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SPIRAL is the project opening the history of aerospace systems creation. The
work at the project began in A. Mikoyan Bureau 4 years after Gagarin's space flight.
The SPIRAL reusable aerospace system (AKS) consisted of an orbital manned
aircraft with a rocket booster and supersonic aircraft-carrier. The start of
the orbital stage should occur at the altitude of 24-30 km at the speed of six
times higher than sound speed. After flight completion a gliding descent in
atmosphere with the airplane landing at an airfield was provided.
For more precise landing approach a turbojet engine could be used. With the
whole system take-off weight of 115 tons a one-seat orbital aircraft had weight
of 10 tons and was intended for scientific and technical experiments in space,
remote Earth monitoring and space objects inspection. It was a vehicle with a
load-bearing frame and wings tilting upward to exclude the direct effect of
thermal flow in conditions of plasma formation as well as for roll control.
The development of the hypersonic aircraft-carrier that had no analogues in the
world required considerable time and consequently during the tests and at the
first phase of operation the orbital vehicle was supposed to be launched into
space by a ballistic rocket. For landing approach and landing working up as
well as for stability, controllability and aerodynamic characteristics
estimation the manned sub-sonic analogue of the orbital vehicle -
"aircraft 105" - was build. In 1977 and 1978 it made 6 test flights with
gliding on runway after being dropped from the Tu-95 bomber at the altitude of
5500 m.
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