Copper Canyon
Launch vehicle · USA
Original archive entry. The text, images and links below are kept as they were written.
American winged orbital launch vehicle. DARPA program of 1984 that proved the technologies and concept for the X-30 National Aerospace Plane concept.
Copper Canyon was a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program of 1984 that studied an air-breathing SSTO concept. The concept was considered validated and led to the X-30 National Aerospace Plane project of 1986, at the expense of the USAF AMSC. Concepts used in the X-30 included new materials, structures, and manufacturing processes. These included a composite hydrogen tank, a propellant utilization fraction of 0.74, carbon-carbon aerodynamic surfaces, high temperature heat pipe sharp leading edges, use of computational flow dynamics to model the aerodynamic shape, and slush hydrogen as a fuel.
Crew Size: 1.
Related
- Country
- USA
- Launch Vehicles
- Copper Canyon
- Agency
- DARPA