GD/Heinemann Future Sub-Orbiter 1964

hesham said:
From Flight 1964.
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Archibald said:
Fantastic !
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Thanks, Hesham. It's too bad that Douglas Aircraft Company's famed designer Ed Heinemann (1908-1991) never did get the chance to design and build a hypersonic vehicle, following on from his successful D-558-2 rocket plane. As one can see from Hesham's cited 1964 article, he was hungry for the work. A two-stage-to-orbit reusable aerospacecraft (or, whisper it, single-stage-to-orbit) might have been a bridge too far for 1960s tech, whatever the budget, but if anybody could have accomplished that feat, it was Heinemann. In all aviation history, perhaps only designer Jiro Horikoshi (Mitsubishi Zero) is comparable to Heinemann for fastidious, ruthless attention to weight savings.
 

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