Aerospace Projects Review Blog – Page 131 – Unbuilt aircraft and Spacecraft Projects

Mockingbird: Orbit in one small stage

Oct 052011

Designed in the early 1990′s at Lawrence Livermore National Labs by Jordin Kare, the “Mockingbird” was a conceptual design of a single stage rocket vehicle. It was to be relatively cheap, as befits a vehicle designed officially to serve as a target. Replicating the trajectory of ballistic missiles, it was to serve as the target for ballistic missile defense systems.

But it was found that, if design properly, the simple target vehicle could do some rather more interesting things than simply get blasted. With a very lightweight aluminum rocket engine (yes, a rocket engine can be made from aluminum – it simply needs good regen cooling and, preferably, some additional fuel-film cooling) burning a combination of hydrogen peroxide and JP-5 performance in terms of thrust and Isp would be fairly high, and bulk vehicle density would also be quite high. It would, in fact, be just barely possible that this modest target vehicle would be able to attain low Earth orbit with a payload of 10 kilograms… hence the nickname “bricklifter.” Empty weight would be 75 kilograms; light enough to be picked up be two men.Gross weight would be 1500 kilograms; light enough to be carried by a largish pickup truck. And small enough that it could potentially be launched from the back of a smallish pickup truck.

Included in that 75 kilograms was re-entry shielding to allow the Mockingbird to survive re-entry, landing gear and enough rocket propellant for a soft touchdown. It was, essentially, a minimum-size Delta Clipper.

Like just about everything in aerospace, it likely would have come in over budget and over weight. But as the likes of Xcor, Armadillo Aerospace and Masten Space Systems have shown, relatively small groups on shoestring budgets (by government standards) can, with time and effort, develop just the sort of technologies needed to make vehicles like the Mockingbird work. And if one of these companies can actually build a SSTO on the scale of the Mockingbird… boy howdy, the Air Force should be *desperately* interested. Sadly, so will the regulatory agencies. But private citizens building orbital vehicles they can launch from their trucks? Awesome.

This was originally posted HERE.

Almost the Space Shuttle

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Oct 052011

Several images of the nearly-final Rockwell Space Shuttle.

A circa late 1972 design:

Many more images after the break…

Boeing/ATK AirLaunch

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Oct 042011

ATK artwork showing the Boeing/ATK “AirLaunch” concept from a few years back. Started around 1999, petered out a few years later. It called for a winged solid rocket booster similar in outlines to the OSC Pegasus, but larger and carried on the back of a 747. Upon release, the 747 would be obliged to dive out of the way, lest the rather dense booster bonk back into it. As shown below it is equipped with a Space Maneuver Vehicle for payload… a slightly earlier iteration of the X-37 spaceplane. The first two stages would have been Castor 120′s (Peacekeeper first stages, also the Athena booster), while the third would be a new design. Total payload was to have been about 7,500 pounds.

Article 34: Bell D188A Mach 2 VTOL Strike Fighter

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Oct 042011

Now available for download is Article 34, the PDF version of the “APR Special #1,” Bell D188A Mach 2 VTOL Strike Fighter, already available as a printed book through MagCloud. The PDF file has been compressed somewhat to make the filesize manageable, but it still comes in at a hefty 60 megabytes. In that you get the full 72 page, full-color book packed with data, diagrams, artwork and photos… just in electronic format. And for the low, low, incredibly low price of only five bucks!

Check out the other Aerospace Projects Review available for download: http://www.up-ship.com/eAPR/articles.htm

Early Air Force Manned Capsule

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Oct 042011

A concept from 1957 for a manned space capsule based on the as-yet unflown “Discoverer” capsule shape. The basic geometry has proven itself over the years

“Environmentally Responsible” Lockheed Jetliner

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Oct 042011

In recent decades, the first “A” in NASA – “Aeronautics” – has received the short end of the attention and funding stick. At the same time, aeronautics has not exactly leaped forward. Feel free to draw a link, or conclude that “correlation does not equal causation.” Whichever makes you happy.

Still, NASA has been pushing industry a little bit in the last few years for advanced jetliner ideas. Mostly the goal is for low fuel-cost airliners; in order to be more PC, these are being sold more for their supposed environmental friendliness than their lower cost of operation. In any event, the designs have included not only alternate fuel designs (such as hydrogen) but even all-electric jetliners… whopping great battery packs which would be swapped out between flights rather than conventional refueling operations.

Lockheed has been working on this as well as Boeing. While Lockheed hasn’t built an airliner since the L-1011, they’ve retained some interest in SST’s, occasionally cranking out a design for a large passenger jet or a small corporate jet. But the economic collapse and the increased price of oil have pretty much put the kibosh on those plans. But they’ve also produced artwork for subsonic designs. While diagrams and good technical data have so far evaded me, some art is available showing a high efficiency subsonic concept. The future is entirely conventional in appearance, but box wings of high aspect ration have replace the conventional wing and tail. Suspended from the aft wing are turbofan engines of extremely high bypass ratio. The result should be a design with impressive fuel economy.

Note that the wings on this jetliner have unusually high aspect ratios (i.e. they’re “skinny”). High AR wings are more efficient. But high AR wings are also structurally weak, prone to simply snapping off. The “box wing” arrangement allows the aircraft to have two high AR wings joined at the tip, making them much, much more structurally sound. Plus, the vertical surface at the tip serves as a tip-fin, increasing efficiency further.

Example: take a wood or aluminum yard stick. A very “floppy” structure. Now take two and tape the ends together, like the box wing. Hold the other ends apart and fix then to another piece of wood or some such (replicating the fuselage). If you mount one yardstick low and the other high – like the box wing – you’ll find that this is a surprisingly rigid structure.

This post originally appeared HERE.

Martin Co. Dyna Soar, 1959

Dyna Soar, hypersonic, spacecraft, spaceplane 2 Responses »

Oct 042011

One of the final designs produced by the Martin Company was this blunt-nosed vehicle, designed by Hans Multhopp.

The paintings below were photographed at the Ira G. Ross Niagara Aerospace Museum archive; both of these were painted on thick matt board. Nothing beats a well-rendered hand-made illustration.

Note the inclusion of a turbojet engine for landing purposes, a common design element at this stage in the program. The vehicle was not intended to be orbital, but sub-orbital, lofted by a Titan I ICBM or derivative. As such, it was much less sensitive to weight issues.

Lunar Orbiting Space Station

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Oct 042011

1975 Boeing concept drawings, copied pretty much directly from a Rockwell study from 1971, for a space station to orbit the moon and serve as a way-station for surface exploration. Max crew of 8 in an 111 km circular lunar-polar orbit. The surface operations would be sorties of four men lasting up to one month. The lunar landers (derived from orbital tugs) would be single-stage, reusable and capable of hauling a fair amount of cargo.

The North American Rockwell concept diagram from 1971 is below. The configuration of the station is identical, down to some of the notation on the drawing, but more details are included. Note the interior views of the modules.

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