Ships and planes in space.

[pyro-manic]

The X-15 was the first genuine spaceplane, albeit it needed a launch carrier

Now there's a thought - X-15 on top of a big booster for ground launches?

[steelpillow]

The X-15 was the first genuine spaceplane, albeit it needed a launch carrier

Now there's a thought - X-15 on top of a big booster for ground launches?

Would look good on the back of an XB-70 Valkyrie too. Wonder how much higher/faster that would get it than the B-52 drop.

[kerick]

I've always liked the Dynasoar. A lot whole bunch of these ready to launch as space interceptors would look very GA.

[PR19_Kit]

Would look good on the back of an XB-70 Valkyrie too. Wonder how much higher/faster that would get it than the B-52 drop.

Now THAT'S a neat idea, and I have both kits in The Loft too............ 

[Weaver]

An X-15 would look good slung under a B-58 too.

[Mossie]

The X-15 was the first genuine spaceplane, albeit it needed a launch carrier

Now there's a thought - X-15 on top of a big booster for ground launches?

Would look good on the back of an XB-70 Valkyrie too. Wonder how much higher/faster that would get it than the B-52 drop.

The X-15B would have been orbital.  Here's one of several proposed booster configurations, no less than four Titans:
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,230.0.html (more on this thread)


Saturn boosters:


And for steelpillow, something that looks very like a Valkyrie wing, albiet on the forward fuselage:

[PR19_Kit]

Woudn't an X-15 have been the wrong shape to return safely from orbit?

It had no heatshield as such and wasn't curved on the underside like the lifting body craft.

[jcf]

Launching from the back of a Valkyrie was proposed for the stretched delta-winged X-15.

[Mossie]

Woudn't an X-15 have been the wrong shape to return safely from orbit?

It had no heatshield as such and wasn't curved on the underside like the lifting body craft.

There's a good article here regarding the X-15's problems.  If I've understood correctly, the idea was to slow it down enough to enter the residual atmosphere, where it would quickly reach similar speeds to the X-15:
https://falsesteps.wordpress.com/2012/09/15/x-15b-shortcut-to-space/

[steelpillow]

Launching from the back of a Valkyrie was proposed for the stretched delta-winged X-15.

Brilliant! To think that some bureaucrat actually had sufficient Vogon blood in his ancestry to squash the idea. Anybody got any links?

[steelpillow]

Woudn't an X-15 have been the wrong shape to return safely from orbit?

It had no heatshield as such and wasn't curved on the underside like the lifting body craft.

The main shape requirement is to "pancake" down as flat-on as you can, with no sharp sticky-out bits. An X-15 falling underside-down would be a good shape to work with. The lifting bodies were if anything worse, having no wing area - the characteristic body shape is to do with flight at subsonic speeds when you have no wings - so if anything would have needed even more heat shielding.

The X-15 pioneered the use of what is called an ablative coating. It's basically a thick paint that heats up and falls off, carrying the heat away with it. It left a terrible mess behind as it blew back over the airframe, so they didn't like using it. I guess they could have resorted back to it. Another early idea, with I think the Dyna-soar but I could be wrong, was a jettisonable heat shield that sat underneath during re-entry and then got tossed away before landing.

[Captain Canada]

Ya, anything flat or wedge.

[PR19_Kit]

Hmm, does anyone do a conversion for that longer, delta X-15? Or would a set of Fairey FD2 wings do?

[steelpillow]

Hmm, does anyone do a conversion for that longer, delta X-15? Or would a set of Fairey FD2 wings do?

If you are into 1:144 scale resin kits you don't need to convert it: http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ANIG4007
They throw in a free Valkyrie to the same scale too. 
Totally out of my price range though

FD2 wings have less sweepback of the leading edge and a much shorter root chord. You'd need to find a bigger wing and cut it down.

[scooter]

FD2 wings have less sweepback of the leading edge and a much shorter root chord. You'd need to find a bigger wing and cut it down.

Starfighter wing in 1/72 or 1/48 then?