June 2012 – Aerospace Projects Review Blog

Zenith Star Mockup

Jun 302012

The “Orphans in Space” DVD set contains a bunch of really rather odd old films about space, from the early part of the 20th century up to the 1980’s. The video of most interest to readers of this blog is a Martin-Marietta promotional video for the Zenith Star laser satellite, featuring snippets of a speech by President Reagan at the Martin Marietta facility (near Denver?) in front of a full-scale Zenith Star mockup.

The video was copied to DVD from a videotape, which is why the resolution is a bit low.

Nuclear Rocket Art

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Jun 252012

NASA-Lewis artwork depicting a simple solid-core nuclear thermal rocket, circa 1962.

Hydrogen fueled supersonic interceptor

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Jun 252012

A 1955 NACA concept model of a supersonic interceptor fueled with liquid hydrogen. Similar in design to the JP-5 fueled design, but with a ceiling of 80,000 feet and engines of shorter length due to the faster combustion of hydrogen.

Supersonic interceptor concept model

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Jun 242012

A 1955 NACA concept model of a supersonic interceptor powered by JP-5 burning turbojets. With a gross weight of 25,000 pounds, it would be capable of combat at Mach 2.5 to 3.0 with a ceiling of just over 60,000 feet.

Kinda-high altitude interceptor concept model

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Jun 222012

A similar design to the high altitude interceptor shown two days back, but optimized for a lower altitude. Generally similar layout, but smaller engines.

High altitude interceptor concept model

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Jun 202012

A poorly reproduced copy of a photo of a NACA-Lewis concept model of a high-altitude supersonic interceptor, circa 1955. Little data is available, apart from the engines having 55% of the weight of the craft, with the rest composed of structure and payload… almost no fuel. Makes an interesting comparison to the Lockheed “Suntan.”

Nuclear C-5

nukes, transports 6 Responses »

Jun 192012

A simple Nasa-Lewis concept from 1971 for a nuclear-powered subsonic transport aircraft, clearly based on the Lockheed C-5. No other data available.

XS-1 model diagram

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Jun 182012

From a 1946 NACA wind tunnel test report, a diagram of the 1/4 scale model of the Bell XS-1 (Army Project MX-653, later known as just the X-1).

Model 176 Art

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Jun 172012

The McDonnell Douglas Model 176 was a generic spaceplane design derived from the FDL-7 (Flight Dynamics Lab – USAF Wright-Pat). It was incorporated into small spaceplanes adequate for taking a few crewmembers to a space station on up to Space Shuttle competitors. Below are two pieces of art (found in the NASA HQ historical archive) showing a late 1960’s concept for a Model 176 optimized for the ILRV (Integral Launch and Recovery Vehicle) role. ILRV was one of the immediate predecessors to the Space Shuttle program.

The Model 176 was a sleek dart-like design with stubby fins. While details varied from iteration to iteration, all (or nearly all) featured high aspect ratio variable geometry wings for landing.

Bell L-39

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Jun 162012

After WWII, the US Navy contracted Bell Aircraft to modify two of their P-63 Kingcobras to have highly swept wings, to test low-speed flight characteristics of the Wings Of Tomorrow. Below is a three-view of the resultant L-39 test aircraft taken from a 1948 NACA-Langley wind tunnel test report.

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