21 - "What keeps this craft from burning up on re-entry like the last Space Shuttle did? "
sub-orbital flights really don't go that fast for super-heating. Sort of like rubbing your hands together, they get hot, but you can't make a fire.
IIRC, the original sub-orbital Redstone flights of Alan Sheppard, et al, had heat shields mostly to test heat shields for orbital flights of the Gemini.
Rutan's bird flys much slower, only 2-3,000 mph. The shuttle broke apart at 12,000 mph after major decelleration from about 18,000 mph.
There have been some NASA tests for ablative heat shields, which were turned down (too cheap) just make of bundles of wooden 2x4's.
28 - correction - "IIRC, the original sub-orbital Redstone flights of Alan Sheppard, et al, had heat shields mostly to test heat shields for orbital flights of the Gemini. "
should have been:
"IIRC, the original sub-orbital Redstone flights of Alan Sheppard, et al, had heat shields mostly to test heat shields for LATER orbital flights of MERCURY and THEN Gemini. "
28-"sub-orbital flights really don't go that fast for super-heating. Sort of like rubbing your hands together, they get hot, but you can't make a fire. "
CORRECTION:
"sub-orbital flights really don't go that fast OR LONG for super-heating. Sort of like rubbing your hands together, they get hot, but you can't make a fire. "