Re:If Rockets Were Transparent [video]
by Ididntdothis on Friday May 15, 2020 @10:32AM
(#23192604)
It looked like a falling brick when it landed. The angle it came down at was incredibly steep.
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A fun little talk that describes the whole process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb4prVsXkZU
Aw man, I went to go find this to link it, got caught up in watching it again, and by the time I got back you had beaten me to it...
Slightly less steep than the landing angle of an actual brick though.
Edit: glide slope is the word I was looking for.
Really love this paragraph on the Shuttle Training Aircraft wikipedia page.
To match the descent rate and drag profile of the real Shuttle at 37,000 feet (11,300 m), the main landing gear of the C-11A was lowered (the nose gear stayed retracted due to wind load constraints) and engine thrust was reversed. Its flaps could deflect upwards to decrease lift as well as downwards to increase lift.
Really drives home how you need to drag any normal airplane kicking and screaming into a regime where itβs as bad at staying in the air as the shuttle was :)
Re:If Rockets Were Transparent [video]
by Ididntdothis on Friday May 15, 2020 @10:50AM
(#23192837)
I watched it come down over Orlando and it looked like this could never work out. Much steeper than any airplane I have ever seen.