Is the space shuttle an efficient glider?
Answer:
Never will.
no!!
No! Just look at it's shape, the wings, it won't be very stable or stay up for a long time. It's main operation is in space with no gravity.
It's propelled by thrusters which only fires quick bursts for use in space. If you think it's a good glider, it might be since it comes down to earth with a lot of speed from the earth's gravity, and it's really high up, it can "glide" a long time. Of course it can stay in air for a long time if it's that high up in the sky.
No, not compared to a glider. The shuttle is relatively heavy for the area of the wings, which results in high wing loading which is inefficient. Also, it has low aspect ration ( the ration of the wing's length to chord), which also reduces aerodynamic effiency. The result is that glide ratio (horizontal travel to vertical travel ratio) is poor.
Allowing for these inefficiencies reqires a very high landing speed, somewhere around 200 mph - kinda scary, requires lots of training/simulator time.
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