May 262010
A photo of lifting body wind tunnel models tested by Martin in the mid 1960’s. Most of them are pretty clearly related to the SV-5/X-23/X-24 configuration… but just what’s going on with the design in the upper right, with twin “canopies” or whatever they are, is unknown to me.
12 Responses to “Martin Lifting Bodies”
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The big red one in the center it seems to be clearly the inspiration for the “Marooned” XRV….
The bulges seem awfully far back to be canopies. Blended rocket pods, maybe?
Yeah, the bulges on the one in the upper right are odd.
Here’s some photos of the “Marooned” XRV BTW:
http://www.cloudster.com/Sets&Vehicles/Marooned/MaroonedTop.htm
They also have some photos of the S-IVB “Wetlab” model on that page.
Somewhere around here I have a NACA paper on lenticular re-entry bodies. One of them was tested with one, two, and three bubble canopies located a little behind amidships.
Somewhere around here I have a NASA paper on lenticular re-entry bodies. One of them was tested with one, two, and three bubble canopies located a little behind amidships.
The problem with the lenticular design concept was there’s no really good way to stick it atop a booster; instinctively it should be flat, but that leads to a lot of drag and large booster diameter, as well as a really large aerodynamic fairing atop it.
For every advantage it gives in the form of a simple circular heatshield shape, it seems to generate at least one deficit from the choice of that shape.
Besides that, the “flying saucer” shape isn’t that good from an internal volume point of view compared to a X-24 style lifting body.
There also isn’t all that much aerodynamic data on how it will behave once it transitions to horizontal flight at multi-Mach speeds except for the old Pye Wacket AAM program:
http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app4/pyewacket.html
It certainly doesn’t look all that low drag in regards to getting good cross-range during reentry.
BTW – what’s a “Pyewacket”?
This is a Pyewacket – the cat familiar to Kim Novak’s witch in the really fun movie “Bell, Book and Candle”, for all you cat fans – that Scott referenced in an earlier posting on this blog:
http://thecatfiles.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/kim-novak-and-pyewacket/
We used to have a pet Siamese cat named “Siam” when I was a kid, and it was a great cat indeed.
We were always concerned that she would get out of the house when the bad-tempered Dalmatian from the other end of the block, named “Trixie” was in the yard, and that Trixie would kill it.
Siam did indeed see Trixie in the yard, and ran out the door between my mother’s feet as she opened the door to yell at it.
Then Siam leaped on Trixie’s back, dug all her claws in, and rode the howling dog like a jockey on a horse for over two city blocks, before returning home with an air of casual triumph that only cats can do without it looking affected.
Trixie never came into our yard again. š
_The_ classic shot of Kim Novak and Pyewacket:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2534/4236868351_3eec2a8627.jpg
Thanks for the definition of Pyewacket. I had no idea it was related to anything at all. Do engineers read that broadly these days?
I have a suspicion it wasn’t engineers reading a lot, but rather engineers having the hots for Kim Novak. š
I imagine the name probably got chosen because the circular missile resembled a pie, and it was supposed to be launched at a enemy missile or fighter and whack it.
Although the article on the missile doesn’t state it, one advantage of the disc-like design was seen as the ability to store a large number of the missiles in the B-70’s interior (I don’t know whether they were going into the main bomb bay or have a separate storage area) without taking up too much space by stacking them up like pancakes.
If they really could have gotten a range of 72 nm out of something that was 70 inches in diameter and capable of traveling at Mach 6.5 while doing severe maneuvers, this aerodynamic design should maybe be reconsidered for future missiles.
Having the hots for the lady certainly explains a lot. I imagine the cat was climbing all over her, which is certainly a comprehensible and rational goal.
“Valkyrioe,” by Jenkins and Landis, has most of the answers about the thing. They were going to be on two posts in the bomb bay, ten of them in total. The name, note 90 reports, is from a secretary in the Project Office. She thought the thing needed a better name than the official description.
In the movie she would talk to the cat, and pick it up like shown in the classic photo when she wanted to cast a spell on someone.
When she started consorting with mortals the cat became annoyed with her and left.
Jimmy Stewart must have gotten too close to the cat during the filming of the movie, as he developed a full-blown crush on Novak when they were filming it…mirroring the actions of his character in the movie.
Who almost steals the whole movie is Jack Lemmon’s warlock character, who realizes that books on magic are very popular, and he could make a fortune by writing one – because everything in _his_ book would really work. š