Another CAD model I’ve been tinkering with is a Convair “Triamese” space shuttle concept. If it were to be turned into a kit, the parts would include the wings either retracted or deployed… due to the difficulty in making the numerous little hinged doors actually work in practice, making a truly VG model would be impractical.
A fully reusable booster with a fully reusable orbiter with fully expendable external tanks. Essentially the best and worst of all worlds.
Ah, yes. Remember the good old days when Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama was going to restore the world’s faith in the US by not being such a meanie as that nasty ol’ dummy George Bush? Yeah, about that…
U.S. drones targeting rescuers and mourners
When even the screamingly leftist rag “Salon” is taking some notice of Saint Obamessiah targetting civilians, you know that something’s up.
As Fark.com put it:
Conceptual artwork from 1967 depicting a Mach 10 to Mach 14 hypersonic transport. Hydrogen burning scramjets would provide cruise propulsion at an altitude of 110,000 to 140,000 feet. No further data is available apart from what can be determined from the artwork. There are 136 seats, relatively few for an aircraft that is clearly quite large. The general configuration is similar to the hypersonic testbed previously posted HERE, especially the propulsion system & inlet arrangement.
A very hi-rez version of this can be downloaded HERE.
A comparison between solid rockets and pressure-fed liquid boosters for the Shuttle.
[youtube YQIMGV5vtd4]
Continuing to plink away on this one. The first set of illustrations show the whole setup; the second set shows a further refinement with the ramjet innards in place.
The last of this set of images, this one showing a twin-engine design with USB jets. Note the rather large “fence” on the inboard side of the exhaust… I would guess that this is a noise-blocker, to help keep the passengers from going stone deaf.
A rather clever promotional stunt for the forthcoming fantasy movie “Chronicle” (about three guys who wind up with Superman-like superpowers, at least one of whom – according to the commercials I’ve seen – goes bugnuts).
[youtube dcDN409ZBv4]
Of course, these RC airplanes shaped like people are being shown here flying around a rather empty looking region across the river from Manhattan, not in New York City proper. They appear to be very low-mass and low-power vehicles; it would be interesting to see a higher performance version. It’d be more interesting to see a higher performance version actually zipping up and down the streets of Manhattan. But I’d guess that would be *all* kinds of illegal.
Most of the 3D solid models I’ve made, I’ve made for clients or employers. Every now and then, though, I’ve made a few on spec or just for giggles. One such is the Convair Super Hustler. It’s nowhere near done, but it at least looks like a Super Hustler. When done, I hope to translate it into physical form, either as a kit or as a finished display model.
The booster stage will of course be modeled as well. The B-58 Hustler carrier aircraft is available in 1/144, 1/72 and 1/48 scales… but damn, the Super Hustler would be impressive at 1/18 scale!