In the days before the web came to domination, aerospace companies and government organizations would stamp out glossy propaganda/PR informational cards by the truckload. The X-30 NASP (National Aero Space Plane) program was no different. Below is one such card released by NASA. Note that first flight was expected by 2000 or so… just slightly behind schedule at this point. The design shown here is the final publicly revealed configuration, with the wide flat “spatula” nose. Not shown in this – or pretty much any – illustration are the rocket engines needed to put the spaceplane into a circular orbit.
You can download 2.7 and 3.5 megabyte JPG files of the illustrations. The links to the JPG files are HERE and HERE. To access them, you will need to enter a username and password. The username: the first word in the body of the text on page 5 of APR issue V1N1. The password: the first word in the body of the text on page 11 of the same issue. Note that both are case sensitive.
