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From: gwe@cbdkc1.UUCP ( George Erhart  )
Newsgroups: net.columbia
Subject: Re: Columbia's Tiled Damaged by Rain
Message-ID: <1095@cbdkc1.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 15-Aug-85 07:44:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: cbdkc1.1095
Posted: Thu Aug 15 07:44:53 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 17-Aug-85 16:26:23 EDT
References: <4010@alice.UUCP> <199@mot.UUCP> <521@calmasd.UUCP> <47@darwin.UUCP> <1400@cbosgd.UUCP>
Reply-To: gwe@dkc1.UUCP ( George Erhart  )
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus
Lines: 22

In article <1400@cbosgd.UUCP> mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) writes:
>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.

I once saw a sample of the shuttle's tile skin. It looked like the kind of
brick you see inside a ceramic kiln. It looked very soft and absorbant. 
While the shuttle *is* aerodynamic to some extent, it is still very close to
a flying rock. It does not have the very sharp features that an airliner 
possesses.