Well, we were going for a LOT more than Mach 8. And part of the X-30 was that it had to fly IN the atmosphere for a long, long time.
What was the skin of the a/c? I would surmise titanium but would be quite interested in knowing if another alloy was used. Your work must have been fascinating.
Thanks LS. We were balls out back in the day, lol. I designed the first generation large scale thermo-acoustic (hypersonic) test chamber back in the day. That was in ‘91. If they haven’t got it now, it’s not our fault.