Aerospace Projects Review Blog – Page 88 – Unbuilt aircraft and Spacecraft Projects

Garret Shuttle Ad

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Aug 122014

From 1973, a magazine ad for the Garrett Corporation (avionics manufacturer) showing Robert McCall paintings of the Space Shuttle system as then envisioned. At that point, the basics of the Space Transportation System were worked out, but the details were up in the air…

As shown here – which appears to represent a Rockwell design – the Orbiter features a “ridge” down the centerline of the cargo bay doors. This was originally where the manipulator arm (or “arms” as shown here) was supposed to go. The cargo bay was a cylindrical volume, and when filled with a cylindrical payload there would obviously be no room for an arm. So the arm had to fit *outside* that cylindrical volume.

Additional details: it was originally thought that exposed RCS thrusters on the sides of the nose would get roasted on re-entry, so they were hidden behind doors in earlier designs. The proboscis at the front o the ET was a solid rocket motor, used to de-orbit the tank. As originally envisioned, the tank would make it to orbit, or nearly so; it would need to be propulsively de-orbited so that it would come down over the ocean and cause no damage. In the end, the role of the orbital maneuvering system was bumped up so that staging off the ET was carried out just a bit below stable orbit; as a result the ET would naturally re-enter over the Indian Ocean without further effort.

And a lot of early art depicted the Shuttle with lots and lots of paint. Not only on the External Tank, but on the *underside* of the orbiter. I assume that this is just artistic license rather than anyone actually believing that white paint would survive re-entry.

Patreon: August rewards released

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Aug 102014

The rewards for my Patreon patrons have now been released. This months selections include:

Diagram: a very large, very nice layout of the Avro Arrow. This was voted on by the top-level patrons.

Document: a report on the Vought Regulus II cruise missile which includes some very nice layout and inboard diagrams of both the operational and test missiles. This was voted for by the top-level patrons.

Document: “Introduction to Kistler Aerospace Corporation,” a full-color brochure from 1995 describing the K-0 sorta-SSTO launch vehicle (which would use an “launch platform”).

Additionally, for the higher-level patrons ($5 and up) there are three all-new CAD diagrams:

1) The Boeing “Big Onion” SSTO from the 1970s, meant to launch Solar Power Satellite components

2) The Space Shuttle Main Engine

3) The Northrop Tacit Blue stealth testbed. This is, so far as I’m aware, the first time that a clear and accurate three-view of this aircraft has been released publicly.

I’ve changed things a little bit from last month. At each patronage level, there are different levels of rewards. Each level has its own message under the “Creations” tab just above the APR logo at my Patreon page. And in the upper righthand corner of each message is a little gray rectangle with “Zip” in it. This is the link to the ZIP archive containing the files for that specific patronage level. If you are a higher-level patron, this may not include all the files you are entitled to. You should be able to download everything from the lower-level patron messages.

One-stop lunar base

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Aug 102014

A 1963 Douglas concept for a simple lunar base: a small pressurized hab that carries with it a robotic “snowblower” that, under control from Earth, spews lunar dirt atop the hab. This is done to provide radiation/thermal/meteoroid shielding. If the hab is actually a “wet lab,” i.e. the actual upper stage, formerly filled with propellants, then this could be a reasonably cost effective approach. The robot is nuclear powered, but it appears that the reactor is not mounted permanently on the robot. instead, the first thing it would seem to do is haul the reactors some distance away, dig a hole, and then burying it (or at least place the reactor in the hole). Extensive power cabling would be needed.

Last chance for July Rewards

bomber, Dyna Soar, hi-rez, launch vehicles, Patreon, rockets, space shuttle, space station, spacecraft, spaceplane No Responses »

Aug 072014

I’ve got the August rewards just about ready to go. When I make them available for the current Patreon supporters, the July rewards will be replaced. So if you are interested in the July items, time runs real, real short.

1) A large format diagram of the B/J-58, a Convair concept for a two-engine tactical B-58

2) A PDF document, “Manned Space Stations and Alternatives” which covers Gemini and Dyna Soar-based small MOL-like station concepts, and includes info on the Gemini satellite inspector/interceptor

3) Two CAD diagrams, one of the McDonnell-Douglas Model 192 ISINGLASS hypersonic rocket-powered recon platform, the other comparing the Titan IIIC with the Titan IIIC/Dyna Soar and the Titan IIIM/MOL.

