This one should be tricky for most. But it may well be easy for certain people with somewhat particular interests.
Bonus glory to whoever can not only identify *what* but *where.*
Apr 172011
Apr 152011
I know what this is. I took the photos, after all. But do you know? If so, tell the world. No, there are no cash prizes… but you will accrue all the glory that comes with being the correct commenter on some piddly backwater blog. And that’s gotta be worth something, right?
UPDATE: check the comments for the answer…
Apr 142011
Today: 1,500 or so photos taken.
Apr 132011
A General Electric cutaway painting of the XMA-1A nuclear turbojet, designed for such aircraft as the NX-2.
Apr 132011
Guess where (yes, it is possible to nail down the location based on these two photos)?
Apr 122011
X-38 V-132 is now on display at the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Nebraska. It’s a pity that X-38 V-201 is not now on display at the National Air and Space Museum after having been dropped from orbit…
The X-38 program was projected to cost $2 billion, but was cancelled in 2002 due to budget cuts. A note: the 2002 budget for Medicare was $226 billion. In 2010, $452 billion. So… huzzah. Another budgetary success story. Way to rein things in, guys.
Apr 112011
Apr 102011
Kinda unavailable just now, so here’s a quick blog post with a couple of images sent by a blog reader wanting to know more about this. I’ve not seen this before. To me it screams of Colani-esque levels of engineering FAIL.
Clearly, *somebody* devoted some amount of effort to this. A college project? The data indicates a “Professor” was involved. But a professor of what?
Apr 092011
One of the more wonderfully wacky launch vehicles designed in the early 1960’s was the Martin “RENOVA” (IIRC, from REusable NOVA). It was one of the large Nova concepts from 1962-63, capable of orbiting approximately one million pounds. What made it unusual was that it was an airbreather, was single stage (sorta) and was reusable (mostly).
It was a conical vehicle equipped with RENE-cycle engines (Rocket Engine Nozzle Ejector). In short, these were smallish conventional rocket engines wrapped in a duct. At launch the forward end of the duct would be open, allowing air through. The rockets would work as ejectors… the shear forces between the rocket exhaust and the air would drag the air along, increasing thrust. Once a sufficient altitude had been reached so that airbreathing was no longer of value, most of the duct would be simply dropped. The rockets would exhaust along the conical centerbody of the vehicle as a plug-cluster rocket engine. For re-entry and recovery, doors would close off the inlet. The conical forward payload shroud would be dispensed with, leaving a blunt forward face. The result was a ballistically recoverable booster which could survice entry and splashdown.
And here’s an unusual variant. The differences here are:
1: Extended aft body
2: Instead of doors, the entire shroud moves to close off the inlet. Magnificently complex.
Apr 092011
This is fairly nifty:
[youtube QDBORfUQxi0]
And… hot girls with lightsabers. Why? WHY NOT!!
[youtube NGr1_Ih25fU]