Saturday, April 25, 2020

Strap In. Take Off.


11 comments:

  1. It never took off, it was always dropped from a B-52. Notice that the main gear are skids not wheels for a very good reason, guess what that reason is?

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  2. Better to slow it down after landing?

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  3. The gear would melt on re-entry.

    And the pilot wore a space suit because at some point, your blood would boil if you didn't. I was speaking with an F-15 driver and he discussed that problem. The F-15's ceiling was where it was not because the aircraft couldn't go higher - the pilot couldn't.

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    Replies
    1. Conventional gear would indeed melt. Plus, it weighs a lot. Simple skids overall weigh so much less and take up so much less room.

      You see this in some fighter designs. The Me-163 being the only working fighter using skids for landing gear, dropping off the wheeled launch cradle after taking off (and hopefully not getting shot down by the launch cradle bouncing back up into the plane.0

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    2. What LL was saying was the ceiling of the F-15 Eagle is restricted by the meat puppet's survival and support equipment. Given a suit and life support like in the X-15 or the SR-71, the F-15 would be able to reach quite a bit higher.

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  4. PPS, lots of good video and images of the X-15 on the net. Neil Armstrong one of the test pilots for example.

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  5. PPPS, mach 6.7, I think the SR71 went close to that speed.

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  6. I have correspondence between my grandfather and Scott Crossfield on engineering issues with the X-15. They both worked for North American Aviation. Crossfield as a pilot and my grandfather as shot caller regarding engineering issues.

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