Blackstar XOV: Wind tunnel model photos?

cheers, I thought the premise sounded familiar. Good luck to both of you. The MC books have been a greeta series so far so I look forward to the publication of both these volumes.

Originally posted by waynos
Good luck to both of you.

Thanks. Mine is several years away... writing is a secondary line of work (day job is aerospace engineering - solid rocket ballistics). So Buttlers book is virtually assured to come out well in advance of mine, which would allow me to tweak mine to non-compete. Competition is generally a good thing, but redundant information does not sell well.

What'd be hilarious would be if I were to actually dig up the dirt on the "X-151," find that it was actually relevant for the Bomber Project book, include that information... and then watch people get all snippy because I make models. Snort.

Anyway, discussion of these photos elsewhere has suggested a possibility for the grids on the back: a large cluster of small, square-cross-section rocket engines. Square engines are obviously a bad idea from a structural standpoint, but if you pack 'em together, some of the structural issue goes away. And by having a grid of small engines, the *length* of the total engine for the thrust produced is much shorter than for a single engine, and throttling can be carried out fairly easily with no loss in specific impulse. I'm not convinced, but it's an interesting thought.