Experiment on Reducing Drag on an Aerospace Launch Vehicle

Current proposed shapes for single-stage-to-orbit vehicles like the Lockheed-Martin X-33 and VentureStar reusable launch vehicle have extremely large base areas when compared with previous hypersonic-vehicle designs. As a result, base drag - especially in the transonic flight regime - is expected be very large. The unique configuration of the X-33, with its very large base area and relatively low forebody drag, offers the potential for a very high payoff in overall performance if the base drag can be reduced significantly. This article presents results of a base-drag-reduction experiment that was performed in the X-33 Linear Aerospike SR-71 (LASRE) flight program.