4 ms·
The major savings is in exponentially less air to go through, so you can do more aggressive gravity turn so you have less gravity losses. And he didn't even ad
by hoseja 4y ago
The major savings is in exponentially less air to go through, so you can do more aggressive gravity turn so you have less gravity losses.
And he didn't even address the reentry questions, both of which are actually plausible - if you somehow have the fuel to drastically reduce your orbital velocity, you're suddenly no different than a sounding rocket, indeed not needing a heat shield. And if you cleverly slow down your reentry over many orbits, it can be very gentle.
- SonicScrub 4y agoThe benefits of the "exponentially less air" diminish once you have to slap an aerosurface on the vehicle (added weight + drag) to perform the pitch up maneuver Coupled with the fact that on deployment the vehicle is gaining velocity in the wrong direction until the engines ignite, accelerate forwards, and the vehicle begins the turn. The theoretical benefits of air launch quickly fade away given these practical realities. Nevermind the much more complex operations that comes with air launch. There's a reason why air launch has more or less died as an idea. The theoretical savings don't typically manifest once the additional complexities are accounted for.