Just a little more information:<br /><br />It is a 12 page report on the air launch exepreiment, and it is only moderately technical and probably readable by everyone on these discussion boards. There plenty of charts and pictures to help explain the experiment and results. The report seems fairly honest, including issues regarding scaling this up to actual booster size.<br /><br />Couple of interesting points that caught my eye:<br /><br />"<i><font color="yellow">Special thanks to NASA for funding this demonstration only 3 weeks after the concept was explained to them.</font>/i>" Wow! That is a very fast turn-around time for any government organization. NASA can be nimble.<br /><br />"<i><font color="yellow">The t/LAD launch concept was conceived on 29 December 2004 and the first 23% scale flight test occurred only 4 1?2 months later.</font>/i>" Wow! 4.5 months from concept to funding and air drop tests. Hmm. How long were the X-37 and X-38 funded for?<br /><br />"<i><font color="yellow">launched from either a modified 747 airliner or from a custom aircraft to be designed and built by Scaled Composites</font>/i>" Just a hunch, but I bet the custom aircraft by scaled would also be able to launch a larger SpaceShip Two being developed for Virgin Galactic.</i></i></i>
A video made by me about space and the loneliness in the universe
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram