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OT: The X-15

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Alex Eisenhut:
Everyone loves the X-15, no?

jmelson:

--- Quote from: Alex Eisenhut on April 01, 2021, 05:29:13 pm ---Everyone loves the X-15, no?

--- End quote ---
OK, here's the computer that was developed by Honeywell for the later X-15s, to manage energy so they could arrive back at Edwards AFB at the right velocity and altitude to land.  They only got one chance, of course.

This is the Honeywell Alert, a 24-bit computer, one of the first to use integrated circuits, delivered in 1965.  it was built on 6 circuit assemblies each with two multilayer boards.  These were laminated together with a heat spreader, and then bolted together to heat cunducting plates that carried the heat to the baseplate of the cabinet, where a cooling system carried it away.  The computer fits in a 1/2 ATR rack, with a companion memory module next to it.  It cunsumed 25 A at 5 V.

Jon

Alex Eisenhut:
I have a 25A 5V supply. Mail me the thing!

rdl:
I remember reading somewhere that the success of the X-15 was the reason North American Aviation won the contract for the Apollo Command and Service module.

harerod:

--- Quote from: jmelson on April 02, 2021, 02:15:53 am ---...OK, here's the computer that was developed by Honeywell for the later X-15s, to manage energy so they could arrive back at Edwards AFB at the right velocity and altitude to land.  They only got one chance, of course....

--- End quote ---
I simply had to look it up: glide ratio of 1:4. There aren't many aircraft with worse than the Space Shuttle's 1:4.5. For reference: with "normal" aircraft one would expect something better than 1:12.
Another thing is landing speed - 210kts+.

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