Scott Lowther :

Earl Colby Pottinger wrote:

Really, then name one useful thing learnt from the non-building of the
X-33.

Multi-lobe composite pressure vessels are hard to make. Very hard to
make.

Sorry that was already known before the X-33 was built. Infact if you read
the messages published just after the X-33 design was selected you would see
that lots of people already knew that it was a hard (bad) design and
suggested alumium tanks atleast to do test flights.

Cryopumping in composite structures is a serious problem.

Odd, it was not a problem in non-NASA designs.

ROTON did not have the problem.

The DC-X did not have the problem.

Infact, anyone in North America except for NASA would have built a test tank
that matched the final design (NASA changed the design between the final
version and thier test version) or would have talked to or hired Scaled
Composites to avoid problems like that.

The way X-33 was done was just a waste of money.

Earl Colby Pottinger
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