ESA Ariane 6

Ah, the Soda Can comparison. Long time not seen that one.

Try this: put the soda can on a shallow wedge and try again ;)

Airstream is not parallel with the direction of flight or vehicle incidence.

iu
 
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Do you get many wedges in the air? All the forces are transmitted vertically through the cylinder which is held in compression from the wind resistance.
 
I am lucky. I get the wedge,
Angling on, on every pledge.
At the end of the runway, I pitch
and into that airstream, my wings cut some lift.
I soar, not slouch, beyond my 50ft.

My wings trail vortexes
Their airfoils with gravity play tricks
And I smile at those perplexed
that saw me dying at the apex,
Kutta was right, rejoice in the cockpit.

And I am not the one,
the bloodily level running one
that jump the fence to impale
the next pretty thing that crosses the lane.

Would you know now, pilots should not cut it
or rave in disbelief at the end of the strip?
Because old age and MILFs, my friend, shall be no dreams
Wedge, Wedge, into the nascent airstream.

'
Do not go level into that airstream, a (nearly) inspirational poem by Dylan Tomcat
 
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TomcatViP said:
a. there is already some padding. Ribs are not 40cm tall
you can see below that Alas has some

b. You don´t read. If it wobble at separation, it does probably so during flight, affecting aerodynamics and impacting the vehicle in structure and trim. Hence a direct impact on the overall efficiency.

c. Progress is improvement. Here a rigid fairing that won´t flex as much during separation is a step forward toward reusability. Hence efficiency. Not all fairing flex to that extend.
Click to expand...
a. Not relevant. Metallic fairing. By the way, it also flexes. Also, it had to be wider than an equivalent composite fairing to account for the ribs.
b. Wrong. I know it does not for a fact*. It does not "wobble" during flight. It only flexes due to ordnance charges for separation.
c. No, it is many times heavier and it uses latches and pistons. The new larger Falcon 9 fairing will use ordnance and won't be reusable. Most fairing do flex. Delta, Titan, Atlas, Ariane, Antares all flex.
And the Falcon fairing is flexing in that video.

* I was integration engineer for many Atlas missions and clearance analysis showed no "wobbling" and launch probability was not determined by the fairing. Actual vehicle bending of the stack of stages was main factor in launch probability. Even so much that some rockets had rate gyros placed on lower stages to account for the bending. But then again, there are few people knowledgable about these finer points of rocket science, especially operators of other aerovehicles.
 
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TomcatViP said:
Ah, the Soda Can comparison. Long time not seen that one.

Try this: put the soda can on a shallow wedge and try again ;)

Airstream is not parallel with the direction of flight or vehicle incidence.

iu
Click to expand...
Launch vehicles fly at low AOAs and are programmed to keep them to a minimum. And again, vehicle bending modes and controllability are more affected by winds aloft.
 
Fun tidbit from this
https://www.lefigaro.fr/societes/co...dre-pour-doubler-ses-cadences-de-vol-20240812

We learn that "some 6 launchers are currently in various stages of production"
We also get remembered that the current plan is for a launch - CSO-3 - this december, 6 in 2025, 8 in 2026 then a full cadence from 2027 onward.
So 7 more launches by the end of 2025.

But then we know that, according to Mr. Lier, CSG director, the first Ariane 6's production took 36 months, and that the goal is to reach 18 months to produce an Ariane 6 within the upcoming years.

https://www.lefigaro.fr/sciences/la...ne-6-a-decolle-pour-la-premiere-fois-20240709

So, even assuming they directly hit their goal of 18 months per launcher, they can only have 6 launchers ready by the end of 2025 (16 months from now), so the current goal of 1+6=7 launches by then doesn't seem achievable .
 
A fairing is a lot like an egg.
Max Q is like trying to crush an egg lengthwise--tough to do.

Once blown free--who cares how limber it is?

Now for recovery it might need a tad more bracing I imagine.
 
Talking about Ariane 6 fairings...
Here's another consequence of the delays and contract cancellation, Beyond Gravity, which makes Ariane 6 fairings (and many others, Atlas,Vulcan, H3,Vega even SLS payload adapter) has apparently repurposed and sold Ariane 6 fairings to the American commercial launch provider Relativity Space for their upcoming Terran R reusable heavy launcher:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1828884728025678105
View: https://x.com/relativityspace/status/1828884728025678105

https://twitter.com/x/status/1828919478379258183
View: https://x.com/Astro_Danyboy/status/1828919478379258183

1724936807798.jpeg
They updated their website, making the fairing the size of A64's and removing the (wrongly labelled) comparison with Ariane 62's fairing

1724937270016.png
Another customer for Beyond gravity.
 
I would be curious to know how this was articulated financially.

And for those, like me, that are lost with all those new company names, Beyond Gravity is just a rebranding of RUAG Space.
 

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