I am asking the above question in terms of lift. Most aircraft fly by creating lift using their wings and AOA, but I'm curious to know how aircraft like the X-15 (with virtually no wings) create lift. Rocket-propelled aircraft generally have a huge forward thrust, but I don't understand how this forward force translates to lift.
Answer:
The airplane needs lift because its engines are not powerful enough to overcome both weight and drag. For the rocket powered version, the engine has the required power and it is purely Newton's third law in action.In the X-15 the Thrust to weight ratio was 2.07 and considering the high altitudes at which it had the powered flight, the drag would be small and the engine can easily overcome the combined effects or drag and weight. In rocket flights this is how it is, the rocket motor overcomes drag and weight while the control surfaces are for directional stability. Or in short, simple terms, for the rockets and missiles, might is right, no lift required!
For the X-15 it is not "virtually no wings", but rather a respectable wing loading of 829 kg/m² (wing area=18.6 m²), this isnt too high compared to a F-104 Starfighter (514 kg/m²) or MiG-31 Foxhound* (666 kg/m²) or a Tu-22M Backfire (688 kg/m²). So it did have enough lift during the unpowered phases and this is pretty obvious as they are designed to land, not crash.
*The real MiG-31, not the fictional Firefox that I use as my ID
You saw virtually no wings but they still have some wing the faster you go the less wing you really need essentually to stay air born. Its air speed under the wing and Cubic inches of wing that give you lift.. With that the faster you go the less wing you need... Rockets tend to be fast.
I once asked a certain retired test pilot whom I met at a party the same question. His response was as follows: "If you notice, my X-15 didn't take off from land; it was hauled aloft by a bomber and dropped from the undercarriage. It only "flew" as long as the engine was producing thrust. It did have rudimentary control surfaces, which allowed some degree of maneuvarability."
This was straight from the mouth of General Charles Elwood ("Chuck") Yeager
Kiffin, Yeager never flew the X15....
Correct, Yeager never flew the X-15.
The X-15 did have lift in it's short wings though. And any aviation historian knows that the reason the X-15 was air launched was that:
A. It had no landing gear.
B. They didn't want to waste the small amount of fuel it could carry getting up to an altitude that a B-52 could carry it to.
After the rocket(s) were expended, the X-15 glided to a landing. It did not have a lifting body, or a large wing surface like the Shuttle does, so the wings had to be able to generate a small amount of lift to control the glide landing.
Thrust doesn't cause lift, unless you happen to be pointing straight up. Thrust propels the aircraft forward, causing airflow over the wings, causing lift.
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