On 26/07/2022 18:45, Henry Spencer wrote:
On Tue, 26 Jul 2022, Peter Fairbrother wrote:
Even the regulatory situation changes: when thrust exceeds lift for more than half the powered ascent, *it's not an airplane any more*, even if it resembles one -- it's a "suborbital rocket"...
Henry, how is the "half" measured? Height, time, thrust-x-time vs lift-times-time, something else?
Exact wording: "the thrust of which is greater than its lift for the majority of the rocket-powered portion of its ascent". My understanding is that this is taken to mean time, but I haven't gone digging to verify that.
