Michael Lorrey wrote:
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010418/aponline201905_000.htm
>
> NASA unveils X-43A scramjet research vehicle...
>
> "None of the X-43As will be recovered from the ocean, officials said."
>
> Since they've already made this declaration, these test vehicles may
> therefore be legally salvagable, without having to deal with the sort of
> BS that the Navy uses to prevent salvors of its sunken WWII aircraft.
A) These things are of little value for a real propulsion system. (A
coworker went to their press conference at Dryden where the PR flack
spoke glowingly of commercial spaceflight in "30 or 40 years." Hot
Damn, I'm impressed.)
B) They'll be of even less value after getting severely roasted at Mach
8+, then hitting the ocean at around mach 1- no recovery system means NO
RECOVERY SYSTEM. At those speeds, hydrobraking is indistinguishable
from lithobraking.
Yet another porkbarrel project brought to you by NASA and the usual
suspects. Sigh.
(And Netscape's spellchecker suggests "procurable" in place of
"porkbarrel". Somebody there has a sense of humor.)
-- Doug Jones, Rocket Plumber
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