Future Super Scale and Space Systems Competition Challenge

Link worked for me, waiting for the video... (pant, pant, pant)

David Erbas-White

shreadvector wrote:

What's curious is how they get the pointy end going up with the pull-out (?) drouge attached to the bottom ??!?!

Well, that was just an extraction test, but the angle you see is simply the result of the teeny drouge chute + the airspeed of the rocket as it leaves the C-17 + the angle of attack.

Yeah, I can sort of picture it.

Also had a picture in my mind of a 2-stripe'er harnessed to the C-17 hanging onto the the nose of the rocket imparting a mighty calibrated heave upwards around *that right moment*...

Motor ignition reliability looks like it'll need to be pretty key here. Obviously not a job for copperheads.

Too bad the C-17 can't climb like the F-15. IIRC, ASATs from the Eagle worked pretty good!

The C-17 can't climb like an F-15, but it sure handles much more like a fighter than a lumbering cargo plane. I've been on two long flights so far and both were amazing. The Edwards AFB flight had a copilot who was getting in some hours on the C-17 to keep up his required hours. He and the pilot were exchanging some interesting chat about how the C-17 could move compared to the F-15 that the copilot normally flew. They then really put the passengers and loadmaster through some amazing flying. The tactical descents are pretty cool, but the low level flying over the hilly desert in the hot summer afternoon was a turbulent ride. Even the loadmaster lost his lunch (or breakfast even though it was many hours later). They flew that baby real low.....

Back to the rocket thing: it also has a rotational velocity as it rolls out the back and the aft end drops. The teeny chute probably helps slow or stop that.

So I model the R/C C-17 and deploy the rocket and boost it for Space Systems ?

That would be really keen ;-)

Thanks for the link Fred.