Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar and alternate projects

It would take a 200,000 pound, two-stages, non-LH2 booster (330 second isp) to orbit 10,000 pounds. A B-52 can't carry that much, but a C-5 or a 747 could. They picked that weight range because of DynaSoar, but Gemini would be a much better bargain.

Fun fact: the paper discuss 320 and 335 seconds specific impulses; but nobody thought about mixing Titan I oxidizer (LOX) with Titan II fuel (hydrazine), into an hybrid LR-87 or LR-91.
That mix has a very energetic specific impulse, in the 360 seconds range.
 
The artist concept for the X-20/Booster launch configuration and the B-52 were only to demonstrate that the focus of the study was on launching a manned vehicle to space from a subsonic and supersonic bomber. The study addressed the deficiencies of the then, current bombers.
View attachment 759345
NASA Tech Memo X-636 Preliminary Performance Analysis of Air Launching Manned Orbital Vehicles - Bellman and Washington.

We have a thread here https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/1962-nasa-dyna-soar-air-launch-study.4479/#post-756431 where I linked the full document after compressing it.

Dear moderators, could you please merge the two threads ?
 
Before 1961 DynaSoar was to fly a phased test program, launched by Titan II boosters from Cape Canaveral.

From: THE RISE AND FALL OF DYNA-SOAR: A HISTORY OF AIR FORCE HYPERSONIC R&D, 1944-1963

In order to demonstrate the flying characteristics of the glider up to
speeds of Mach 2, the WSPO scheduled a program of 20 air-drop tests from a B-52 to
begin in July 1963. Beginning in November 1963, five unmanned flights with another
glider would be conducted to Mayaguana in the Bahamas Islands and to Fortaleza,
Brazil
. For these flights, the glider would attain velocities ranging from 9,000 to
19,000 feet per second. Eleven piloted flights, scheduled to start in November 1964,
would follow, progressively increasing the velocity to the maximum 19,000 feet per
second. They would employ landing sites in Mayaguana, Santa Lucia in the Leeward
Islands,
and finally, near Fortaleza.
I've pinpointed those landing strips a map, using an online tool.

 
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