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Post by anonymous on Jul 12, 2019 22:59:50 GMT
How is it possible that an aerospike isn't total garbage for flight outside the atmosphere? Wouldn't at least half of the exhaust not push on the spike and provide almost no reaction force at all besides when it exits the combustion chamber?
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Post by airc777 on Jul 13, 2019 0:14:56 GMT
My understanding is the injectors are slightly tilted towards the spike and the exhaust gases are held close to the curve of the spike via their own inertia due to the extreme velocity involved. Looking at the picture of the xrs-2200 engine firing on the Wikipedia page for aerospike engines the exhaust gases don't even begin to disperse until after they pass the base of the spike. This is conjecture, someone will probably correct me in a bit.
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