Not sure if any of you here read Air and Space magazine. The current issue
has an article about and cover photo of a modified Starfighter that sports a
6 thousand pound thrust rocket motor fueled by peroxide and regular jet
fuel. It was used for astronaut training in the air force. I forget the
exact numbers but altitudes reached were in the 100000+ feet. These planes
also had rocket motors for steering in the thin atmosphere ala X-15. Chuck
Yeager was one of the champions of this project.
Unfortunately the article itself is a description of a zoom flight of a
regular F-104 but it's still a good read.
Not sure how much US residents were exposed to the F-104 but in Holland they
flew over our town several times a week. *Lots* of noise.
In any case, relevance for ERPS would be that this was a good example of a
hybrid approach to reaching space, using the same fuel in both engines and
only bringing oxidizer for the rocket motor of course. I imagine that with
external fuel and peroxide tanks it could have gone even higher. Cool.
Sander
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