A 1st Edition Copy of “Nuclear Pulse Propulsion”

 blather, books, drawings, history, news, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, projects, rockets, science, science fiction, spacecraft  15 Responses »
Feb 272014
 

I printed out what I have on my NPP book, and it consumed pretty much most of a ream of paper (single sided only). A lot of the CAD diagrams haven’t yet been integrated… and a number aren’t done yet, so there’s yet more pages to print. This binder will be used to scribbling purposes… i always seem to be able to find slepping erorrs and the like easier on a written page than on-screen.

Just confirmation that the project remains underway. The final book will be a bit of a beast, especially if printed on good paper at this size or better.

Img_3705 Img_3696 Img_3697 Img_3698 Img_3699 Img_3700 Img_3701 Img_3702 Img_3703 Img_3704

In the master list of diagrams,green means finished, yellow means in progress, red means unstarted.NPP-00001 list-Model NPP-07002 20M-Model NPP-09001 helios-Model NPP-10001-3 daedalus 1st stage-Model NPP-16001-2 interplanetary-Model NPP-40001-2 world ship-ModelNPP-48001 British Rail-Model

 Posted by at 1:50 pm

Sprint

 awesomeness, history, nukes, rockets, weapons, youtube  3 Responses »
Feb 272014
 

Video of the Sprint missile, which was capable of blistering accelerations. To get an idea, at about the 24 second mark in the video, you can see the whole surface of the second stage begin to glow white hot.

[youtube kvZGaMt7UgQ]

Sprint was designed and built to defend Minuteman ICBM bases. It would do this by reaching out and tagging incoming Soviet warhead at a range of just a few miles; the Sprints warhead was a neutron bomb which would essentially trash the target by causing it to melt down. If you were unfortunate enough to be standing near one of the Minuteman silos when this occurred, you would very likely be in a world of radiological hurt. But the point was simply to make sure that the incoming warheads didn’t make it to the surface intact and do an underground burst which would trash the silos.

 Posted by at 12:49 pm

Storytime: “Orion Battleship Intro”

 blather, books, history, My Fiction, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, Pax Orionis, projects, rockets, russian empire, science fiction, spacecraft, weapons  5 Responses »
Feb 262014
 

So, a number of years ago I started working on “Nuclear Pulse Propulsion,” which was to be the End All Be All tome on this topic. Sometime into it, someone suggested that I take a page from Tom Clancy and add a little fictional vignette of a few paragraphs to the start of each chapter, to try to bring some aspect of the designs to life. It was a good idea, I thought, so I took a crack at it… and realized with my first attempt that it just wasn’t working. At least, not the way I was going about it. I started writing a yarn featuring the 4,000 ton “space battleship” pitched to the USAF. But several pages in, it became clear that I wasn’t doing well on keeping it to “a few paragraphs.” Also… it was getting fairly dire. Just as there are few stories you can tell about a Ohio-class boomer or a Minuteman III missile silo that feature them doing the jobs they were designed for, there seem few to tell about a spacecraft designed to fight an all-out nuclear war. And while, if written well, it could be an exciting yarn… it ain’t gonna be too damn cheerful, unless global annihilation is something you think is pretty awesome. So… I just sorta gave up on the idea.

 

In the past week or three I’ve gotten back into working on NPP, and dug up the Orion Battleship tale. And because why not, I’m posting a PDF of it. Keep in mind, this isn’t a polished piece. It’s not even a rough draft; it’s half a rough draft. There is no dialogue, there are no human characters. I had an end in mind, but just never got to it.

So, if’n yer interested in such things, HERE YA GO.

batlleship tale

 

And because I just got the plumbers bill for replacing the pressure tank and suddenly find myself in some need of cash…

 


Fiction Tip Jar



 Posted by at 11:46 am

US Bomber Projects #08, Large formats 01-03 and 04-06 Now Available

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, books, drawings, history, new products, news, nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft, US Bomber Projects  No Responses »
Feb 162014
 

Now available:

Issue number 08 of US Bomber Projects is now available (for background, see HERE). This issue includes:

  • Boeing Model 464-27: a slightly-swept turboprop B-52 progenitor
  • Rockwell D645-6: A minimum-weight spanloader missile carrier
  • Martin Mach 4.25: A large, manned nuclear ramjet
  • Boeing Model 484-2-2: A swept-wing, slightly supersonic B-58 competitor
  • Douglas System 464L: A many-surfaced Dyna Soar spaceplane
  • Martin Model 223-8: a 1944 step on the road to the XB-48
  • Boeing Model 801-11A: A Mach 3.5 hydrogen fueled design of incredible range
  • Martin MAMBA: A mid-1960’s A-10-analog

USBP#08 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4:

——–

———

usbp08

—————————-

Brand new: larger format drawing collections

The CAD drawings created for USBP reformatted an rescaled for 11X17 collected in separate volumes. Drawings have in some cases been corrected, improved and added to.

