Inflatable spaceplane

Courtesy Robert Bradley of the SDAM, three images from a 1958 General Dynamics presentation to the Navy on a manned spacecraft using inflatable structures.  Inflatable spacecraft make a good deal of sense; inflation is a lightweight way to create large lifting surfaces, while being able to be efficiently packed onto launch vehicles. An inflatable spaceplane can have a very large wing area and a very low mass; the result is that on entry, the kinetic energy of the spacecraft in converted into thermal energy (as is done with all re-entry vehicles), but that thermal energy is distributed over a very large area… leading to much lower temperatures. Inflatable spacecraft were looked at for the Dyna Soar and Apollo programs.