Another PR card showing an X-30 NASP configuration, this being an early design modeled off of the original du Pont configuration.
High resolution versions of these can be had HERE.
Feb 232012
Feb 232012
Snerk.
An old Teledyne-Ryan Aeronautical-produced film that actually pokes fun at Teledyne-Ryan. Bits of it are actually pretty damn funny… and pretty much the sort of thing that would get people fired today.
[youtube Ln-CJ5ITUoQ]
Feb 212012
In 1963, supersonic transports were obviously just around the corner. One aspect of the concept that received a lot of study was the nose of the aircraft. The needs of low high-speed drag conflicted with the need for the pilots to see the runway; in the end, the vast majority of all large SST designs used “droop” noses. But alternate ideas were examined, such as this Lockheed concept where the nose rolled to the right, providing the pilot with excellent forward visibility (of course, visibility to the left would be fairly horrific).
Feb 202012
The North American Aviation P-82 was one of the stranger designs produced by the US in the years just after WWII. Originally designed as a straightforward welding of two P-51 Mustangs together to create a new long range fighter, the design as actually built shared almost no parts with the P-51. Below are a drawing and photo of a wind tunnel model of the XP-82 as tested by the NACA.
Feb 172012
In the days before the web came to domination, aerospace companies and government organizations would stamp out glossy propaganda/PR informational cards by the truckload. The X-30 NASP (National Aero Space Plane) program was no different. Below is one such card released by NASA. Note that first flight was expected by 2000 or so… just slightly behind schedule at this point. The design shown here is the final publicly revealed configuration, with the wide flat “spatula” nose. Not shown in this – or pretty much any – illustration are the rocket engines needed to put the spaceplane into a circular orbit.
High resolution versions of these are available HERE.
Feb 142012
From 1970, a Grumman Alternate Space Shuttle design that utilizes the S-IC booster from the Saturn V. Quite a number of Space Shuttle concepts called for the S-IC to be used as a first stage booster, as an expendable stage, a partially reusable or fully reusable stage. Shown here, the basic S-IC would be expendable. However, a second option would be to use a modified S-IC where the outer four engines would drop off during ascent and would be recovered. This is the same concept that Boeing proposed for the S-ID stage (see the October 2008 issue of the AIAA-Houston “Horizons” newsletter for more on the S-ID).
The use of a S-IC – stock or modified for partial recovery – would have presented a number of advantages, not least being that the existing Saturn launch facilities could be used. The S-IC would have provided adequate launch performance; the use of recoverable engines would have lowered cost and increased performance. However, the S-IC production line had been shut down for some time, and restarting it would have proven not only politically dubious (restating the S-IC would have led to questions about restarting the rest of the Saturn/Apollo line), but also expensive.
Slightly more on this is HERE.
Feb 122012
Bell Helicopter Introduces the 525 “Relentless” Super Medium Helicopter
Capable of carrying 16 passengers, with 5 rotor blades powered by the GE CT7-2F1 engine, range about 400 miles with a speed of about 260 kilometers/hour. First flight in 2014.
http://www.bell525supermedium.net/
A video of the unveiling is HERE.
Also:
Bell Helicopter’s New 525 Relentless Features ARC Horizon Flight Deck
Feb 112012
In October of 1969, General Dynamics/Convair reported to NASA on their Space Shuttle design work. This included a series of vehicles that utilized boosters and orbiters of similar geometry… basically little more than flat-bottomed aeroshells wrapped around the oxygen and hydrogen tanks. Both the booster and orbiter used turbofans stowed in the nose for flyback, and high aspect ratio variable geometry wings.
A number of configurations were studied, including triamese configurations with two boosters that had considerable commonality with the orbiter, to two-stage systems with entirely different boosters and orbiters. Payloads studied ranged from 25,000 pounds to 50,000 pounds. Note in the scale drawings below that the 50K version was virtually the same size as the Saturn V. This was due in part to the all-hydrogen fuel, and part as a consequence of reusability.
Higher rez versions of these drawings are posted HERE.
Feb 112012
Another of the CAD models I tinkered together with the notion of kitting it is the late 1940’s Hiller Helicopter VJ-100 jet-powered tailsitter. It needs work to the cockpit and the exhaust (especially the thrust vectoring vanes), but is otherwise pretty close.
Feb 082012
From US Patent 5,897,078, structural diagrams of the Boeing X-32. Can’t claim that they are entirely accurate, but they look good.
