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Monday, October 17, 2011

Scaled Composite's SpaceShipTwo Has an Interesting Drop Test

Sounds as though the team had to fall back on basic shuttlecock stability to recover from a departure while in the glide configuration.  The article attributes the problem to tail stall, but it is not clear if the stall was at positive or negative AOA on the tail.  The rapid downward pitch that is described would almost imply a negative AOA on the tail due to pitch rate, but it's hard to tell for sure from the story.

http://www.space.com/13297-virgin-galactic-spaceshiptwo-test-flight-glitch.html

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