Aerospaceplane

The US Air Force's Aerospaceplane was a basic research project led by Weldon Worth at the Wright-Patterson AFB concerning the design of future recoverable spaceplanes.

A contract to develop an ACES testbed was placed with Marquardt and General Dynamics, with Garrett AiResearch building the heat exchanger for cooling the air.

The ACES design was fairly complex; the air was first liquified in the heat exchanger cooled by liquid hydrogen fuel, then pumped into a low-pressure tank for short-term storage.

[citation needed] In early 1960, the Air Force offered a development contract to build a spaceplane with a crew of three that could take off from any runway and fly directly into orbit and return.

Included were LACES and ACES engines, as well as scramjets, turboramjets and a "normal" (subsonic-combustion) ramjet with an intake suitable for use up to Mach 8.