February 2012 – Aerospace Projects Review Blog

NASP PR Card #3

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Feb 282012

Another PR card showing an X-30 NASP configuration, this being a 1990 Rockwell configuration. It’s similar to but noticeably fatter than the earlier generic configuration (shown HERE).

You can download 6.7 and 2.2 megabyte JPG files of the illustrations. The links to the JPG files are HERE and HERE. To access them, you will need to enter a username and password. The username: the first word in the body of the text on page 5 of APR issue V1N1. The password: the first word in the body of the text on page 11 of the same issue. Note that both are case sensitive.

NASP PR Card #2

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Feb 242012

Another PR card showing an X-30 NASP configuration, this being an early design modeled off of the original du Pont configuration.

You can download 3.15 and 2.2 megabyte JPG files of the illustrations. The links to the JPG files are HERE and HERE. To access them, you will need to enter a username and password. The username: the first word in the body of the text on page 5 of APR issue V1N1. The password: the first word in the body of the text on page 11 of the same issue. Note that both are case sensitive.

NASP PR Card #1

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Feb 172012

In the days before the web came to domination, aerospace companies and government organizations would stamp out glossy propaganda/PR informational cards by the truckload. The X-30 NASP (National Aero Space Plane) program was no different. Below is one such card released by NASA. Note that first flight was expected by 2000 or so… just slightly behind schedule at this point. The design shown here is the final publicly revealed configuration, with the wide flat “spatula” nose. Not shown in this – or pretty much any – illustration are the rocket engines needed to put the spaceplane into a circular orbit.

You can download 2.7 and 3.5 megabyte JPG files of the illustrations. The links to the JPG files are HERE and HERE. To access them, you will need to enter a username and password. The username: the first word in the body of the text on page 5 of APR issue V1N1. The password: the first word in the body of the text on page 11 of the same issue. Note that both are case sensitive.

NERVA nuclear rocket engine artwork

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Feb 162012

A NASA illustration of the NERVA nuclear rocket, dated December 1963. Near the top of the engine are two vernier rocket nozzles for thrust vector control.

If NERVA is a subject of interest to you, I have scheduled a trip to Washington D.C the last week of March for the express purpose of spending an entire business week in a NASA archive doing scanning and photocopying and photoing of as much as I can, starting with NERVA, moving to SPS and then to early shuttle concepts. I’ve visited this archive before, always for no more than a day, and that was only enough to show me that they had a lot, not enough to let me actually copy what they had. This time will be different. To help me pay for the trip (travel is *not* cheap these days), I am taking subscriptions or investors or whatever you want to call it. If you give me $100, when I return I will send you DVDs that will include all scans, and scans of all photocopies, and all photos taken at the archive. This offer is good up to the time I leave; once the trip is underway, it will be closed. If interested, either comment here or send me an email: scottlowtherAT up-ship.com

You can download a 13.4 megabyte JPG file of the illustration. The link to the JPG file is HERE. To access it, you will need to enter a username and password. These are available on the first page of the Aerospace Projects Review V3N2 Addendum (available HERE) Note that both are case sensitive.

Grumman shuttle/Saturn concept

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Feb 142012

From 1970, a Grumman Alternate Space Shuttle design that utilizes the S-IC booster from the Saturn V. Quite a number of Space Shuttle concepts called for the S-IC to be used as a first stage booster, as an expendable stage, a partially reusable or fully reusable stage. Shown here, the basic S-IC would be expendable. However, a second option would be to use a modified S-IC where the outer four engines would drop off during ascent and would be recovered. This is the same concept that Boeing proposed for the S-ID stage (see the October 2008 issue of the AIAA-Houston “Horizons” newsletter for more on the S-ID).

The use of a S-IC – stock or modified for partial recovery – would have presented a number of advantages, not least being that the existing Saturn launch facilities could be used. The S-IC would have provided adequate launch performance; the use of recoverable engines would have lowered cost and increased performance. However, the S-IC production line had been shut down for some time, and restarting it would have proven not only politically dubious (restating the S-IC would have led to questions about restarting the rest of the Saturn/Apollo line), but also expensive.

Early Convair Space Shuttle

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Feb 112012

In October of 1969, General Dynamics/Convair reported to NASA on their Space Shuttle design work. This included a series of vehicles that utilized boosters and orbiters of similar geometry… basically little more than flat-bottomed aeroshells wrapped around the oxygen and hydrogen tanks. Both the booster and orbiter used turbofans stowed in the nose for flyback, and high aspect ratio variable geometry wings.

A number of configurations were studied, including triamese configurations with two boosters that had considerable commonality with the orbiter, to two-stage systems with entirely different boosters and orbiters. Payloads studied ranged from 25,000 pounds to 50,000 pounds. Note in the scale drawings below that the 50K version was virtually the same size as the Saturn V. This was due in part to the all-hydrogen fuel, and part as a consequence of reusability.

North American Hypersonic Transport

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Feb 052012

Conceptual artwork from 1967 depicting a Mach 10 to Mach 14 hypersonic transport. Hydrogen burning scramjets would provide cruise propulsion at an altitude of 110,000 to 140,000 feet. No further data is available apart from what can be determined from the artwork. There are 136 seats, relatively few for an aircraft that is clearly quite large. The general configuration is similar to the hypersonic testbed previously posted HERE, especially the propulsion system & inlet arrangement.

You can download a 9.7 megabyte JPG file of the artwork; the link is HERE. To access it, you will need to enter a username and password. The username and password are listed on page 2 of APR issue V0N0. Note that both are case sensitive.