Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!ima!think!craig
From: craig@think.COM (Craig Stanfill)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Soviet and American Shuttles
Message-ID: <29318@think.UUCP>
Date: 17 Oct 88 12:52:37 GMT
References: <1574@nunki.usc.edu> <3020@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> <1703@eos.UUCP> <2008@kalliope.rice.edu>
Sender: news@think.UUCP
Reply-To: craig@kulla.think.com.UUCP (Craig Stanfill)
Distribution: sci.space.shuttle,sci.space
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 23

>   I've never seen a brick flare and land softly.  It may require a
>large amount of thrust to make it sustain altitude or climb, but it
>doesn't have to be flying extremely fast.

It doesn't require thrust to sustain altitude or climb, it requires
VEOLCITY.  At Mach 18, a brick is quite capable of sustaining,
climbing, or doing anything it wants to, provided it can be
controlled.  Landing is a bit more constrained:

1)	Your brick must be controllable.
2)	The velocity needed for the brick to sustain altitude 
	(or nearly so) must be slow enough to permit landing.
3)	Your brick must be able to reach this level-flight velocity by 
	gliding.
4)	The brick needs to be able to pull out of the glide.

These constraints are not incredibly difficult to meet.

					- Craig Stanfill