X15/B52 (blusct)_v_bw_o_n (1961, unnumbered Ford Motor Co., Aeronutronic Div. photo)
“THE BLUE SCOUT rocket tucked beneath its fuselage, the X-15 leaves the B-52 aircraft below at 50,000 feet, and climbs toward an altitude of 156,000 feet, where it will launch the Blue Scout. The new recoverable space booster concept proposed by Ford Motor Company’s Aeronutronic Division and North American Aviation’s Los Angeles Division would enable the Air Force to launch the Blue Scout payload on both probe or orbital missions and recover the first stage B-52 and second stage X-15.”
Odd for manned aircraft, radically different from each other, to be referred to as “stages” of a launch system. And that they’re recoverable. Well, I should think/hope so.
As I have no interest in Blue Scout, I didn’t know it was also recoverable, interesting.
www.astronautix.com/x/x-15bluescout.html
Credit: Astronautix website
Due to the novel proposal, plenty to be found online. The following contains a portion of the image, as part of a montage which includes the flight profile, at:
books.google.com/books?id=reEDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA114&l...
Credit: Google Books website
X15/B52 (blusct)_v_bw_o_n (1961, unnumbered Ford Motor Co., Aeronutronic Div. photo)
“THE BLUE SCOUT rocket tucked beneath its fuselage, the X-15 leaves the B-52 aircraft below at 50,000 feet, and climbs toward an altitude of 156,000 feet, where it will launch the Blue Scout. The new recoverable space booster concept proposed by Ford Motor Company’s Aeronutronic Division and North American Aviation’s Los Angeles Division would enable the Air Force to launch the Blue Scout payload on both probe or orbital missions and recover the first stage B-52 and second stage X-15.”
Odd for manned aircraft, radically different from each other, to be referred to as “stages” of a launch system. And that they’re recoverable. Well, I should think/hope so.
As I have no interest in Blue Scout, I didn’t know it was also recoverable, interesting.
www.astronautix.com/x/x-15bluescout.html
Credit: Astronautix website
Due to the novel proposal, plenty to be found online. The following contains a portion of the image, as part of a montage which includes the flight profile, at:
books.google.com/books?id=reEDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA114&l...
Credit: Google Books website