Search Results : chrysler

Chrysler saucer, again

aircraft, art, history, Hmm..., Monthly Historical Documents Program, nukes, Patreon, projects, rockets, spacecraft No Responses »

Aug 162019

Around three years ago I posted some rather cruddy images of a saucer-shaped nuclear-powered spacecraft that the Chrysler corporation drew up in 1956. At this time a manned spacecraft was a perfectly normal sort of thing for Chrysler to design; their aerospace division was responsible for the Redstone missile and the Saturn I first stage. One of the images was a small scan of the cover of the August-September 1957 issue of “Saucer News.” I finally managed to score a copy of this “fanzine”on ebay a while back and have scanned the cover at high (600 dpi) resolution. The image quality is a bit regrettable, but what can you expect from a 1950’s UFO magazine.

As always, if anyone might happen to know anything more about this design, I’m all ears. Chrysler long ago got rid of their aerospace division and whatever archive it might have had.

I have uploaded the full resolution scan to the 2019-08 APR Extras Dropbox folder, available to $4 and up subscribers to the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.

Chrysler ad part 2

art, history, Patreon, rockets 7 Responses »

Jul 202017

A few weeks back I posted an old Chrysler ad I found online. The image quality was ok, but kinda small. Subsequently I found a copy on ebay, bought it, scanned it and cleaned it. I’ve posted the full-rez, fully cleaned version of the ad to the 2017-07 APR Extras folder on Dropbox, available for free for all APR patrons at the $4 level and above. The full rez image is 4043×6270 pixels, or 13.5×20.9 inches at 300 dpi. It could probably be safely printed off at 200 dpi, giving 20.2X32.35 inches.

Here’s a dinkyscale version of the new scan:

And here, because I want y’all to know that these things take time and effort, are some full-size crops from both the final version and the raw scan, showing the improvement in image quality. Some of it is done via a few keystrokes, such as tweaking the rightness and contrast, but erasing thousands of little specks and fixing flaws? That’s all genuine artisanal hand-made old-school photoshoppery craftsmanship.

If you are interested in accessing these and other aerospace historical goodies, consider signing up for the APR Patreon.

Chrysler: vehicles for Earth and Space

art, drawings, history, rockets, spacecraft 17 Responses »

Jul 092017

A magazine ad for Chrysler, 1968, shows some of their then-current products. Note the one at the top: yes, back in the day Chrysler had an aerospace division, and was the prime contractor for the first stage of the Saturn I and Saturn Ib launch vehicles.

The Chrysler Saucer

aircraft, Crazy, history, Hmm..., nukes, projects, rockets, science fiction, spacecraft 4 Responses »

Sep 192016

There was a time when American auto manufacturers had important aerospace divisions. Chrysler, for example, was responsible for rockets such as the Redstone, Jupiter and the Saturn I and Ib first stage.

In late 1956, Lovell Lawrence Jr, an assistant chief engineer at the missiles division of Chrysler, publicized a concept for a nuclear-powered “flying saucer.” It seems to have been *partially* a reasonably rational concept for a long duration spacecraft for missions to Mars. It would spin like a frisbee to generate artificial gravity, though the relatively small radius would be likely to produce some harsh Coriolis effects. The saucer would be about 50 feet in diameter and only 6 feet thick.

Where the design goes a bit off the rails is that the performance expected of the craft was insanely impressive. It was a single-stage-to-solar-orbit craft, capable of taking off horizontally from a runway using nuclear-powered jet engines (note: “jet” in this case might mean “rocket.”) The craft would be capable of going from the Earth to Mars in 9 to 12 weeks.

Being that close to an atomic reactor (with a light enough shield to allow the thing to take off) would be a death sentence long before the craft would get to Mars.

