Possibilities of New Business growth: Graphite structures

 history, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Aug 182019
 

Continuing. This time, discussion of possibilities of swapping out existing Orbiter structures with graphite composites. The advantage would be lowered dry mass of the Orbiter, leading to potentially higher payload performance. This would, presumably, be of interest for USAF launches from Vandenburg, a possibility that Challenger put to bed.

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 Posted by at 3:47 am

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 aircraft, art, history, Hmm..., Monthly Historical Documents Program, nukes, Patreon, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »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full resolution scan to the 2019-08 APR Extras Dropbox folder, available to $4 and up subscribers to the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.

 Posted by at 1:44 am

Rockwell: “Possibilities for New Business Growth,” 1985

 art, drawings, history, Hmm..., nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Aug 152019
 

One sizable document I’ve scanned for preservation is a Rockwell presentation package from October, 1985, showing a large number of space programs that the company could capitalize on. These included everything from minor mods to the Space Shuttle to major changes… stretching the orbiter, stretching the tank, adding additional boosters. Heavy lift boosters to put SLS to shame; heavy lift SSTOs; small experimental spaceplanes; manned military spaceplanes; space-based weaponry; space stations; space based nuclear power. Figured this stuff might be of some modest interest. So why not, I’ll post little bits of it from time to time.

Continue reading »

 Posted by at 4:16 am

SpaceX: A challenger rises

 awesomeness, news, projects, rockets  No Responses »
Aug 082019
 

Rocket Lab is, it seems, planning on recovering and reusing the first stage of their small Electron launch vehicle. The means of recovery is a lot lower tech than that of the Falcon 9… the Electron will pop a drogue ballute to stabilize, then open a parafoil to slow down and drift in the direction of a recovery ship. Before splashdown it will be air-snatched by a large helicopter then flown to the ship. Should be doable; the small size of the booster makes recovery of the entire first stage via this method practical, while Lockheeds Vulcan is, last I checked, only planning on recovering the engines and avionics.

This is of course no threat to SpaceX, which is going increasingly Bigger And Bigger. Still, it will be good to see yet more space launch systems working towards reusability and truly low cost.

On the other hand: no matter how capable Rocket lab gets with future boosters, their choice of launching from new Zealand will be a limiting factor. New Zealand has been since 1984 a “nuclear free zone,” excluding from its territorial waters any ship powered by nuclear reactors. While this would not necessarily seem to exclude nuclear powered spacecraft… why would  someone with such a payload risk it?

 Posted by at 3:29 am

Forthcoming

 aircraft, drawings, history, new products, projects, US Transport Projects  No Responses »
Aug 052019
 

Just finished the initial cut of diagrams for US Transport Projects #9, except for the interior layout of one jetliner…

Previously…

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:

——–

 Posted by at 2:11 am

Starship to fly soon?

 awesomeness, Hmm..., news, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Aug 042019
 

Hmmmm…..

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says first orbital Starship prototype flight debut is just weeks away

An update on the whole program is due August 24, and flights of a full-scale Starship “prototype” soon thereafter.
SpaceX is building *multiple* flight test vehicles, both in Texas and in Florida. They are building them outside, which is pretty much by definition as far from “clean room” conditions as you can get, unless you go the extra step and build them within a malfunctioning and overflowing sewage treatment plant. The Starship prototypes are clearly not space-capable, but seem to be aimed mostly or entirely as subsonic or just maybe low-supersonic aerodynamic “flying mockups.” The skins are far, *FAR* from the smooth, featureless outer mold lines you want to have for something that will deal with hypersonic airflows. Still, if they can demonstrate a death swoop and pinpoint landing with a vehicle with the same aerodynamics as a true Starship, with the same weights, propulsion systems, center of gravity, etc. as the real deal…. they’ll be a heck of a lot closer to a truly reusable large launch system than anyone else ever.
 Posted by at 7:52 pm

Sikorsky S-66

 aircraft, art, history, projects  No Responses »
Aug 042019
 

In 1964 Lockheed put forward a design in the US Army’s Advanced Aerial Fire Support System (AAFSS) program that would eventually win and become the AH-56 Cheyenne. But Lockheed was not alone in tendering a proposal: Sikorsky entered their S-66 design.

Both helicopters would have been advanced and fast. Lockheed made the AH-56 fast by adding a pusher prop to the tail, just aft of the conventional anti-torque rotor. But Sikorsky went a slightly different route: the S-66 used the “rotaprop” tail. This combined anti-torque duties with forward thrust in a single mechanism… a single somewhat complicated mechanism that could turn the sideways-thrusting anti-torque rotor 90 degrees to point it aft, providing forward thrust. This would have decreased drag and potentially decreased weight, but at added technical risk compared to the relatively simple solution of just adding a dedicated pusher prop. In late 1965, the Army decided that the risk was too high, and went with Lockheeds design.

The S-66 design got a fair amount of publicity during the contest, but I’ve never actually run across the proposal documentation or design diagrams. A few photos of a display model and a single cutaway drawing are presented HERE. Below are some magazine illustrations of the S-66. It would have been an impressive helicopter had it been built and if it had been successful, looking not unlike a sleeker version of the Mil 24 Hind attack helicopter.

 

 Posted by at 4:45 pm

SLS vs. Progress

 AARRRGH, Gah., Hmm..., news, projects, rockets, spacecraft, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Aug 012019
 

It seems that Boeing, prime contractor for the Space Launch System, tried to shut down development of orbital fuel depots and orbital propellant transfer. Because if you can stash a lot of fuel in orbit easily and cheaply, you don’t *need* the bloated irrational monstrosity that is SLS.

The SLS rocket may have curbed development of on-orbit refueling for a decade

What’s interesting; if this story is true, Boeing opposed fuel depots because they threaten SLS. But SpaceX, now working on “Super Heavy” rockets with roughly the same capability as SLS, are *actively* supporting fuel deports. Why the difference? Because SLS was never meant to really do anything. Launch once a year, one extremely expensive mission maybe to the moon, call it good. Pretend to be moving outwards again, but the minimum possible steps taken as slowly as possible. SpaceX wants to lob dozens of people to *Mars* in just the next few years. Same launch capability, but fundamentally different goals.

*IF* this story turns out to be true, someone needs to have their ass handed to ’em. Congressional investigations at least on par with the “Trump is a Russian stooge” investigation, because this one has had clear and obvious impacts on the US: Billions spent on a system nobody wants, years wasted that that the US could have used to conquer the heavens. Hell, just imagine what we could have done with SLS money by way of building breeder reactors.

 Posted by at 10:12 pm

Only sixty years late

 awesomeness, news, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Jul 312019
 

Before Lunar Orbit rendezvous made it possible for a single Saturn V to launch a complete lunar mission, the expected mission profile included launching a rather large lunar lander to Earth orbit, mating it with n upper stage, and then fueling the whole thing using specialized tanker spacecraft. NASA lucked out with the LOR concept; while some considerable work had been done on the tankers, the fact is that NASA really didn’t know *how* to do zero-gravity propellant transfer. When the word came down to stop working on the tankers, there were undoubtedly quite a number of quiet expressions of relief.

Still: the ability to do major propellant tanking in space will be vital for a real interplanetary economy. SpaceX will need to be able to do that for many of the lunar and Mars missions planned for Starship. So, it seems that on-orbit tanking is back on the menu.

NASA agrees to work with SpaceX on orbital refueling technology

 

 

 Posted by at 4:32 pm
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