On Fri, 4 Apr 2003, Pierce Nichols wrote:
> a) a significant amount of the total thrust should be produced by the
> expansion of the gasses against the spike. Other than direct measurement,
> this can be inferred from careful observation of the plume and/or
> demonstration of performance characteristics that indicate that this is the
> case. To my mind, this is the definition of an aerospike -- other
> properties and advantages flow from this.
Technically, for it to be an *aero*spike, the spike must be truncated, and
after the wake closes, there must be some thrust contribution from base
pressure (the exhaust gas expanding against the virtual spike formed by
the trapped gas).
Henry Spencer
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