He told me it was from the leading edge of the wing and it was incredibly heavy, as opposed to the same section of carbon-carbon for NASP. That's all I know. Define it as you wish.
> He told me it was from the leading edge of the wing and it was incredibly heavy
Unlikely that it was the leading edge of the *shuttle* wing. Some other leading edge concept, perhaps, such as a nuke re-entry vehicle, or perhaps for some hypersonic aircraft (a NASP-specific concept, perhaps). Might've been the same material, but solid rather than a thin shell. Or for extra heavy goodness, a solid tungsten leading edge. Even a thin-walled tungsten shell will hurt you. But the Shuttle uses CC panels that are about 1/16 inch thick... as we've found, suseptible to damage from foam.
The leading edge of a hypersonic-cruise aircraft would have to be *substantially* more Manly than for the Shuttle. Orbital re-entry is rough, but sustained hypersonic flight is on a whole other level of Damned Rough On The Structure.