🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <SHAFER.92Dec16174532@ra.dfrf.nasa.gov> shafer@rigel.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) writes:
>...The tiles are undamaged by
>snow and devastated by rain, with hail being not quite as bad as
>rain.  Of course you can cover the vehicle on the pad, but you can't
>fly through rain or hail without etching the tiles down to the felt
>pads they're glued to.

Anybody know if anything's been released on Buran's tile technology?
Allegedly the Buran tiles are not as long-lasting, but they're tougher.
A lot of people were surprised when the Soviets brought the first Buran
to the Paris air show -- flying it in atop a Mriya, straight through a
rainstorm.  (What *really* made jaws drop:  after landing, they got
directions to their parking place... and one million pounds of aircraft
turned off the runway and taxied across the *grass* to the right spot.
You won't see NASA's 747 doing that...)
-- 
"God willing... we shall return."       | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
       -Gene Cernan, the Moon, Dec 1972 |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry