Similar to the North American Aviation shuttle of 1971, here’s the McDonnell-Douglas Phase B “alternate approach” Orbiter layout. Note the four J-2S engines.
Dec 252009
Search Results : shuttle
Dec 192009
OK ya cheap mooches, here’s a great big diagram of the Space Shuttle as NAR saw it in 1971. Click on the pic to embiggen.
Note the four J-2 rocket engines rather than three SSME’s. Also note the airlock in the nose ahead of the cockpit and the RCS pods at the tips of the wings and the vertical tail.
NOW don’t you want to support the cause? Buy My Stuff, such as aerospace drawings and documents and Aerospace Projects Review. Or you could just Donate. For more posts like this, click on the Unwanted Blog header up top and then click on the “Projects” category to the right (or just click the “Projects” link to the right, if you happen to see it).
UPDATE: here’s a slighty larger black & white version of the above drawing.
Nov 262009
Two photos of the model on display at the NASM Udvar-Hazy center.
Looks like a pretty neato design, doesn’t it. So neat that you’d love to see more. Hell, you’d be willing to pay to see more. Well, today’s your lucky day! A whole mess of diagrams of this beautiful beastie are available HERE and HERE. Get ’em both at once HERE.
Nov 242009
As a companion to Space Drawing Set 18 (booster), here are the equivalent drawings for the orbiter, McDonnell Douglas Model 255, Phase B high crossrange orbiter from 1971. All drawings are in B&W, and all come with half-size versions for easier viewing and printing. All contained in a single ZIP file.
255BJ00050sht1: General Arrangement, Siamese Tank, Delta Wing Orbiter (8154X3231 pixels)
255BJ11138sht1 Wing Structural Assy Delta Wing Orbiter (4123X3106 pixels)
255BJ11138sht2 Wing Structural Assy Delta Wing Orbiter (8240X3300 pixels)
255BJ11138sht3 Wing Structural Assy Delta Wing Orbiter (8200X3300 pixels)
255BJ11138sht4 Wing Structural Assy Delta Wing Orbiter (8094X3234 pixels)
255BJ23143 Structural Assy Vertical Tail Delta Wing Orbiter(8062X3186 pixels)
255BJ30092 Fuselage Structural Assy Delta Wing Orbiter(15990X3326 pixels)
255BJ50069 Main propulsion System Installation Delta Wing Orbiter (9873X3240 pixels)
255BJ50070 Airbreathing Engine Fuel System Instal – Orbiter (8144X3232 pixels)
255BJ50146sht1 ACPS/OMS Installation (11628X3333 pixels)
255BJ50146sht2 ACPS/OMS Installation (7550X3300 pixels)
255BJ50146sht3 ACPS/OMS Installation (10262X3333 pixels)
255BJ50147 Airbreathing Engine Installation – Orbiter (8184X3256 pixels)
255BJ50907 ACPS Engine Cover (TPS) Down Firing (8226X3270 pixels)
255BJ58074 Tank Assembly – Main Propellant – Delta Wing Orbiter (8168X3224 pixels)
Space Drawing set 19 can be downloaded for $10.
Nov 182009
Now available: Space Drawing Set 18, containing 22 drawings of the Model 256-20B McDonnell-Douglas/Martin Marietta manned, reusable, flyback Space Shuttle booster from 1971. The Phase B baseline booster was a wing hydrogen/oxygen powered launcher fitted with canards… and fitted within the canards were a multitude of turbofan engines for use in getting back to a landing field for a powered runway landing.
This drawing set contains:
McDonnell-Douglas drawings:
256-20-0001: General Arrangement Model 256-20B Booster (also shows Model 255 orbiter): B&W, 6416X3263 pixels
256-20-0010: Layout – Installation Main Landing Gear: Color (with an additional clear grayscale version), 11362X3290 pixels
256-20-0011: Layout – Installation Nose Landing Gear: Color (with an additional clear grayscale version), 7298X3230 pixels
256-20-0015: Nose Section, Booster: Color (with an additional clear grayscale version), 10568X3168 pixels
256-20-0020: Main Propulsion System installation : Color (with an additional clear grayscale version), 11760X2140 pixels
256-20-0027: Inboard profile: Grayscale (with an additional “cleaned” version), 9368X3120 pixels
256-20-0032: ECLS Installation: Color (with an additional clear grayscale version), 8656X3032 pixels
Martin Marietta drawings:
899-A-2010-599: Wing Structural Assembly: Grayscale (with an additional “cleaned” version), 6902X3143 pixels
899-A-2010-639-1: Canard Structure Assembly, B&W. 4216X3287 pixels
899-A-2010-639-2: Canard Structure Assembly, B&W. 4216-3287 pixels
899-A-2020-648: ACPS Installation: Color (with an additional clear grayscale version), 8632X3040 pixels
899-A-2020-650: Airbreathing Enginge [sic] Installation: Color (with an additional clear grayscale version), 8000X3279 pixels
899A2010642: Booster Overall TPS Assembly: Color (with an additional clear grayscale version), 11007X3240 pixels
All drawings also come with half-sized versions for easier viewing and printing. Space Drawing set 18 is spread through 4 ZIPped folders, totalling 92.5 megabytes – hence the split into four separate, more easily uploadable/downloadable ZIP files. Space Drawing 18 can be purchased for $15.
Oct 282009
Another painting (I believe from Rockwell) showing a Shuttle Orbiter floating next to a giant Solar Power Satellite. Artwork likely from the late 1970’s. While most SPS concepts called for launching componants with giant boosters and/or flinging aluminum from the surface fo the moon with magnetic catapults, there were also ideas about building SPS demonstrators using Shuttles and Shuttle Derived launch vehicles. The SPS’s would be built in low Earth orbit, so that the Shuttle could get to them, then dragged to much higher orbits, such as geosynchronous. This was generally proposed to be accomplished by means of ion-engine powered thruster units which would be bolted to the SPS, using energy generated by the SPS’s solar cells.
While a slick idea, ion engines are low thrust, thus the SPS would move on a slow outward spiral taking weeks or months to get from LEO to GEO. Not really a problem, except for one detail: the Van Allen radiation belts. Passing quickly through the belts presents no real problem. But if you lurk there long enough, the ionizing radiation can cause damange to fine integrated circuits… and solar cells. Take too long going through, and you might wind up with a big aluminum piece of garbage floating dead’r’n disco in the radiation belts.
Oct 282009
An early NASA sketch for a 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Note that it is essentially what actually got built, except for:
1) It doesn’t have the vertical stabilizers on the tips of the tailfins
2) It has aerodynamic fairings over the aft Shuttle supports
Oct 262009
A piece of Rockwell artwork showing two Shuttles simultaneously working on a large space structure. Ah, the late 1970’s, when disco music, lime-green polyester leisure suits, Jimmy Carter, Pyramid Power, Pet Rocks and the forthcoming Ice Age had so numbed peoples minds that we actually thought the Shuttle was going to make this sort of thing a common occurrence. Sigh.
Oct 022009
An in-house NASA (probably Langley) concept for a Shuttle carrier aircraft. It looks fairly reasonable until you examine the central turbofan engine… and notice that its exhaust is directed squarely at the Orbiter’s vertical tail. Ummm….
Sep 182009
Lockheed’s basic plan for a ferry aircraft of the Orbiter was, unsurprisingly, a C-5 Galaxy. This would have been a lot simpler aircraft to develop than the twin-fuselage Galaxy, though it would require more infrastructure at any landing site in order to pick up the orbiter and put it on the C-5’s back.
