Apr 302013
 

The 747 was reportedly carrying armored vehicles. It looks likely that one of them broke loose in the hold, and rolled aft, sending the CG of the aircraft unrecoverably far aft. The 747 pitches almost straight up, wallows drunkenly, then pitches forward and rolls. Presumably the loose armored vehicle rolled forward, which allow the pilot to regain some measure of control… far too late to do anything. There is one NSFW utterance… and *only* one. I would have used more, but that’s just me.

Cargo cutting loose on takeoff is pretty much a cargomasters worst nightmare. This video points out why.

[youtube uIjO0sKBDDw]

 Posted by at 8:29 pm
Apr 292013
 

A 1959 Bell Aerospace design for a Tri Service (Army, Marines, USAF) VTOL troop transport using vectorable ducted fans. This obviously led to the X-22 design. The fuselage was much like that of transport helicopters like the Chinook, boxy and unaerodynamic, but the propulsion system would provide considerably higher forward velocity.

A chart of Bell VTOL designs is HERE.

 Posted by at 8:18 pm
Apr 292013
 

And it went supersonic:

First powered flight success for SpaceShipTwo

ss2

Classy:

XCOR Congratulates Virgin Galactic on First Powered Flight of SpaceShipTwo

XCOR Aerospace sends our warmest and heartfelt congratulations to our friends and colleagues at Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites on their successful first powered flight of the SpaceshipTwo (SS2) suborbital space plane.

We applaud their exceptional team on taking the next step in the greatest journey the human race has ever known.  We look forward to meeting them there, above the clouds, where the adventure has only just begun.

 Posted by at 6:47 pm
Apr 272013
 

Yesterday news broke that a chunk of jetliner landing gear had been found wedged between two buildings in lower Manhattan. Today speculation has arisen that the landing gear didn’t just land there, but in fact was hidden there; it’s in an unlikely location, and apparently still has rope wrapped around part of it. But why would it have been hidden there? Well, consider the location: it was wedged between 51 Park Place and 50 Murray Street. “51 Park Place” might be better known as the “Ground Zero Mosque.”

The more political-correctness-mined have complained about the monicker “Ground Zero Mosque.” Tellingly, the original name was “Cordoba House.” The Caliphate of Cordoba was the name of the portion of Christian Spain that Muslim invaders conquered a thousand years ago. Cordoba House was named after the Caliphate; the planers claimed that this was because Cordoba was an example of peaceful co-existence among religions, but other have pointed out that that Cordoba is a symbol of Muslim conquest of and domination over other religions. And “Ground Zero,” despite the protestations of many, is a perfectly valid description… 51 Park Place wasn’t simply in the vicinity of the 9/11 attack, it actually *was* part of ground zero. According to Wiki:

During the attacks, the then-five-story building at 45–47 Park Place, between West Broadway and Church Street, was severely damaged. When United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower of the World Trade Center, part of the plane’s landing gear, engine and fuselage came out the north side of the tower and crashed through the roof of 45–47 Park Place, and through two of its floors. The plane parts destroyed three floor beams, and severely compromised the building’s internal structure.

If the building not only got struck by airplane parts but got substantially *trashed* by airplane parts, it seems reasonable to conclude that the building was an important part of the event.

So, why might the landing gear have been hidden? Speculating… if the landing gear was discovered a few years after 9/11, when the Ground Zero Islamic Victory Celebration Mega Mosque was causing a public ruckus, having the discovery made public would have been bad PR. Better to simply make it disappear.

 Posted by at 9:40 am
Apr 262013
 

A Grumman alternate Space Shuttle concept with a low cross range orbiter and a trio of 156-inch diameter solid propellant rockets for the first and second stages. The orbiter itself was stuffed with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks; even so, the high density of the solid rockets meant that the vehicle as a whole was remarkably compact.

shuttle 156 in srm

 Posted by at 8:08 pm
Apr 262013
 

A vintage PR film about Scaled Composites Ares ground attack aircraft from the late 1980s. It was a neat plane, and the idea of a cheap, small, nimble ground support plane sure seemed like it made sense, but the DoD didn’t want it. Why? Well… among a number of reasons both good and bad, take a look at the video when the GAU-12/U 25mm Gatling gun goes off… and throws the bitty lightweight aircraft all over the sky (at 1:48) . Accuracy must’ve been atrocious… which can be seen in the shots showing the target (2:18) with rounds hitting all over the place.

Lightweight and nimble are often good features. However, accurate gunnery with powerful, high-recoil weapons requires heavy and stable… or really, really effective computer-controlled active stability, which adds cost in a hurry.

[youtube zG9LlHcX8lg]

 Posted by at 12:41 am
Apr 162013
 

The B-58 Hustler supersonic bomber was designed alongside its weapon. Unlike many bombers which were designed as generalized “trucks,” which could haul any of a number of different weapons, the B-58 was designed to carry a single specific payload, a large, sleek  underslung pod. The MB-1 pod was much longer than the thermonuclear weapon it held; the extra volume contained fuel used to get to the target. The idea was a clever on, but the MB-1 was plagued with fuel leaking from the tanks into the weapon bay. The MB-1 was eventually replaced with a two Component Pod, which have a narrow weapon pod semi-submerged within a larger fuel pod, which could be jettisoned separately. A proposed version of the MB-1 would have had a rocket engine in the tail of the pod, turning it into a standoff weapon (but reducing the range of the B-58).

Illustration from a B-58 maintenance manual.

mb-1 pod

 Posted by at 10:20 am
Apr 102013
 

Bell has announced a tilt rotor to take the place of the Black Hawk. It is smaller than the v-22, and featured fixed wingtip engines: the proprotors tilt, but the engines do not. This leaves a clearer line of sight out the side during hover, both for ingress and egress, as well as door gunners.

An attack version is also contemplated.

Bell Helicopter Introduces the Bell V-280 Valor Tiltrotor at AAAA.

FORT WORTH, TX (April 10, 2013) – Bell Helicopter, a Textron Inc. company (NYSE: TXT), revealed today the Bell V-280 ValorTM, its offering for the Joint Multi Role/Future Vertical Lift (FVL) Technology Demonstrator (JMR/TD), at the 2013 Army Aviation Association of America’s (AAAA) Annual Professional Forum and Exposition in Fort Worth.

  • Speed: 280 KTAS cruise speed
  • Combat range: 500-800nm
  • Strategically Self-Deployable – 2100nm Range
  • Achieves 6k/95
  • Non-rotating, fixed engines
  • Triple redundant fly-by-wire flight control system
  • Conventional, retractable landing gear
  • Two 6’ wide large side doors for ease of ingress/egress
  • Suitable down wash
  • Significantly smaller logistical footprint compared to other aircraft

AAAA2013-FVL-LandingScenerio

AAAA2013-FVL-AirplaneMode

FVL%20Rear%20Quarter%20Attack FVL attack

Please enjoy this Bell PR video featuring decent computer graphics and some rather painful acting:

[youtube 1O3Onyas984]

The official Bell V-280 website, with more images and such.

 Posted by at 6:39 pm