SR-71, The Blackbird

[etudiant]

Originally Posted by Nick 1

@ORAC , that’ s where the pictures come from .
They where testing the plumbing of the system ( cold flow ) in a series of flights , they ignited the propellant only in ground test .
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/...sre/index.html

I don't know whether the X-33 engine was ever tested at full scale. It certainly had an impressive plumbing complex above the simple looking linear aerospike.
How robust the whole thing would have been is unknown, but weight was always the SSTO bugaboo, so margins were minimal everywhere.