After years of trying to research this concept, all I’ve managed to scrape up are three things from Ye Olde internet: two newspaper articles and one cover story from a UFO “fanzine.” I have tried over some years to obtain a copy of the “Saucer News” from August-September 1957 from sites like ebay, but without success. It seems like an original printing, or at least a decent scan, would provide a reasonably good version of the Chrysler saucer art. Anybody has more on this, I’m interested.

Chrysler SERV: APR Article 31

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Apr 282010

It may be hard to believe, but there once was at time when the United States not only had a thriving automotive industry but ALSO a thriving aerospace industry. And perhaps shockingly, the automotive industry sometimes got into the aerospace business, and sometimes quite successfully. One case of that was Chrysler, which built, among other things, the first stage of the Saturn I and Ib. They also wanted to build the Space Shuttle… and their design for it was the Single-stage Earth orbital Reusable Vehicle (SERV).

From APR original print issue V5N3 comes a 13-page article on the Chrysler SERV, loaded with diagrams showing the SERV both inside and out as well as the MURP (Manned Upper-stage Reusable Payload) spaceplane that was to go with the SERV.

Download for only $2.40.

Order it (and all the other currently available APR articles) here: http://www.up-ship.com/blog/eAPR/articles.htm

The Sound of Freedom

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Apr 122021

The Chrysler Turbine Car sounds a little different from your average automobile, due to having a turboshaft engine.

Jay Leno owns one and did a piece on it about a decade ago. He makes a good and rather depressing point: in 1964 when Chrysler made over a hundred of these, much of the rest of the world barely had internal combustion engined automobiles, while Americans were tooling around in jet cars. The US was “The Jetsons,” while much of the rest of the world was “The Flintstones.” And while it not a bad thing that in the nearly sixty years since the rest of the world has advanced, what *is* bad is that the United States has, in many ways, gone *backwards.* Americans should today be getting around not just in jet cars, but jet cars getting 50 miles per gallon on the highway… and probably 30 miles per gallon *in* *the* *air* as they drive or fly to the spaceport to cat the 12:15 to Space Station V. Instead, we got The Great Society, Facebook and Twitter.

US Fighter, Transport, Launcher, Recon & Research Projects

aircraft, awesomeness, books, drawings, history, new products, nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft, US Fighter Projects, US Launch Vehicle Projects, US Research & Recon Projects, US Transport Projects No Responses »

Nov 072018

Now available… four new issues in the US Aerospace Projects line.

US Fighter Projects #3

Cover art was provided by Rob Parthoens, www.baroba.be

US Fighter Projects #03 is now available (see HERE for the entire series). Issue #3 includes:

Vought Advanced Interceptor AI-0604R: a dart-winged ejector ramjet-powered concept
Convair Nuclear Powered Interceptor Configuration I: a single0seat interceptor with a nuclear reactor
General Dynamics F-111X-7: A stretched F-111 for bomber escort and interception
Bell Ramjet Fighter: A subsonic small fighter from the end of WWII
Convair XP-92: A post-war delta-winged ramjet powered supersonic interceptor
Rockwell D736-4 Supersonic Penetrator: the wings could sweep back entirely within the fuselage
Lockheed CL-362-2: A high-altitude hypersonic rocketplane
NASA-Langley TBF-1: an unusual supercruiser

USFP #3 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4.25:

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US Launch Vehicle Projects #5

Cover art was provided by Rob Parthoens, www.baroba.be

US Launch Vehicle Projects #5 is now available (see HERE for the entire series). Issue #5 includes:

North American Aviation 600K SSTO: an early concept for cheap space launch
Boeing “Windjammer” SSTO: A horizontal takeoff design form the early 70s
JSC Winged Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle: A giant SPS launcher
NASA Nova “Saturn C-8”: an early Apollo booster
Lockheed Reusable Ten-Ton Orbital Carrier: A logistics system from the early 60s
Chrysler Hot Air Balloon S-IB: An unusual approach to booster recovery
MSC Orbiter 042A Titan IIIL6: A shuttle design with a delta-winged orbiter on an enlarged Titan
General Dynamics Model 202: a preliminary design for a Brilliant Pebbles launcher

