I have been pestering the USAF FOIA offices for info on Pluto for more than a decade and a half. Long ago, I got hold of one document that has provided me most of what I know about the program, but it was just a lean summary, with big, fat, tantalizing gaps. One of its good points, though, was a pretty lengthy bibliography. I have been requesting several documents from that bibliography since the early/mid 90’s. Every few years I send in a request; and a few months later I get a letter back saying they can’t find the documents. Sigh.
So what I wrote for APR a while back was a summary of pretty much all I had, from a few scattered sources, knowing full well that the documents I wanted, the ones that would *really* tell the tale, seemed to have vanished. Oddly, there’s a lot more available about the nuclear reactor at the heart of the vehicle than on the airframe of the vehicle itself.
A few months ago I fired off another FOI request for the documents, and for a bibliogrpahy of related documents. The reference I have lists the titles of a few volumes out of many for the final Vought report, but not the whole set; so what the hell, I asked for a list of all of ’em.
Shortly after I left on my trip, I was contacted by an editor interested in publishing a book on Pluto. What I have now would make a dandy “Squadron In Action”-size book; but what he was after was a full hardback history of the program. So, the idea sorta stagnated.
So I picked up my vacation hold mail. Lo and behold, there was a thin package from DTIC, with a response to my Pluto FOIA request. And this time… they’ve found them. The whole set of Vought documents. Included in the package was a complete bibliography of the report with all its volumes; the three volumes I had known about and specifically requested have been copied and passed on to the controlling agency for declassification review.
The biblioigraphy shows that the individual volumes vary from Unclassified to Secret, but none of them are currently available to the public. But for the first time in 15 years, there is now a reasonable hope that they might soon be. If I can snag these reports… a full Pluto book now looks like a fully reasonable prospect, to follow the Orion book.
11 Responses to “Project Pluto Updates”
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Sounds like a must have book. Put me down for a copy. Signed if possible.
I would buy one, too!
I want also a copy and this sigend, please
also from the Orion Book and that Sci Fi tech book
by the way, how are intermediate result on those two ?
I’d buy one for sure!
>>also from the Orion Book and that Sci Fi tech book
Yeah!
Considering how difficult it still is to get the straight poop on MOL, it will be interesting to see just what they let you have regarding this project; although, as you point out, there’s already a lot of info on the engine out there, and you would think that is the part that would be considered the most classified about it if anything was.
Maybe the small warheads have something in their design they still want to keep classified? Other than that the only breakthrough part of the design would be the choice of materials to take the heat of Mach 3 flight at low altitude – probably some sort of ceramics, although the Vought model almost made it look like the whole airframe was going to be a copper heat-sink concept.
Great news Scott! 😉
I also get the impression that you are planning on some modeling of the Pluto. Any chance you could make a second or third while you are at it?
> the Vought model almost made it look like the whole airframe was going to be a copper heat-sink concept.
Really? You don’t know? Huh.
Anyone who does know what the story here, such as those who’ve been wise enough to purchase and read the issue of APR with the big fat Pluto article in it… don’t spoil the surprise for Pat.
> the Orion Book and that Sci Fi tech book
> by the way, how are intermediate result on those two ?
I’m continually working on the Orion book. It’s slower going than I’d like, but it’s also my first actual book, and I want to get it as right as I can get it.
As for modelling Pluto: there’s the 1/72 kit I’m working on for Fantastic Plastic. And there’s a larger version that I have a few people interested in as a completed display model.
Admin wrote:
“Really? You don’t know? Huh.
Anyone who does know what the story here, such as those who’ve been wise enough to purchase and read the issue of APR with the big fat Pluto article in it… don’t spoil the surprise for Pat.”
“And there’s a larger version that I have a few people interested in as a completed display model.”
Okay, that took about ten seconds to check with Google in regards to your interest in gold plating of things:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/systems/slam.htm
“An extensive materials investigative program resulted in the selection and fabrication of a section of fuselage using Rene 41 stainless steel with a skin thickness of 1/10 to ¼ inch. This was strength- tested in a furnace to simulate aerodynamic heating. Forward sections of the missile were to be gold plated to dissipate heat by radiation.”
The foolish capitalist always leaves clumsy tracks behind him that the cunning revolutionary may easily trace.
Kid Kalashnikov