On Dec 10, 2:59*pm, (John Clear) wrote:
In article ,
Alan Dicey wrote:



Indeed. *The shuttle tiles have astonishing insulation properties, but
are composed of 10% silica fibres, 90% air with a borosilicate glass
coating and have no load-bearing capacity to speak of. *They would be
crushed by the first person to walk on them, never mind an aircraft tyre..

Most of the white areas on the top of the shuttle are nomex blanket
type material. *Blending something like that in with non-skid coating
shouldn't be too hard to do, and provide enough thermal insulation.

John
--
John Clear - * * * * * * * * * * * *http://www.clear-prop.org/

Still not really durable enough to handle aircraft weight. Was less
heat resistant than bottom portion. Think of it this way, bottom part
gets really hot on reentry, shields top part. You could see some
scorch marks on most of the post landing photos. Looks like little
black scuff marks on foreward part near wing.

Probably looks like a back to the drawing board moment. Oh, hey,
anybody figure out we're landing on a carrier and we have some really
high exhaust temps....

Remember the old drawing that went around what aerodynamicist built,
weapons guys, all that, and what the customer wanted. Nothing changes.