The latest AIAA-Houston newsletter Horizons, January/February 2012, has a brief article by me on the Phoenix-E tourism SSTO. Free to download!
Mar 202012
Mar 172012
A painting from an old issue of “Lockheed horizons” depicts a STAR Clipper 1.5-stage-to-orbit early Space Shuttle design lifting off from a desert launch facility (probably White Sands or Vandenberg).
Much, much more on the STAR Clipper can be found in issue V3N2 of Aerospace Projects Review.
Mar 172012
I put together a number of photos I recently took of Hill Aerospace Museums newly-restored F-104A into a free downloadable PDF booklet.
If you like this, feel free to distribute hither and yon. If you *really* like this, feel free to toss a dollar or three my way.
If there is interest, I will make more of this sort of thing… I have a vast collection of photos of aerospace and weapons systems that might be of interest.
Mar 152012
In the mid 1960’s, Douglas produced designs for a Manned Orbital Research Laboratory. Much like the later Skylab, MORL was to be based in part on the S-IVb stage. Unlike Skylab, MORL was to be a much more fully integrated space station, with greater emphasis on functionality and less on low cost. It was to have included an internal centrifuge, and surprisingly large solar panels.
Mar 132012
This design was featured in the F-23 derivatives article in the recent V3N2 issue of Aerospace Projects Review. This was an attempt by Northrop to adapt F-23 design elements to a Naval role, carrier-capable.
You can download a 1.4 megabyte GIF file of the diagram. 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.
Mar 102012
This design was featured in the F-23 derivatives article in the recent V3N2 issue of Aerospace Projects Review. The unusual geometry was an attempt as radar reflection shaping.
You can download a 15.5 megabyte version of this diagram; the link is HERE. To access it, you will need to enter a username and password. The username: the first word in the body of the text on page 8 of APR issue V3N2. The password: the first word in the body of the text on page 24 of the same issue. Note that both are case sensitive.
Mar 102012
A Rockwell handout card (late 1980’s to 1990 or so) showing an artists impression of their early NASP configuration. This is the same design as shown HERE, but in painting rather than model form.
You can download 7.9 and 1.1 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.
Mar 082012
A late 1950’s NASA concept for utilizing Atlas launch vehicle systems to send a sizable payload to the moon and the planets. While this never came close to being built, it was vaguely similar in concept to the actual Saturn I.
Mar 022012
Here are images of the NG concept of the flying wing jetliner designed for the NASA “Environmentally Responsible Aviation” program. Cruise for this design is about Mach 0.82 at 36,000 feet, for a nominal range of 8,000 n.m. Fuel burn was assumed to be 41.5% reduce from a 1998 baseline.
Mar 012012
NG has recently unveiled their concepts for next generation jetliners under the NASA “Environmentally Responsible Aviation” program. NG is not known for airliners, but rather military vehicles… most famously the B-2 stealth bomber. Not surprisingly, their jetliner concept looks a whole lot like a stealthy flying wing bomber. It seems a reasonable suspicion that their work under NASA contract either makes use of existing military design work… or will form the basis of future military design work.
Since the Northrop Grumman ERA N+2 design is revolutionary (at least in terms of airliner design), they have produced a design of a Subscale Test Vehicle. At 143-foot span, it’s about 60% the size of the passenger version and 55% the size of the cargo carrying final version.
The STV would seem to be sized right for a bomber, while the passenger and cargo carrying version would be rather large… more sized for arsenal aircraft, loaded with a vast number of cruise missiles and the like.