Both stages of an aerospace system, with a calculated mass of 115 tons, were simply attached, winged, wide-fuselage craft for horizontal takeoff and landing and multiple use. The system was designed according to a tailless lifting body design. The carrier was a 52 ton powerful aircraft booster which would accelerate to Mach 6 and separate, launching from its back at an altitude of 28 to 30 km, a 10 ton manned orbital aircraft 8 m long with a 7.4 m wing span. Only 3.4 m of this was the outer wing, and the remaining large part of the bearing surface was the width of the fuselage. This little bird was named EPOS (Experimental Manned Orbital Aircraft). It was attached to a tank of rocket fuel for insertion into orbit at hypersonic speed. The development of EPOS attracted great attention for aviation designers.
History of EPOS Air-Launched Spaceplane Project
1991
10 pages
Report
Keine Angabe
Englisch
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