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From: mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton)
Newsgroups: net.columbia
Subject: Re: Columbia's Tiled Damaged by Rain
Message-ID: <1400@cbosgd.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 14-Aug-85 15:59:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: cbosgd.1400
Posted: Wed Aug 14 15:59:34 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 15-Aug-85 22:21:12 EDT
References: <4010@alice.UUCP> <199@mot.UUCP> <521@calmasd.UUCP> <47@darwin.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, Oh
Lines: 15

In article <47@darwin.UUCP> ian@darwin.UUCP writes:
>>> how interesting!  Columbia's tiles survive atmosphere re-entry only to get
>>> beat up by a rainstorm (which you'd think would be gentle) coming at it at
>>> a couple hundred mph.
>
>>A several hundred mph blast of water is extremely destructive.
>>Fortunately in a storm the water is dispersed, but I suspect it compares
>>to a sand blaster in terms of destructive potential.

Regular airliners manage to fly at several hundred miles per hour
and fly through clouds and rainstorms without much trouble.  They
seem to have metal skins designed to not hit the air/water head on,
but rather deflect it over them.  Aerodynamics, right?

I would think the same property would apply to the shuttle.