John Carmack wrote:
A thought occurred to me today -- the X-15 is usually held up as the best example of reusable space transport actually fielded. The vehicle lands like an aircraft, but the lower fin is jettisoned before landing and recovered by parachute. A vehicles turnaround time is limited by the most difficult things to recover / refurbish, so parachutes didn't seem to critically harm the cycle time. Anyone know how many fins were lost? I know at least one was jettisoned very low.
If I recall correctly, the ventral fin was not installed on some later flights when it was found that hypersonic stability was more than sufficient. This reduced the turnaround logistics some.
An amusing history note- I was doing my laundry at the one coin laundry in Mojave, and the guy who operates the place was cleaning up before closing. Back in the 60's he ran a convenience store in North Edwards, on Hwy 58 just off base. He said that a USAF major working on X-15 would tell him the evening before about most flights, and the %*&#@$ ventral fin often landed in the power lines and cut the lights in his store. Truth is stranger than fiction...
--
Doug Jones
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