Collier’s: February 23, 1953

 APR, art, drawings, history, projects, spacecraft  No Responses »
Mar 052013
 

AIAA-Houston has just published the Jan-Feb 2013 issue of “Horizons,” a free downloadable PDF magazine. Along with quite a number of other articles, also included is a restored reprint of the “Man’s Survival In Space” article from the Feb. 23, 1953, issue of Collier’s magazine. This is the fourth in the series of eight reprints of the famed Collier’s “Man Will Conquer Space Soon!” articles from the 1950’s. As always, this issue can be downloaded as either high or low resolution.

colliers1

And as before, the restoration of the scans was done by yours truly.

Also included in this issue is a Mini-APR article on a NASA-Langley concept for a two-man inflatable spaceplane concept from the early 1960’s.

colliers2

NOTE: Tell anyone you might think would be interested in the Collier’s series.

 Posted by at 11:19 pm

Parasol-winged SST concept: found on ebay

 aircraft, art, projects, science  11 Responses »
Mar 052013
 

Someone is selling a McDonnell-Douglas painting (the original actual painting, it seems) of an SST concept:

The aircraft uses a “parasol” wing, which was a concept that enjoyed a bit of popularity in the 1970’s. The idea: at supersonic speeds shock waves shed from the nose of the craft would impinge on the underside of the wing, adding lift and reducing fuel requirements. As memory serves, an added bonus would be that the benefit of area ruling would be in place, but without the need to actually “wasp-waist” the fuselage. Being able to produce a bland cylindrical fuselage would greatly reduce cost and stress on the large pressurized structure.

Such “favorable interference” designs would produced for fighters, SSTs and bombers, from USAF design labs to Boeing to McD to Lockheed and probably others. In time, the idea faded away; the gains in supercruise performance were apparently outweighed by cost and weight.

Note that the positioning of the engines, unusual for an SST, would also serve the favorable interference purpose: shock waves from the inlets would impinge on the wings above.

 Posted by at 11:37 am

Early LEM Concept: Revised

 drawings, history, projects, rockets, spacecraft  4 Responses »
Feb 242013
 

A modification of THIS design, with a raised canopy for the crew. This would greatly improve downward vision for landing. Note, though, that the crew are still seated at this stage in the design process.

Also note in the cross-section view that the toroidal propellant tanks are “tipped” by several degrees. This was not the case in the earlier design.

 

 Posted by at 2:50 pm

Saturn/Nova in Color

 art, history, projects, rockets  1 Response »
Feb 222013
 

A color version of the art previously shown HERE.

A 1962 NASA graphic showing the Saturn I, Saturn V and one or the more stereotypical of the Nova configurations to scale. Note that they all show direct-landing Apollo spacecraft… an extra stage, and no LEM. The Nova is similar to the “Saturn C-8” configuration. Note that the second stage of the Nova is larger in diameter and almost as long as the first stage of the Saturn C-5, and would have made the basis of a fairly substantial launch vehicle on it’s own.

 Posted by at 10:14 pm
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