Jan 202010
Found in the Glenn L Martin Aviation Museum archive was this bit of artwork showing a cutaway view of a lifting body. While similar in many respects to the X-23/X-24 lifting body geometry, it has a slightly different (pointier) nose, and a complete lack of the wings/outboard vertical stabilizers that characterized the X-23 shape.
With a total complement of 9, this would have carried more than the Space Shuttle ever did. Access from the passenger compartment to, presumably, a space station appears to have been through a hatch in the tail.
9 Responses to “Martin logistics lifting body”
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“With a total complement of 9, this would have carried more than the Space Shuttle ever did.”
The Space Shuttle had a 25 ton cargo capacity. The cargo bay could carry a passenger pod that would hold at least a dozen people.
Please refrain from commenting on subjects that you have no knowledge of.
Admin: Really? REALLY???
Tell me, genius, how many did the Shuttle ever carry on a single flight? Note that that’s what I actually referred to, and what you quoted… how many the Shuttle EVER DID. Not how many is could have… how many it did.
In the future, please refrain from commenting if you can’t be bothered to read what you’re replying to.
Frakkin guy! The Shuttle never carried a 12-man passenger pod except in his head. He shouldn’t comment on things in the real world or this universe that he has no knowledge of. Dumb!!!
Martin did fly the PRIME and X-23/24 that was very sucessful. Adding a parawing for landing as in the X-038 renders a subsonic L/D ratio of better than 8 to 1. See The Next Shuttle at Dave Ketchledge website Rocketengineer.bravehost.com to see an in depth study of lifting bodies run thru a digital windtunnel.
Well, at least on this one the pilot has a canopy to look through rather than the fiber optic periscope arrangement, although that was a very creative idea.
To me this design doesn’t look like it has enough vertical tail surface area to be stable.
Once again no ejection seats, although the pilot seems to have a rotating chair for some reason I don’t quite understand.
Largest Shuttle crew was eight BTW.
I suspect Timmeehh has confused Moonraker with reality.
“I suspect Timmeehh has confused Moonraker with reality.”
I fully agree.
Shuttle with manned pod in its Cargo Bay belonged to Sci-Fi realm more than reality. The highest crew rated at 8 people no mistake on that.
Probably some early 70’s study explored the possibility to have a manned pressurized pod inside Cargo Bay, anyway it was never taken seriously by NASA.
What do you expect from someone named “Timmeehh”? What an idiot.
Way back when the Shuttle was first built, some company was talking about building a cylindrical passenger pod for its cargo bay that would allow around 30-40 people to spend a day in orbit.
Once in orbit with the cargo bay doors open, skylights on the passenger pod would allow the occupants to observe the Earth and space.
In retrospect, this was a really forward-looking space tourism proposal, and if Shuttle launch costs had been as low as originally predicted they might have been able to turn it into a profitable venture given what real space tourists have paid for their flights.
I remember that… I think I even ahd a brocure (might have been in a magazine, though). Had the launch cost really been the $50 million it was sold as, then 25 passengers paying $2million apiece would have covered it. Even with inflation, that’s not the $20M that others have paid.
The real question is whether the Shuttle ever could have flown for $50M per flight. I suspect it could have… had it been operated by private non-union enterprise.