Rocketing Into the Future : the History and Technology of Rocket Planes
Michel Van Pelt (Author)
Rocketing into the Future journeys into the exciting world of rocket planes, examining the exotic concepts and actual flying vehicles that have been devised over the last one hundred years. Lavishly illustrated with over 150 photographs, it recounts the history of rocket planes from the early pioneers who attached simple rockets on to their wooden glider airplanes to the modern world of high-tech research vehicles. The book then looks at the possibilities for the future. The technological and economic challenges of the Space Shuttle proved insurmountable, and thus the program was unable to fulfill its promise of low-cost access to space. However, the burgeoning market of suborbital space tourism may yet give the necessary boost to the development of a truly reusable spaceplane
eBook, English, 2012
Springer New York : Imprint : Springer, New York, NY, 2012
1 online resource (XVIII, 366 p. 162 illustrations, 60 illustrations in color.) : online resource
9781461432005, 1461432006
908065684
Printed edition:
Illustrations
Author's preface
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: A crash course in rocket plane design
Chapter 3: Germany's wonder weapons
Chapter 4: Non-German wartime rocket fighters
Chapter 5: The rise and fall of the rocket interceptor
Chapter 6: Breaking the barrier
Chapter 7: Rocket plane spaceflight
Chapter 8: Future spaceplanes
Chapter 9: Joyriding a rocket plane
Chapter 10: Man versus robot
Chapter 11: Conclusions
Appendix: Aircraft maximum velocity and altitude evolution
Bibliography
Index