USLP #5 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4.25:

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US Recon & Research Projects #3

Cover art was provided by Rob Parthoens, www.baroba.be

US Recon & Research Projects #3 is now available (see HERE for the entire series). Issue #3 includes:

Lockheed A-2: An early design leading to the SR-71
Boeing NuERA 747: A nuclear powered 747
General Dynamics SX-109 “Pathfinder”: a subscale SSTO demonstrator
Northrop N-165: A giant U-2 alternate
Convair M-125: A high altitude/speed single seat recon plane with toxic fuel
Bell AMST STOL Prototype: A heavily modified C-130
Convair Nuclear AEW: unmanned, nuclear powered VTOL fleet defense recon platform
Boeing Model 818-300: an early 60s battlefield surveillance platform

USRP #3 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4.25:

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US Transport Projects #8

Cover art was provided by Rob Parthoens, www.baroba.be

US Transport Projects #8 is now available (see HERE for the entire series). Issue #8 includes:

NACA SST: a 1947 concept
Boeing CX-HLS: Boeings design for what became the C-5
Bell Operational Medium STOL Transport: vectored thrust for short takeoff
Convair Limited War Amphibian: A concept for a single plan to meet both land and sea plane requirements
Bell Hypersonic Transport 1980-1990:A two-stage turboramjet/rocket concept
Lockheed Hybrid Wing Body 757PF-Sized Freighter: a recent design for an advanced transport
Lear Liner Model 40:a small airliner/large executive transport
Boeing Model 759-153A Resource Carrier: A big flying wing natural gas “tanker”

USTP #8 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4.25:

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December 2017 APR Patreon rewards

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Dec 302017

The rewards for APR Patrons have been issued. This month:

CAD Diagram: Marquardt hypersonic burning ramjet booster

Diagram: Convair Class VP Airplane High Performance Flying Boat

Document 1: Apollo Exploration Shelter System

Document 2: Chrysler Work Station Capsule (“work pod” for astronauts)

Document 3: Sikorsky S-97 “Raider” brochure

If you are interested in helping to preserve (and get copies of) this sort of thing, consider signing up for the APR Patreon.

Mars: Boeing vs. SpaceX

awesomeness, news, politics, spacecraft 20 Responses »

Dec 082017

Boeing CEO Says Boeing Will Beat SpaceX to Mars

Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg: “Eventually we’re going to go to Mars, and I firmly believe the first person that sets foot on Mars will get there on a Boeing rocket.”

Do it

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 7, 2017

One of the worst things to happen to the space race was when the Soviets conceded. If we can get American aerospace companies competing against each other… we can get this train moving again. Its a pity there’s been so much consolidation among US aerospace companies… a perfect future would have involved things like Ceres being acquired by Grumman, Phobos by Republic Aviation, Pluto by General Atomic, with Mars divvied up by Boeing, Lockheed and Walmart, with Europa in contention between Northrop and McDonalds, Ganymede being fought over between Chrysler and Ford.

Patreon: October 2014 rewards released

aircraft, drawings, history, new products, news, Patreon, projects, rockets, spacecraft 2 Responses »

Oct 102014

The October rewards for the APR patrons have been released. They include:

PDF document: “A Recoverable Air Breathing Booster,” A Chrysler study from 1964 for a strap-on booster system for the Saturn Ib incorporating additional H-1 rocket engines and jet engines for recovery.

PDF Document: “XF-103 Descriptive Data,”a Lockheed collection of information on the then-current XF-103. This is from a Lockheed collection of information on competitors designs.

Large format diagram scan: the Boeing Advanced Theater Transport. A later version of the tilt-wing “Super Frog.”

And for the higher-end patrons, a CAD diagram of an early NACA-Langley design for what would become the X-15.

If you would like to access these items and support the cause of acquiring and sharing these pieces of aerospace history, please visit my Patreon page and consider contributing.

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