Boost-glide is an aerospace vehicle concept in which the vehicle ascends to the upper atmosphere or into space boosted by rocket propulsion and then descends back to earth (or other origin) unpowered using aerodynamic flight control. Dyna-Soar and X-37B are two boost-glide vehicles designed to achieve low earth orbit X-37B currently flies missions for the Air Force and has some notable achievements. Dyna-Soar, designed more than fifty years ago, was cancelled before it ever flew. This paper will revisit the well-documented failure of Dyna-Soar, suggest alternative strategies that might have led to its success, and look at possible consequences of a successful Dyna-Soar program in light of the recent history of X-37B.
展开▼