Anatomy of the SST

 aircraft, drawings, history, models, projects  1 Response »
Sep 102012
 

From an ebay auction, a 1966 Boeing cutaway drawing of the early swing-wing version of the 2707 SST. While the wing would have made low speed flight, in particular takeoffs and landings, more efficient and comfortable, the technology of the time would have made the wing pivot and associated systems simply too heavy and complex for a commercial system such as this. Thus the final 2707-300 SST did away with the variable geometry wing.

But damn if it wasn’t sexy.

Photo of display models (from this auction)

 

 Posted by at 9:20 pm

Avro Arrow pitched as F-35 alternate

 aircraft, blather, history, news, politics  19 Responses »
Sep 092012
 

This is… huh.

New Avro Arrow design pitched to feds as alternative for F-35s: report

In short… the f-35 is so hideously expensive that portions of the Canadian government and industry wanted to cancel it and restart the old CF-105 Arrow, a plane from the 1950’s.

While the Arrow was undoubtedly an awesome machine half a century ago, it seems like it’d be out of place today… basically a MiG 25 with a maple leaf.

 Posted by at 8:33 pm

Because sure why not

 aircraft, awesomeness, blather  No Responses »
Sep 082012
 

An RC dragon, jet powered and capable of shooting flame (“breathing fire”):

[youtube SzP5X9Y58JE]

[youtube ntIxK5wjY50]

Now… DARPA< get ready to give me a contract.

1) Scale it up by a factor of three or four

2) Modify the propulsion system to be much quieter, less “jet like”

3) Give it a less flashy, more reptilian paint job

4)Equip it with speakers and cameras

5) Send it to third-world crapholes like Afghanistan, Somalia or Detroit to sow chaos among the ignorant, superstitious locals.

Bonus:

6) Have it crap out swarms of these, modified to explode:

[youtube kTlSSTTkqMw]

 Posted by at 2:58 pm

Gemini + Paraglider

 aircraft, art, projects, spacecraft  6 Responses »
Sep 042012
 

Another slide from the NASA HQ archive depicts a Gemini capsule landing under a Rogallo wing paraglider. The concept was given considerable study, and there was serious expectation that it would be instituted for “operational” Gemini spacecraft, such as military MOL flights and the like.

 Posted by at 10:52 pm

Shuttle Contractors

 aircraft, art, history, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Sep 042012
 

A piece of NASA artwork from 1976 showing who was responsible for what. This slide from the NASA HQ archive shows an *almost* final Space Shuttle; the differences between this and the actual STS  are probably due to artistic error or omission rather than design differences (the longer aft skirts on the SRBs, the bigger “spike” on the nose of the ET, differences in the color/tiles on the Orbiter, etc.)

 Posted by at 1:47 am

Supersonic flying wing: video

 aircraft, news, projects, youtube  4 Responses »
Sep 032012
 

A followup to this. This seems to raise more questions than it answers… there are only two rather small engines, which would seem insufficient to drag this thing to Mach 3, especially being up above the fuselage in a lower pressure recovery region. The wing is necessarily thick and draggy, but it looks *really* thick and draggy.

[youtube bmzsyNeUrCQ]

 Posted by at 11:28 am

Supersonic Flying Wing

 aircraft, art, history, news, projects  8 Responses »
Aug 302012
 

NASA has just signed a small ($100 K) study contract for a “ninja star” shaped jetliner. It would be a pointy cruciform in plan view; at low speed the longer axis would be the wing and at high speed the shorter axis would be the wing. To accomplish this, the jet engines would need to rotate 90 degrees.

Supersonic Flying Wing Nabs $100,000 from NASA

This is not an entirely new idea. In the 1970’s Boeing studied a similar concept… supersonic aircraft with single-pivot  rotating wings that would present long wings for low speed and short wing for high speed.

And it goes back even further. in 1963, former German aircraft designer Richard Vogt filed a patent via Boeing for a “TWO POSITION VARIABLE SHAPED WING” based on the same idea. The patent drawings seem to show a supersonic transport.

 Posted by at 6:40 pm

Northrop Truck-Airplane-Boat

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, blather, drawings, projects, ships  3 Responses »
Aug 302012
 

Tony Chong of Northrop Grumman has posted an article on the mid-1960’s Northrop Truck-Airplane-Boat concept. The TAB is exactly what it sound like: A flying truck-boat. Or a roadable seaplane. Or a seaworthy roadable aircraft. However you want to look at it.

Northrop’s TAB for All Seasons

Go there, read and be amazed. Lots of art, photos and diagrams. It actually looks so easy. And it looks like it’d make a profoundly awesome recreational vehicle.

And I can’t *possibly* be the only person who, on reading “Truck-airplane-boat” suddenly thought of this:

 Posted by at 1:46 am
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