My name is Lanlo Kerman, and I'd like to report on the progress of "Project Kerbalhawk", our space plane program.

When we last reported, I presented the X-0 rocket plane.  The X-0 was fun to fly, but really it was just a small rocket with wings and wheels.  The engines only had enough fuel for about a minute, which was just about enough to get me 10 kilometers or so out from the runway before I had to turn around and glide back.  Clearly that's not going to be much help in rescuing Bill Kerman in the dense atmosphere of Eve.

The X-1 is quite the beauty, isn't she?

She's got far more wing area than the X-0 did, and has three air-breathing turbine engines.  Quick calculations on a napkin down at the bar suggest that she should be able to fly for over half an hour on the fuel she carries, and her top speed is comfortably higher than seems quite safe.

Of course, I couldn't wait to get behind the stick and see just what she can do.

Rollout was quick, and she stayed nicely centered on the runway till the end where we lifted off the ground.

Unlike the X-0, the Kyrefalcon was quite easy to fly, she points her nose where you want it, and stays there until you move the stick.  After a few minutes getting used to how she handles, I took her out the old island space center for an overflight.

After that, it was time to test the limits, and I pointed her nose up into the sky.  She climbed nicely, until the port engine flamed out at around 13 kilometers up.  I got a nice up-close and personal experience of the plasma sheathing we observe on re-entry as I tumbled down into the thicker atmosphere, until I was able to get her back down to around 8 kilometers above sea level and get her speed down to something reasonable.  After the excitement, she didn't want to handle so nicely anymore, but I put her down in the grass just outside the Kerbal Space Center in one piece.

Several more test flights will have to be done to figure out just where the limits of this craft are in terms of altitude and speed, and we'll have to see if we can guess how those will correspond to what would happen on Eve, but so far it looks good.

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