And She (Finally) Flies!

Fixing What's Broken - And Nothing Else!

Analysis from the Flight Computers's Black Boxes revealed that while rotating at VR the forces induced by the tail's stabilisers over the main gears essentially projected the whole (fabulous) weight of the craft into only two of gears, exceeding the maximum Pounds Per Squared Inch for the Runway by tons.

Calculations and Wind Tunnel tests suggested that better Canards should be used, allowing a better fine tuned control of their elevons to allow them to have more authority over the craft over rotation, what would mitigate some of the pressure induced by the rear stabilisers over the main gears.

It was also calculated that the best VR speed would be 60m/s, also as a measure to prevent too much parasitic downlift that started to be induced when the gears were raised by 5 feet on the 2nd prototype. But 60m/s, while plausible, is too near the stall speed of the craft and was considered too dangerous.

So it was decided that ~~MOAR BOOSTERS~~ ... err... a pair of BACC "Thumper" SLBs will be added to add an extra 500 kN of trust on that critical VR phase: firing up the boosters after starting the rotate will add that extra oomph needed to prevent a stall on the lower airspeeds needed to mitigate the risks of blowing up the Runway.

Of course, adding dead weight for the whole journey after the solid fuel was depleted would be counter-economical so Bill staged the boosters to be ejected and recovered once their job is finished.

The Fab4 Team (Bill, Jeb, Val & Bob) were selected for the (hopefully) Maiden Flight - as, mysteriously, the whole KSC staff fell under a suspicious Flu outbreak that hit the Flying Staff - and only the Flying Staff.