OK, this contest is a bit different. For starters, the winnings: $150 worth of APR and/or Drawings & Documents downloads. Rather higher than usual. Secondly: no time limit. Thirdly: I have no friggen’ clue what the hell this is.
So the rules are simple: tell me what the hell this is. It was a display model that was auctioned off online some years back, with, IIRC, some reference to it being an X-15 related design. In order to win, you have to not only tell me what it is… you have to back it up. Scans or photocopies of official reports, diagrams, artwork, whatever, that spell it out. The first person to do so wins.
A secondary prize of $75 worth of APR/D&D downloads for the first person who can provide multiple good, clear photos of this model.
Feel free to spread this one around, folks. I doubt I’m the only one who has been wondering over this thing for years.
If you have info, either comment or send an email here:
13 Responses to “ID this aircraft: contest with a difference”
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my gess
that Martin Marietta / USAF “Trans-Atmospheric Vehicle” beginn 1980’s
I don’t think so. The shape of the nose indicates that this is an airbreather; my best guess is that this was a hypersonic test vehicle. Scramjet, perhaps.
This odd beast was for sale at Superior galleries in the late nineties I think. I know the guy who bought it and knew I knew the X-15 and all it’s variants. He was told by the seller it came from a North American/Rockwell employee, but nothing about it seemed to be more than one person’s attempt at designing their own vehicle using several different propulsion systems If I can find Rick’s phone # i’ll call him and see if he ever found out. I remember it came apart and showed more detail than would be typical
I’m glad that this is finally getting looked at, as I’ve wondered about what it is ever since I stumbled on it via a Google image search many years back.
The original sales ad for it at the auction is still up on the web:
http://www.collectspace.com/images/superior/x15model.html
Unfortunately, the photo is too fuzzy to read the serial number on the tail, as that might have been a good clue as to what time-frame the model dates from.
I just plowed through they whole of “The Hypersonic Revolution” PDF, and the only thing that looks vaguely like it in there is on page 933, and is described as the “USAF/IGV”.
To me, it looks like this what’s-it is designed to ride semi-submerged in the belly of a carrier aircraft, and I wonder if it’s related to ISINGLASS or RHEINBERRY somehow.
Some searching on the web found this: http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=382.msg2391#msg2391
Which has artwork of a hypersonic McDonnell-Douglas aircraft on it, that bears some resemblance to the what’s-it model.
Assuming there is a relationship here, then the two things on the aft bottom are the exhaust nozzles of a pair of turbojet engines, and the pointed cone above them a aerodynamic cover over the exhaust nozzle of a centrally mounted ramjet.
I may be getting somewhere here; assuming the two cones sticking out of the bottom aft are turbojet exhaust nozzles, they may by a pair of J-52-P-3 engines, like used on the Hound Dog missile: http://www.collectair.com/images/hdogrear.jpg
This would make a lot of sense, as Hound Dog was designed for launch from a under-wing pylon on a B-52, and the cylindrical shape of the upper fuselage might well be so it could be mated to the standard X-15 launch pylon.
The J-52 had a diameter of 32 inches, so using that as a basis, and comparing it to the model, overall aircraft length would be quite small – around 35 feet.
This probably makes it a single-seater despite the canopy framing layout (unless you squeeze in two side-by-side crew like sardines) and using a ramjet of around 36 inches max diameter… and in Jay Miller’s “The X-Planes”, we read about the the X-7A-3 variant of the X-7…which did test flights with a _36_ inch diameter ramjet, the Marquardt XRS-59 series in three different variants up to 1960.
One thing they were working on was the use of Boron or H2O2 as additives to the ramjet fuel to boost thrust output.
If that’s all correct, then the model could be a test vehicle for Project ISINGLASS, or the actual ISINGLASS aircraft itself.
The turbojets would get it up to around Mach 2 after it was dropped from the B-52, and then the ramjet would carry it up to around Mach 4-6.
Wawa-wee-wa!!!!
Could this be a SERJ testbed of some sort? Maybe as an offshoot of ISINGLASS? I don’t know…just tossing out ideas here.
I have emailed someone who may have an answer. 🙂
When we were first discussing the model over on sci.space.history, Scott speculated that the twin cones on the lower engines might be SERJ related.
(He has a article on the SERJ X-15 here: http://www.up-ship.com/blog/apr/extras/serjx15.htm )
But look at the landing gear layout and aft position of the wings on the model… although fine for doing a X-15 type landing, the aft position of the main gear would make a takeoff very hard to do as there is no way to get the nose up as you accelerate down the runway.
One of the advantages of SERJ was that you were supposed to be able to take off from a standing start, rather than needing to get up to ramjet operating velocity.
If the lower engines are SERJs, that leaves the question of what the engine above them is supposed to be…a rocket?
Good explanation. Perhaps, that is a rocket up top. With an aerodynamic cone fairing. Or how about this? What if the SERJ is the upper engine. Ehh, probably not very likely.
Without actually seeing this model up closeor the insides, we’ll nverknow fo sure.
Just off the one photo we have, I managed to produce an AutoCAD drawing of this plane. Not 100% accurate but I tried.
If you go back to this thread, you can see what I have:
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,7060.0.html
I’m not a member of that forum, so if there was a illustration, it didn’t show up on my machine.
As far as SERJ goes, if there was something sticking out of the engine, you’d expect it to be on the front, not the back.
If this thing had been built, it would have been a ball to land with that terrible cockpit visability over the nose and lack of any real wings.
Except the wing tip anhedral , it looks like the North American Aircraft 1962 subscale prototype demontrator Mach 10