I have scanned over the site and must say this is a very interesting project. The F-104 Starfighter was/is an interesting design that had only one thing in mind when built and that was to go very fast in a straight line. Turning in flight was not it's strong suit. Stopping it on the ground was a never ending challenge to the guys who flew this rocket. The drag chute used by the USAF had a 200Knots limit (224 mph) and attempts to use it at or above these speeds usually resulted in failures. Some examples of failures were streamers (did not blossom on deployment), blown out panels, busted shroud lines etc ). Since these chutes were used over and over, they became weaker and weaker and there was never any tracking of severe usages to try to remove excessively weakened chutes from service. The reason I bring this up is I don't see any technology that would produce a chute that would blossom and stay together at the lofty 800 mph speed (one big problem for the team to overcome). Next big problem I see is directional stability. While the F-104 design has the vertical stabilizer to do that job in the air, it's effectiveness on the ground is unknown at the speeds they are attempting. I hope there are wind tunnel tests available to determine this before any attempts are made. Are there wind tunnels that can generate supersonic air? My last concern would be keeping sufficient positive down force on the wheels, particularly when approaching supersonic. In flight, the bow wave is conical in shape but there is no ground surface to deflect it back against the lower surface of the airframe. Knowing the effects of the shock wave on control surfaces of an air craft and how these are compensated for, I see some big control problems for this air frame that is ground dependent for its vertical control axis!!
Good luck, OMT, to you and your team.
Trees
