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MaggieL · 07-10-2002, 11:06 AM

The aircraft looks a bit like the very early concept drawings for the XB-70 and space shuttle. It's what's called a "boost glider"; and it's not a jet at all. The rocket booster gets it up high and fast, and then the glider detaches.

<blockquote><i> The model will piggy-back on a 10 meter (almost 33 foot) rocket at 2450 kmh (1,522 mph), detaching from the booster 18 km (11 miles) above the earth and gliding back down at over twice the speed of sound. The test will take a total of 15 minutes.... The scientists, sponsored by Japan's government-funded National Aerospace Laboratory (NAL), plan to put the engine-less 11.5 meter (almost 38-foot) long scale model through its paces in a rocket-propelled test in Australia's desert on Thursday.
</i></blockquote>http://asia.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiap...eut/index.html

What they're trying to do is produce a supersonic airframe with minimal moise. That would be nice....and would solve a lot of the current operational problems that the Concorde has.

I don't think you''ll see any passenger applications of this technology within the next 15 years.

07-10-2002, 11:06 AM	#5
MaggieL in the Hour of Scampering Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Jeffersonville PA (15 mi NW of Philadelphia) Posts: 4,060	The aircraft looks a bit like the very early concept drawings for the XB-70 and space shuttle. It's what's called a "boost glider"; and it's not a jet at all. The rocket booster gets it up high and fast, and then the glider detaches. <blockquote><i> The model will piggy-back on a 10 meter (almost 33 foot) rocket at 2450 kmh (1,522 mph), detaching from the booster 18 km (11 miles) above the earth and gliding back down at over twice the speed of sound. The test will take a total of 15 minutes.... The scientists, sponsored by Japan's government-funded National Aerospace Laboratory (NAL), plan to put the engine-less 11.5 meter (almost 38-foot) long scale model through its paces in a rocket-propelled test in Australia's desert on Thursday. </i></blockquote>http://asia.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiap...eut/index.html What they're trying to do is produce a supersonic airframe with minimal moise. That would be nice....and would solve a lot of the current operational problems that the Concorde has. I don't think you''ll see any passenger applications of this technology within the next 15 years. __________________ "Neither can his Mind be thought to be in Tune,whose words do jarre; nor his reason In frame, whose sentence is preposterous..."