A photo taken during the trip to D.C. back in March:
May 192012
May 172012
A cutaway diagram of a Boeing-Lockheed Space Shuttle concept derived from the Lockheed STAR Clipper design. This and other related concepts was covered in great detail in issue V3N2 of Aerospace Projects Review.
A high resolution version of this diagram can be downloaded HERE.
May 092012
Secret Air Force X-37B Space Plane Mission a ‘Spectacular Success’
OTV-2 has been on orbit about 430 days so far, apparently successfully. Of course the real test will be whether it will re-enter and last land successfully.
May 092012
Russian plane missing in Indonesia
Short form: a Sukhoi Superjet 100 on a demonstration (i.e. sales) flight with 8 Russian crew members and 42 invited passengers disappeared from radar over the Indonesian mountains.
No word of smoke monsters.
Apr 302012
The Houston AIAA section has published a 4-page article I put together on the Conroy “Virtus,” a twin-fuselage heavy lift aircraft built from B-52 parts meant to serve as the Space Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. You can download it (in the March/April 2012 issue of Horizons) for free here:
http://www.aiaa-houston.org/Newsletter.aspx
Apr 292012
This was Northrops plan for an operational follow-on to the YF-23, with some notable geometry changes.
A whole lot of information on this and other F-23 derivatives was included in issue V3N2 of Aerospace Projects Review.
You can download a 2.5 megabyte GIF file of the diagram. The link to the JPG file is HERE. To access it, you will need to enter a username and password. These are available on the first page of the Aerospace Projects Review V3N2 Addendum (available HERE). Note that both are case sensitive.
Apr 282012
The most advanced variant of the X-15 that stood a fair chance of getting built was the X-15A-3. Where the X-15A-2 was a stretched version of the X-15, with increased internal propellant tankage and additional external tankage, the A-3 would have been stretched even further. Additionally, the wings and horizontal stabilizers would have been removed and replaced with highly swept delta wings, and the rocket engine would have been upgraded (or simply replaced with a new and/or more powerful engine). The nosecone would have been stretched.
The end result would not have been much of an increase in speed, but duration and range would have been greatly increased. As long as the A-3 was, it was still to be carried to altitude by a B-52. Like the A-2, external tankage could be carried for increased performance, but for some reason the design featured only a single centerline tank.
The photo below shows a display model of an early design of the A-3. The final design had diamond-shaped wingtip fins.
Apr 272012
Sitting here working on a project for a client, with CNN on as background noise. The shuttle Enterprise is being flown into New York City for some reason (because, sure, when you think “space program,” what comes to mind faster than “New York City?”), and CNN’s reporterbots are doing their thing. I had to cringe when John Zarrella started yamming about the Russian “Boron” (yeah, “Boron”) space shuttle… which, according to him, never flew into space, only “suborbital” flights just like the Enterprise.
D’oh.
Apr 262012
This is pretty neat… a sailplane light enough to be carried on your back like a hang glider. Made by Ruppert Composite GmbH of Switzerland, the Archaeopteryx has a span of 44.6 feet, a length of 18.7 feet, a basic empty weight of 119 pounds, max takeoff weight of 362 pounds, a minimum airspeed of 19 mph and a max airspeed (VNE) of 81 mph and a best glide ratio of 28. I wonder what sort of performance might be had by cladding the upper surface with thin PV cells and adding a small, efficient electric motor and a prop…
The price of the thing, with all the bells and whistles including the fully enclose cockpit and the emergency parachute, is about 100,000 Swiss Francs. I’m not sure what that is in Real Money, but I’m guessing it’s a lot.
[youtube OpemglwS8XA]
[youtube BJXSBAp7Pic]
Apr 212012
The fourth and last of the X-15 panoramas.
