Evening star., 1961-02-18

will have to be made of such
materials as graphite ceramics
and other un-planelike e
substances.
Mr.. Stoner puts the problem
this way:
"The job is to build an air.
craft that will operate at all
speed ranges from Mach Is to
landing speed" Mach 25 (25
times the speed of soundD is
orbital velocity, on the order
of $4,000 miles an hour. Land
ing speed will be a couple Of
hundred. The X-15, now the
worlds hottest plane, operates
at q maximum of only about
Mach s. or not quite one
fourth the speed of Dyna Soar.
New Technology Needed
To build such a plane re-
quireS . lot of technology not
yet fully perfected. The blister
ing heat effects of re-entry at
Mach Is mean new materials
have to be devised.
"We will have to develop
rolling, welding and forming
techniqueS," Mr.. Stoner says.
ALSO we'll have to obtain and
maintain high quality control"
| Little-known m etals like
molybdenum and columbium
will be used in large quantities
in building Dyna-Soar. This
will run up the price per unit
considerably. There are about
a dozen Dyna-Soar planes in
the program.
| Dyna- Scars bosses see the
plane as being re-uSable with
out too much refurbishing be-
tween trips. "Clean it up and
shoot it again" will be the
order Of the day.
Research "TOOl''
The potential of Dyna Soar
as a super U-2, spying on
Russia from orbital attitudes
has been discussed repeatedly
But as an engineer, Mr.. Stoner
prefers to ponder Dyna-Soar'S
value as q research tool fol
advanced aircraft technology.
ut will be invaluable In
hypersonic aerodynamics," MIR
Stoner explains. "Dyna-Soar'S
performance will enable us to
calibrate our wind-tunnels or
the ground so we can be sure
they are doing what we want
them to do.
Also, it's impossible today
to really duplicate hyperSonic
conditions of the ground. Al
IDyna Scars meteor like
Ispeeds the temperature of the
air just in front of the plane
is something like $4,000 degrees
fahrenheit.
"At this kind OF temperature
air isn't really air any more"
Use Little Fuel on Return
4 Mr.. Stoner was asked to pre-
dict the impact Of Dyna-Soar
on future commercial ali
transportation.
Nobody wants to go around
the world nonstop. of course, -
the Dyna-Soar chief said. "But
half way around might be oi
interest.
When Dyna-Soar is in orbit
it will be getting more miles
per gallon than q Volkswagen
You spend Q heck Of a lot oi
fuel to get 1t up there, but
once at orbital altitude its
downhill all the rest Of the
way"
The boost-and-coast route
may well be the one airplane
designers will travel in devel-
oping ultra -high-speed, long.
range passenger and cargo
planes, Mr.. Stoner speculated.
Missile Factor Risky
He does not regard Dyna-
Soar as the ultimate in space
craft, of course-or even q
particularly desirable stopgap
The idea Of using q ballistiC
missile as a booster bothers
him.
tits not very satisfying
when you have to count on 9
reasonable number of catas-
trophies along with your sue.
cesses." Mr.. Stoner explains
"The intercontinental ballistit
missile has q certain built-ir
unreliability which you can &C.
cept when using it as a weapon
Build q few more silos fol-
Minuteman and Titan and you
compensate for your failures.
This isn't a happy solution
when a manned airplane i!
involved"
Mr.. Stoner believes later de.
velopments may get around tht
need to use rockets as boosters
The new "spaceplane" concept
points this way. he said.