If you’d be interested in helping me dig up and release this sort of obscure aerospace historical material, or if you want to get in on the rewards, please consider joining my Patreon.

EMPIRE film

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Aug 062014

A 1963 General Dynamics film about the EMPIRE program (early manned interplanetary missions), starring Krafft Ehricke. Included are a lot of artists concepts that I haven’t seen before, or have only seen poorly reproduced before. Includes a color version of the Mars lander illustration I posted a few months back, numerous illustrations of manned interplanetary craft and several paintings of the NEXUS SSTO super-booster. It also includes Ehrickes trademark optimism about the schedule for manned space exploration… humans to Pluto by 1995, for instance.

[youtube tPVAMVjk0bE]

Power Module Construction

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Aug 052014

A NASA artists concept from 1977 showing the construction in low Earth orbit of a Power Module. This would be one of a *vast* number to be assembled; when finished they would be hauled up to geosynchronous orbit there to be assembled together into very large Solar Power Satellites. This design is shaped like a trough, with the bottom of the trough covered in photovoltaic cells; the sides of the trough would probably be extremely thin aluminum foil. The foil would reflect more sunlight onto the cells. This was done because thin aluminum is a whole lot cheaper *and* lighter weight than solar cells; additionally, these cells tend to operate slightly more efficiently at higher insolation levels (i.e. the more sunlight they get, the better they work).

This painting shows a Shuttle External Tank being used as the backbone of a Power Module construction base. At the nose of the ET is a small “Space Lab” for crew (with possibly more crew space within the LOX tank), and a large solar panel for power. Further down the side of the ET is a movable manipulator arm; at the end of the arm is what appears to be a manned pod which serves as the “hand.” The arm appears to have rails that run the length of the ET, allowing it to slide back as forth as needed. Further down the ET is the “beam builder,” a self-contained little factory that takes rolls of aluminum “tape” (the two “Mickey Mouse ears” on the back of the device) and forms and spot-welds the tape into large structural elements.

Dual-Keel Space Station

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Aug 042014

A NASA-MSFC artists concept of the Space Station as envisioned in the mid/late 80’s, found on eBay.

New aerospace acquisitions

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Aug 022014

Thanks to the funding made available via my Patreon campaign, these recently arrived:

Document: “A Recoverable Air-Breathing Booster,” 1964, Chrysler Space Division. This report describes a ring to be fitted to the base of a Saturn I booster; the ring is equipped with either 4 or 8 additional H-1 rocket engines for additional liftoff thrust, as well as a similar number of turbojets to be used to return the ring-booster to Cape Canaveral for a vertical landing.

Diagrams: “Plans for Scale Model Construction of the LONG TANK DELTA” and “Plans for Scale Model Construction of the LONG-TANK THOR AGENA,” from McDonnell-Douglas, 1971. These came in an envelope, and illustration on which depicts the Delta rocket, the Honest John (the diagram of which I have previously obtained), the Saturn I, the Genie AAM, the Nike Ajax and the Nike Hercules. If anyone knows of the latter 4, please enlighten me.

These will be added to the list of drawings/documents available to my Patreon patrons to vote on.

AeroBits: Shuttle Landing Passes

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Jul 302014

Two passes – Public and Press – for parking to witness the landing of the first Space Shuttle orbital flight, STS-1. The government threat/verbiage on the back is a little creepifyin’ but I’m pretty sure it’s expired by now (probably expired the moment it landed). These passes were scanned at 300 DPI and are presented half-rez.

These passes were obtained via an eBay purchase, and were “extras” to the items I was actually after (detailed large format diagrams of the Shuttle flight instrumentation). This purchase was made possible by my Patreon contributors. So if you like this sort of thing, please consider contributing to my Patreon campaign. Every little bit helps! The full-rez scans are available to all Patreon contributors.

Odd spacecraft

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Jul 292014

Found on the back of a 1963 issue of “Space World” magazine was this piece of artwork depicting an unusual – and perhaps fanciful – spacecraft. The same artwork had appeared earlier – at least as far back as 1961 – in a magazine ad for the Garrett AiResearch corporation. The artwork was thus *probably* created in-house at Garrett. Since Garrett was a manufacturer of turboprop engines and electronics, not an aircraft or spacecraft design firm, this is unlikely to have been a serious engineering effort. Still, it’s interesting to see what level of *apparent* effort the PR divisions of numerous companies went to back in the glory days of the Space Age.

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