The X37 is coming home!

[Camacha]

What makes you think the USAF is interested in a spaceplane fleet? Spaceplanes are fun in KSP but make little sense in real life.

Don't forget some of the major requirements for the Space Shuttle were inspired by military uses and demands. Polar orbits and that kind of stuff. And now they do it again. Someone seems to have a couple of fairly particular plans.

[Tommygun]

Do you have any sort of evidence supporting this? Nothing I've read indicates the USAF is interested in spaceplanes, it's all about UAVs and UCAVs now.

Well if you look at a number of the current or more resent proposals like Project Hot Eagle, SUSTAIN, Common Aero Vehicle, Blackswift, DARPA's Falcon Project there is a desire out there. Some of these are hypersonic craft which I think blur the line between space planes and aircraft, but they have technology that can be applied to space planes.

Some if not most may be unmanned, but they will want to put people on at least a few of them.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Tommygun

[Nibb31]

The Air Force is trying to maintain its relevance in a long term future where more conventional aircraft may not be ideal.

Their logic may or may not be sound, but an aerospace plane, bomber or transporter is definitely something they want.

No it isn't. A spaceplane has zero tactical or strategic use in itself for the military.

The reasons they wanted the Shuttle for military purposes in the 70's were misguided and made no sense. The only purpose of the X-37 is as a platform to research other stuff. The X-37 isn't secret, its payload is.

[Camacha]

The X-37 isn't secret

The fact that I get loads of pictures when I google the name should be a decent indicator they are not trying to hide the craft at all.

[Tommygun]

Here is a video of the landing. It's surprisingly noisy.

This is somewhat related. It's a new sub-orbital space plane project that's in the works.

DARPA XS-1:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XS-1_%28spacecraft%29

Grumman's proposal:

http://www.globenewswire.com/newsarchive/noc/press/pages/news_releases.html?d=10095324

Edited October 21, 2014 by Tommygun