I recall seeing these same two illustrations in a number of books & magazines back when I was a horrible little brat. But I’ve never, to my knowledge, come across any diagrams or data or even references to suggest that this was a serious effort. It dates from the late 1960’s or maybe very early 1970s. Any help?
The fact that I made the master CAD models for these, I’m sure, plays no role in my recommendation…
I’ve babbled about this a time or two in the past, but the specifics keep changing. But I think I’m zeroing in on the final form. The diagram below is meant for 24 X 36; the diagrams are at 1/72 scale. The final print will be black ink on white translucent mylar.
As shown here, it’s still a ways away from being complete; much more data to add, some refinements and additions to the diagrams, perhaps some artistic flourishes (though since I’m apparently devoid of any actual artistic talent, that sort of thing will be kept to an engineering minimum).
There will be only a limited number of these printed up, based on interest expressed in advance. The price is yet to be determined, but $50 is a very high upper limit. That comes from the price of something vaguely similar… the 24X36-on-white-mylar blueprints of the Nostromo from “Alien” and the Sulaco from “Aliens” that used to be available here:
Those two I got a few years ago, but only recently got around to framing (cheapo poster frames, but frames nonetheless). They look *spectacular.* And as they are substantially more spectacular than the X-20/Titan IIIc, my diagrams shouldn’t be priced at the same level.
If anyone has suggestions, I’d be interested.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory has posted a bunch of downloadable posters that hearken back to the old National Park Service/WPA “see America” posters from the 1930’s… and they look pretty spiffy:
I need a single scan: a 300 DPI color scan of the bottom right corner of the cover of the February 28, 1953 issue of Collier’s magazine. The whole cover would be nice, but all I really need is the corner, to allow me to fill in my own scan which is marred by the presence of a mailing label.
There I was, driving through the dreary interior of California on a 200-mile trip to go out on a date, when I turned on the radio to hear that the Space Shuttle Columbia had exploded on re-entry. There followed at least an hour of the dusty nothingness that is the road to Sacramento, and then the date, which involved meeting the young ladies mother. Neither of them gave a rats ass about the Shuttle, while I was kinda desperate to see the news on the TV. Yeah, not what you’d call a great social success story. Oh well.
Anyway, there has long been debate on whether if, with enough knowledge and effort, the crew could have been saved. I’m of the opinion that the moment the foam smacked the wing, the crew was pretty much doomed. But maybe…
The English language does not have the words to adequately describe my response to the conspiracies laid out here:
http://heiwaco.tripod.com/moontravel.htm
It’s just… indescribable. Inexplicable.
So there I was, sitting in a classroom, bored out of my mind, when all of a sudden the PA system woke up with a screech. Someone in the administrative offices had a TV on and was watching the Shuttle Challenger launch, saw it explode, and turned on the PA system and stuck the microphone up to the TV speaker. The classroom sorta froze for a few seconds, since nobody knew what was going on; the audio of course started up in mid sentence. When the speaker finally said something along the lines of “the space shuttle has exploded,” several students, myself included, packed up our stuff and bolted from the room, dashing towards the library. A whole lot of other kids and teachers had the same idea, with the result that hundreds tried to pack in to see the one TV in the place.
Boy, did that day *suck.*
Here’s the live CNN coverage. Note that the reporter is speaking when Challenger explodes… and, unlike current news reporting practice, he shuts up. Rather than a stream of unending blather, he lets the story speak for itself for a moment. Granted, he was likely shocked, but still…
Here’s some “behind the scenes at CNN:”
Here’s one hour of CNN coverage, from 11:00 to 12:00 (the explosion is at about 11:38):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rDg7S46ijM
And from 12:00 to 1:00:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmU2jC_RMYQ
It’s difficult to say that there was a bright spot in that day, but if there was, it was President Reagan. Originally scheduled to deliver the State of the Union address that night, he instead delivered a necessarily hastily-written address to the nation on Challenger… surely one of the great speeches in American political history.
As some may know, I’ve recently been on a high-rez aerospace artwork kick (as always, if you know of or have any such, let me know). And while I’ve been focusing on high quality stuff, sometimes there are low-quality images that are stuff worth of note.
One such is below, a rendering of the Northrop Corporations “SLOMAR” (Space Logistics, Maintenance and Repair) design circa 1960. Numerous companies worked on that USAF study, producing a range of lifting manned entry vehicles (see the General Dynamics version HERE). Northrop designed a vehicle virtually identical to the Boeing Dyna Soar, though a bit bigger.
After the Delta Clipper came the X-33. And before the decision was made to award the project to Lockheed, McDonnell-Douglas was in the running, basing their X-33 on their Delta Clipper.
When they lost X-33, the Delta Clipper idea and design faded into extinction.
‘Cept it seems to be back now:
Some notable changes in the design, of course, but the heritage is obvious.
I kinda wonder about the future. It seems reasonably obvious that from the NASA/national point of view, the future of manned spaceflight is pretty damn bleak. The Orion capsule is a useful space taxi… but to where? NASA has no real plans on going *anywhere.* And come January 2017, the new President could sweep what little planning there is away. But from the point of view of private companies, from SpaceX and Blue Origin to Virgin Galactic and Masten and Xcor, things seem remarkably hopeful. It’s been distressingly obvious for some years now that, despite my earlier hopes and dreams and training and work and career, I’ll play no part… but it’s good to see that chances are good that *someone* will.
Anybody need a used, factory-second and obsolete aerospace engineer?