Jan 312013
 

One of the last aircraft proposed by the Curtis-Wright company (early 1960’s), this version of the Model 300 featured a single main wing with wingtip engine pods. Each pod contained to Wankel rotary internal combustion engines; each engine drove a broad-bladed propeller (one at the front of the pod, one at the rear) of the type that had been successfully demonstrated on the Curtis-Wright X-19 VTOL aircraft. In order to attain vertical lift, the forward propeller would tilt up, the aft propeller would tilt down.

At the time, there was considerable interest in fast short-ranged VTOL transport. The idea was that small VTOL aircraft would operate from various small “ports” in and around major cities, flying to and from the nearest major airport (along with other transportation hubs). The VTOL would provide a bus service for the busy businessman on the go, who might need to leave his office in a hurry and catch the next jetliner to, say, London. While no VTOL aircraft such as the Model 300 were built and put into service for this role, several attempts to fill the “VTOL bus” role were attempted with helicopter, but due to noise and cost the concept never caught on.

 Posted by at 8:14 pm
Nov 172012
 

On eBay:

1980-s SOVIET *ENERGIA-BURAN* SPACE SHUTTLE 1:25 MODEL, 111″ HUGE AND DETAILED!

A very large model of Energia-Buran, apparently actually made by Energia, with a Buy It Now price of only twenty-five grand.

  • The model has been made by the manufacturer of the real rocket – Energia Rocket Corporation.
  • Made of aluminium alloy, brass, steel and wood this model is not a plastic toy, it’s solid and heavy.
  • The size of the model – 111″ (or 283 cm). It’s a real big size exhibit.
  • Any museum or collector could be proud to have this model in collection because of its quality and many details.
  • Exceptionally rare to find, the only known copy of this model is placed into the museum of its manufacturer – Energia Rocket Corporation
  • Assuming it actually does come from the Energia Rocket Corporation museum, I’m of two minds:

    1) It’s sad that Energia is selling this off, for whatever reason

    2) I’m sad that the Russians are better capitalists than American aerospace companies, who not only wouldn’t bother with museums but who instead would either have models like this stuff in some wooden crate in a storage facility, never to be seen again, or simply dumped in the trash or intentionally destroyed.

     Posted by at 9:54 am
    Nov 112012
     

    An overview of the LK parts. There will be some differences between these views and the final parts… some are really quite small and may be replaced with photoetched brass bits and pieces.

     Posted by at 12:41 am