Abstract

Ballistic Missile and Aerospace Technology, Volume IV: Re-entry is a collection of manuscripts presented at the Sixth Symposium on Ballistic Missile and Aerospace Technology, held in Los Angeles, California, in August 1961. This book is organized into two parts encompassing nine chapters that highlight the re-entry vehicle design information and re-entry thermal protection and materials.
Part I deals first with a parametric study on the effects of initial conditions and various mass and aerodynamic parameters on the dynamic motion of a typical re-entry vehicle. This parametric study specifically examines both spinning and non-spinning re-entry at high angles of attack. This part also demonstrates the degree of departure from thermodynamic equilibrium for the various chemical reactions along a typical streamtube to be expected under different flight conditions. This topic is followed by discussions on power-handling capability of antennas operating in the presence of plasmas; the mechanism of self-excited oscillations at transonic speeds; and the computation of three-dimensional steady supersonic flow fields. Part II presents a theoretical analysis of similarity paramaters of evaporative film cooling for blunt bodies. This part then explores the application of ultrasonics to ablation studies. The remaining chapters describe a self-contained, thermally protective mechanism, which is activated by a catalyst that operates within a composite material. These chapters also consider the developmental trends in aerospace materials.