/sci/ - Science & Math

Uhm can we talk about aerospikes again? I really like them, because they are pointy and pointy screams DANGER and all (Like liberty spikes), also the name is pretty rad and I dig the implied characteristics as an allrounder. If we dumped a few billion and a decade of (actual, not Boing) development on them, where could we end up? From what I understand the main problem is the nozzle structure and heat management. My first idea was an adaptive shape (as pictured) to cope with varying environments, but it was pointed out to me, that this would just multiply an already persistent... "Bottleneck". (See what I did there)

I'm absolutely curious how features on it, specially movable ones would affect it's performance, like fins, vortex generators, spoilers, cladding and so on. It sounds counter intuitive even to myself, but I'd like to know what happens, after all the fastest planes often aren't teardrop shaped.

Also when the mods check by and they see these super technically looking schematics on millimetre-paper, they'll be hopefully super impressed and leave us alone.

Speaking of aerospikes, if we had an elastic fabric with the necessary capabilities to withstand the environment, or used panel cladding, could we create an altitude adaptive nozzle that stretches for vacuum use and maybe even twists offcenter for vectoring or even use jetboat like channelling shovels for reverse thrust?

I made this little sketch and put it on the legit looking paper (I have no idea what I'm doing lol)