USBP 11X17 01-03 collects the diagrams created for issues 01, 02 and 03, including:

Rockwell D 645-1; NAA 1495-25 PAMSS; Boeing Model 701-273-0; Convair B-58-C-1; Lockheed CL-2102-2; Lockheed Model 195-A-13; Martin Model 223-1; Boeing Model 444 A; Rockwell D 645-1: LH2; NAA High Performance Penetrator; Boeing Model 701-273-1; Lockheed GL-232; Boeing Space Sortie; Martin Model 223-2; Boeing Model 461; Northrop Low Altitude Penetrator; Rockwell D 645-4A; Lockheed System 464L; Convair Mach 4 “Rollover;” Boeing Model 701-273-3; Boeing HSCT Model 1080-854; Martin Model 223-3; Boeing Model 462

USBP11x17-01-03 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $10:

——–

———

usbp11x17-01-03

————————-

USBP 11X17 04-06 collects the diagrams created for issues 04, 05 and 06, including:

McDonnell System 464L; Lockheed-Martin Falcon; Lockheed Senior Peg; Boeing Mobile Missile Carrier; Boeing Model 701-273-4; Lockheed Cruise Missile Carrier; Boeing Model 462-5; Martin Model 223-4; McDonnell-Douglas ATB; McDonnell-Douglas/Boeing DF-9; Boeing Model 701-273-5; Fairchild N-9; Martin Model 223-5; Rockwell D645-5;North American 464L; Boeing Model 464-17; Boeing Model 464-18; Convair WS-125A; Martin MX-2092; GD AMPSS; Republic System 464L; Martin Model 223-6; Boeing Model 701-273-6; Martin Water-Based Attack Aircraft

USBP11x17-04-06 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $10:

——–

———

usbp11x17-04-06

 Posted by at 12:25 pm

Nuclear Turbojet

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, blather, drawings, history, nukes, projects  4 Responses »
Feb 122014
 

I usually don’t just repost aerospace projects from other websites, but what the heck: An illustration of a 200 megawatt nuclear powerplant for aircraft. This single-reactor, four-turbojet engine would have been installed in a highly modified B-36 or B-60.

 

ANP53 aircraft mounting

 

This powerplant is very similar to the General Electric powerplant intended for the X-6, which consisted of an R-1 reactor and a P-1 powerplant… four modified General Electric J47 turbojets. However, here the reactor is spherical rather than the R-1’s cylindrical, and the engines are described as Wright engines rather than GE. Wright was not a major designer of turbojets… this drawing might show engines based on the Wright J67, which was a license built version of the British Rolls-Royce Olympus. This nuclear turbojet concept is probably form fairly early in the design process.

The basic concept was simple enough. The reactor would replace chemical jet fuel by putting a heat exchanger where the turbojet would normally have a combustor. In order to get the heat from the reactor to the heat exchanger, a NaK (an alloy of sodium and potassium) would be used. NaK has the convenient feature of being liquid at room temperature (freezing at -11 Celcius), boiling above 785 Celcius. This means that in most conditions, even with the reactor off, the liquid in the pipes won’t freeze, and the liquid will stay a liquid, capable of carrying considerable thermal energy, at usefully high temperatures. On the other hand, NaK has the unfortunate problem of having a serious hatred for water and oxygen, merrily exploding in contact with either (especially at high temperature). If your nuclear engine springs a leak… watch out.

 Posted by at 8:33 am

What’s this nuke from?

 nukes  7 Responses »
Jan 252014
 

A little while I stumbled across this small animation of a MIRV coming in and detonating. It’s interesting, but not entirely accurate: the aft end is a blank spot, when there should be reaction control thrusters back there. Anyone know what this is from?

f43

 Posted by at 10:27 am
 Older Entries  Newer Entries