NAF Float Wing Convoy Interceptor

 fighter  No Responses »
Jun 142012
 

Taken from a January 1947 NACA-Langley wind tunnel test report are some images describing the Naval Aircraft Factory “Float wing convoy interceptor.” This was an unconventional single-engine, single-seat fighter plane designed to be catapulted off of a ship (a cargo ship, presumably), land in the water and then be picked up by crane and returned to service. There was no landing gear. The unusual fuselage had substantially more drag than a conventional one, due to the cutout needed for the mid-ship mounted propeller. The model was 1/4 scale. Full-scale information includes:

Engine: one Ranger XV-770-9, max 625 hp
Normal gross weight: 4000 lbs
Fighter overload gross weight: 4319 lbs
Wingspan: 29.83 ft
Wing area: 160 sq. ft

It seemed to be a poor performer. Not only lots of drag, but the rudder had a tendency to shake badly. This was clearly a WWII-era design; by 1947, not only was its design obsolete, so was its role.

 Posted by at 1:17 am

Early supersonic NACA configuration

 research  No Responses »
Jun 122012
 

Found in the NASA HQ Historical archives was an artists impression of a supersonic manned ramjet powered aircraft, dating to either the late war years or early postwar period. It’s a fairly sizable craft with very small wings of unusual planform, razor edges and angular cross-section. The fuselage is almost entirely engine; the cockpit is squeezed into a structure used to hold the internal “spike” diffuser.

On the whole the design looks like it’d fly extremely fast, after having been launched to altitude by a rocket booster (or carried by a large aircraft), but I certainly wouldn’t want to try to land it.

 Posted by at 6:23 pm

P&W NASP artwork

 hypersonic, jetliner, launch vehicles, spaceplane  2 Responses »
Jun 112012
 

An artists impression of the National Aero Space Plane by United Technologies/Pratt & Whitney, ca. 1989. P&W was seeking to win the contract to build not the airframe, but the scramjet propulsion system. From a brochure found in the NASA HQ historical archive.

 Posted by at 4:58 pm

Orbital Launch Facility

 space station  1 Response »
Jun 042012
 

Designed in April of 1962, this NASA-Marshall Future Projects Branch design for a space station was to serve as both a scientific research facility and as an orbital launch facility (OLF). The research station concept is straightforward enough, but the OLF is more interesting.

At the time,  it was just accepted that by the end of the decade Apollo would have proven successful… and was to have been merely the first step in the conquest of space. Lunar bases and missions to Mars would have followed soon on the heels of the Apollo program. To support these expected missions, the OLF would have served as a construction facility in space. Unlike many later orbital construction facilities, this OLF would have a telescoping hangar, providing a long cylindrical shield to protect the spacecraft and those working on it from excessive sunlight and micrometeoroids. Additionally it would provide a controlled lighting environment.

The facility would be launched in two components, each on a Saturn C-5 and both initially unmanned. The scientific research base would have a 30 kilowatt nuclear powerplant, and would be made from a Saturn S-IC liquid oxygen tank. The OLF would similarly use an S-IC LOX tank as a basis, and would dock to the scientific base once on orbit.

A 10-man crew would be needed for orbital launch operations, and a further 15 for the scientific base.

Scientific lab with reactor extended.

Diagram of assembled orbital launch facility

Scientific lab

Orbital Launch Facility

 Posted by at 5:41 pm
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