Message posted by Fuel Fraction, on May 02, 2002 at 18:15:36 PST:
Hi Wolbane, This new pressure suit you mentionned, pressurized to 8-psi, and which would eliminate pre-breath for (potential) Mach 3 fighter missions, If is is indeed pressurized, and i am not a doctor nor a specialist of flight physiology, but, would that be sufficient pressure to overcome the dangers of hypoxia and death at such high altitudes...? I once thought as part of my research on Aurora, or whatever code name the hypersonic black project aircraft is now called, to find statistics on the total number of David Clark pressure suits that had been built and allocated to the F-15 crews, B-52 crews, Space Shuttle astronauts, and so on. And then, to deduct the "extra" number of suits, to try to get a rought estimate of how many "Aurora's" there are around... The Lockheed ATF proposal you said, Mach 2.8. I had made a drawing of that aircraft, based on his description. I do not know however if it was really highly swept. It might have had only a moderate sweep angle, like I don't remember if he said it had been built or cancelled. I think since it was an ATF proposal against the B-2 from Northrup (still... the shape he described could be like that of a Mach 3 aircraft....). Fuel Fraction.
would that be a 100% USAF design, or something the David-Clark company developed for them...?
A pressurized suit also makes movements difficult and wearing the suit bulky, and uncomfortable (which it is not, already (comfortable), when unpressurized).
(i doubt they would have answered my little statistical query though).
Do you mean the one that was designed by Gene Salvay..?
I made it as a slender, very swept delta. With an entirely articulated single T-tail configuration.
I do not know why they had chosen that strange configuration for the directionnal control of the aircraft. I thought this might have been due to stealth reasons...?
To hide the whole tail section over the fuselage, thus, making it invisible from radar on the ground in front and under the aircraft.
While adding a large, entirely mobile controle surface, to compensate for the blanketing effect of the fuselage on the tail.
B-2, or a TR-3/Sneaky Pete/Model 100/Dorito A-12 type aircraft.
That was just my interpretation, based on recent release of that (supersonic?) highly swept delta (but tailless)Lockheed (as yet, unamed), a couple years ago.
(ooops.... you mean ATF...? Not ATB.....??)
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