On Tue, 6 Jul 2004, Sean R. Lynch wrote:
>Seems like this might shift the economics of wings for spacecraft a bit,
>especially for any craft that spends a lot of its flight profile in the
>atmosphere. I'm referring more to the wave drag elimination...
Unfortunately, at least the first-generation designs are likely to be
optimized for one particular Mach number. That is, like airbreathing
propulsion, it's really suited more to a cruising vehicle than an
accelerating vehicle.
I suspect the main near-term practical impact for spacecraft would be
widespread availability of commercial supersonic aircraft as air-launch
carrier vehicles.
Henry Spencer
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