kiessig@sri-unix (06/16/82)
Well, in a way you could say the "Rocket Planes" of the late
fifties and early sixties DID beat the "Rocket Ships" into space. In
August 1960, (I think the Vostok I Sputnik was launched April 12, 1961) Bob
White went up in the X-15 and set a new altitude record of 136,500 feet
(slightly more than 25 miles). The conditions had been almost precisely
those of space flight. He took the ship up in a ballistic arc, like the
Mecury-Redstone was supposed to go on. He experienced 5G's (astronauts
were to get 6G's). He was weightless for two minutes as he came over the
arc (astronauts were to get five minutes). The air is so thin at that
altitude, that there was no aerodynamic control. He landed the plane back
at Edwards, on the dry lake. [There is a good account of this whole story
in "The Right Stuff" by Tom Wolfe].
This strikes me as being very close to a shuttle-like operation.
Certainly we must have learned things from these missions 22 years ago
that have helped perfect the Shuttle.
If only we had gone on to the X-20 (the X-15 with the XLR-99
engine had 57,000 lbs. thrust, and finally made it to 354,200 ft.
[67 miles -- 17 miles into space] and 4,104 miles/hour [mach 5.92]).
The Mercury-Redstone had 78,000 lbs. The Mercury-Atlas had 280,000 lbs.
The X-20 was to have 2,800,000 lbs. of thrust, and would have taken a
man into orbit, allowing him to land anywhere he wanted. And this was
in 1963!! Imagine where we could be now had we followed that line
of research.....
Rick
P.S. Does anyone out there know what happened to the prototype X-20
that was being built by Boeing in 1963, before the project was
cancelled?