Just curious if the vehicle could be a "plane" with enough lift from
delta wings, or whether it was truly limited to a ballistic vehicle with controlled fall and a last minute ability to slow descent rate just
above runway? (do they even see the runway during that final flare up?)
The shuttle couldn't do level flight, except maybe in the hypersonic
portion of its flight.
But it wasn't ballistic, either. It was a
glider, but with a very poor glide slope in the subsonic portions.
On 2021-07-17 13:12, Snidely wrote:
The shuttle couldn't do level flight, except maybe in the hypersonic
portion of its flight.
Thanks. In a re-entry sequence, there would not have been any need for
level flight, but got curious if it could have had they wanted to.
But it wasn't ballistic, either. It was a
glider, but with a very poor glide slope in the subsonic portions.
This is partly why I got curious. At time of landing, it has bled off
most of its speed and yet still able to get its vertical speed down to
what an airlineer would have touching down on runway.
So was curious on whether at higher altitudes/speeds, its wings could
create lift to keep level flight or whether the wings act more like a parachute (drag for vertical speed) than a lift creating device.
Different question: did the shuttle have any cross range capacbility for forward speed? Or was the east west component dictated by when de-orbit
burn was done and the shuttle only had left/right cross range via its aerodynamic surfaces?
aka: if the shuttle kept its nose a bit more up during aerodynamic
phase, could it end up landing further east? or would doing so result
in faster bleeding of airspeed followed by faster descent rate and end
up touching ground at roughly same spot?
Remember Saturday, when JF Mezei asked plainitively:
On 2021-07-17 13:12, Snidely wrote:
The shuttle couldn't do level flight, except maybe in the hypersonic
portion of its flight.
Thanks. In a re-entry sequence, there would not have been any need for
level flight, but got curious if it could have had they wanted to.
But it wasn't ballistic, either. It was a glider, but with a very
poor glide slope in the subsonic portions.
This is partly why I got curious. At time of landing, it has bled off
most of its speed and yet still able to get its vertical speed down to
what an airlineer would have touching down on runway.
So was curious on whether at higher altitudes/speeds, its wings could
create lift to keep level flight or whether the wings act more like a
parachute (drag for vertical speed) than a lift creating device.
Different question: did the shuttle have any cross range capacbility for
forward speed? Or was the east west component dictated by when de-orbit
burn was done and the shuttle only had left/right cross range via its
aerodynamic surfaces?
aka: if the shuttle kept its nose a bit more up during aerodynamic
phase, could it end up landing further east? or would doing so result
in faster bleeding of airspeed followed by faster descent rate and end
up touching ground at roughly same spot?
There was no opportunity for a go-around. The kinetic energy was
managed very carefully. The flight path was just enough to get them to
the runway, with some margin for having to go around something like a thunderstorm cell (which could pop up after the go/no-go decision,
perhaps).
/dps
JF Mezei suggested that ...
[plot points skipped]
Just curious if the vehicle could be a "plane" with enough lift from
delta wings, or whether it was truly limited to a ballistic vehicle with
controlled fall and a last minute ability to slow descent rate just
above runway? (do they even see the runway during that final flare up?)
The shuttle couldn't do level flight, except maybe in the hypersonic
portion of its flight. But it wasn't ballistic, either. It was a glider, >but with a very poor glide slope in the subsonic portions. Push a brick
fast enough, and it will produce a significant amount of lift. The shuttle >was slightly better.
Watch some shuttle landings. The last mission just had a major
anniversary, and NASA TV reran a lot of video from the flight, but you >shouldn't have any trouble finding youtubes of other landings.
/dps
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