the WK can drag the SS to X altitude and Y airspeed. What sort of rocket booster could do the same job? No, if you then decides to up the performance of the system, what's easier... makign the WK bigger, or stretching the booster? Recovery of th3e winged vehicle is very likely easier. But a Kistler approach with Rogallo wings could narrow that gap.