fut_v_bw_o_n (1969 NAR/NASA shuttle/space station concept)
"DC-3 docks with large space base. In June 1969, NASA redirected North American to investigate a bold new concept proposed by the Manned Spacecraft Center's Maxime Faget. The company received a $0.25-million contract extension for this purpose, and another $2.9 million in July 1969 to develop large modular space stations and space base concepts like the early concept depicted here. Faget, the designer of the Mercury capsule, disliked Max Hunter's Starclipper lifting-body design since it had poor low-speed aerodynamics and also would be difficult to develop since the structure was tightly coupled with the aerodynamics. Faget preferred a simple winged design but he also admitted that traditional wings would be very heavy and the leading edges would be difficult to protect from the searing heat of reentry. His solution was the “DC-3” which alleviated the problem by reentering at a very high angle of attack (60 deg.), i.e. coming in nose-high much like the suborbital X-15 rocketplane. This would only expose the flat underside of the vehicle, as most of the thermal energy goes into the shock wave forming in front of the vehicle. The high drag also shortens the duration of the heat pulse, yet does not exceed acceptable crew deceleration load factors beyond 2 g's. The DC-3 wing would only be optimized for subsonic flight and landing, greatly reducing the development cost and time. But the low lift-to-drag ratio reentry profile advocated by Faget would also create some problems since the DC-3 would have limited crossrange during reentry, i.e. it would have been unable to fly larger distances than about 430km to the left and right of an initial direction of flight. Crossrange was an important military requirement, so the USAF opposed the DC-3."
The above, and the photo, along with a plethora of other fantastic images and information, at:
www.pmview.com/spaceodysseytwo/spacelvs/sld022.htm
Credit: PMView website
The exquisite artwork is by Henry Lozano Jr., North American Aviation/North American Rockwell artist/illustrator extraordinaire. Accordingly, Mr. Lozano was 1970 President of the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles (SILA):
Unfortunately, the record of the above, along with the link itself, has been removed from the following SILA website...:
...and replaced by the following.
Both above credit: SILA website
While still very informative, with reference to other superb ‘aerospace’ artists, it’s nonetheless very disappointing that Mr. Lozano has been omitted from the record.
See also:
1.bp.blogspot.com/-OlAZql_DmEs/Xv0oJa3n2hI/AAAAAAAASts/RY...
Credit: John Sisson/Dreams of Space - Books and Ephemera blogspot
And:
forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/127839-maxi...
Credit: KERBAL SPACE PROGRAM website/LOTS of cool stuff at this website as well.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_DC-3
Credit Wikipedia
fut_v_bw_o_n (1969 NAR/NASA shuttle/space station concept)
"DC-3 docks with large space base. In June 1969, NASA redirected North American to investigate a bold new concept proposed by the Manned Spacecraft Center's Maxime Faget. The company received a $0.25-million contract extension for this purpose, and another $2.9 million in July 1969 to develop large modular space stations and space base concepts like the early concept depicted here. Faget, the designer of the Mercury capsule, disliked Max Hunter's Starclipper lifting-body design since it had poor low-speed aerodynamics and also would be difficult to develop since the structure was tightly coupled with the aerodynamics. Faget preferred a simple winged design but he also admitted that traditional wings would be very heavy and the leading edges would be difficult to protect from the searing heat of reentry. His solution was the “DC-3” which alleviated the problem by reentering at a very high angle of attack (60 deg.), i.e. coming in nose-high much like the suborbital X-15 rocketplane. This would only expose the flat underside of the vehicle, as most of the thermal energy goes into the shock wave forming in front of the vehicle. The high drag also shortens the duration of the heat pulse, yet does not exceed acceptable crew deceleration load factors beyond 2 g's. The DC-3 wing would only be optimized for subsonic flight and landing, greatly reducing the development cost and time. But the low lift-to-drag ratio reentry profile advocated by Faget would also create some problems since the DC-3 would have limited crossrange during reentry, i.e. it would have been unable to fly larger distances than about 430km to the left and right of an initial direction of flight. Crossrange was an important military requirement, so the USAF opposed the DC-3."
The above, and the photo, along with a plethora of other fantastic images and information, at:
www.pmview.com/spaceodysseytwo/spacelvs/sld022.htm
Credit: PMView website
The exquisite artwork is by Henry Lozano Jr., North American Aviation/North American Rockwell artist/illustrator extraordinaire. Accordingly, Mr. Lozano was 1970 President of the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles (SILA):
Unfortunately, the record of the above, along with the link itself, has been removed from the following SILA website...:
...and replaced by the following.
Both above credit: SILA website
While still very informative, with reference to other superb ‘aerospace’ artists, it’s nonetheless very disappointing that Mr. Lozano has been omitted from the record.
See also:
1.bp.blogspot.com/-OlAZql_DmEs/Xv0oJa3n2hI/AAAAAAAASts/RY...
Credit: John Sisson/Dreams of Space - Books and Ephemera blogspot
And:
forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/127839-maxi...
Credit: KERBAL SPACE PROGRAM website/LOTS of cool stuff at this website as well.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_DC-3
Credit Wikipedia