Rockets Of Unusual Shape: Part 1

Found several years back in the Boeing Historical Archives were reproductions of paintings of some very unconventional launch vehicle configurations. Dating from 1966, no further data was available, just the art. But it appears that at least the artists – and hopefully the actual design engineers – were for a brief time given free reign to design manned spacecraft that broke the traditional molds. Recoverability was clearly important, but not all designs were entirely recoverable, and some of the ways in which the vehicles were to be recovered were quite imaginative.

More to come.