The Planes that never were

[hot air baboon]

 

[Idris2002]

Now reincarnated as Skylon. Think it'll ever happen?

 

[SikhWarrioR]

Surely even Tarzan would have been preferable to the Evil One (say not her name)?

Hmm a choice between the wicked witch of Grantham or Tarzan that is like choosing between a small dog turd or a large dog turd to tread in

 

[Pickman's model]

 

[Pickman's model]

Now reincarnated as Skylon. Think it'll ever happen?

 

[SikhWarrioR]

Didnt someone build a copy of that some years back to see if it would have flown

 

[fishfinger]

Didnt someone build a copy of that some years back to see if it would have flown

This one?

 

[SikhWarrioR]

This one?

Seems to work fine to me

 

[Pickman's model]

Seems to work fine to me

not built according to original specs tho

 

[Idris2002]

This one?

There was a different one where they built one according to the original specifications and launched by having it towed behind a truck.

 

[likesfish]

Westland 30, a civil aircraft based on the flying parts of the mighty Lynx. They built about 40 so not quite an aircraft that never was but apparently they weren't that successful or good at flying... Still at least we never had Heseltine as prime minister.

Think they got palmed off on india where they rotted in a field

 

[Idris2002]

MAKS, the USSR's possible alternative to the Buran:

Thats right - it was to be launched from a carrier aircraft. Cancelled in 1988.

MAKS

 

[HAL9000]

Since this thread has slipped into a space plane thread, I should post Dyna-Soar

Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Neil Armstrong flew the x15, the next step would have been this. Lesson from the space shuttle is that crude space planes without the escape system that Apollo had are death traps. Until they can build space planes with the safety of a normal plane, space capsules appear to be much safer.

 

[kebabking]

Westland 30, a civil aircraft based on the flying parts of the mighty Lynx. They built about 40 so not quite an aircraft that never was but apparently they weren't that successful or good at flying... Still at least we never had Heseltine as prime minister.

my dad was on the design team of the WG30 in his youth - but don't worry, he now designs earthquake-proof nuclear refuelling systems...

if anyone is interested, i had a trip in the US V-22 Osprey during the week. it somewhat noisy - if you've ever thought a Chinook was noisy, well, i have a news for you...

 

[T & P]

MAKS, the USSR's possible alternative to the Buran:

Thats right - it was to be launched from a carrier aircraft. Cancelled in 1988.

MAKS

That looks like it was drawn by a 12 year old boy in the 80s

 

[existentialist]

i'm begining to be persuaded of the view that Duncan Sandys should be dug up, his corpse tried for Treason, and left swinging from the battlements of the Tower of London...

Having just read a book about the V weapons, that's not the only reason why this should happen.

 

[NoXion]

IS crew experience nausea regularl because they are spinning round the earth very fast (and freefall). Hadfields song has the line 'Can't put my feet up, can't keep my lunch down'

Actually I'm pretty sure people in orbit experience sickness because microgravity confuses their vestibular system, and not because of any movement around the Earth. Although seeing fifteen sunsets and sunrises a day might confuse your circadian rhythm.

its thought that further rotation would make people impossibly sick, if I recall the article I was reading. And the ISS bods will have been on one of those massive centrifuge things that spins you till you puke to test limits and been found of stable stomach. God knows what it would do to someone who gets a little travel sickness eh!

Could you link to that article? Sounds like the author had no clue what they were talking about.

Whether rotational gravity is likely to make someone sick will depend on the rate of rotation. According to this paper [PDF link]:

• Up to 2 rpm should be no problem for residents and require little adaptation by visitors.
• Up to 4 rpm should be no problem for residents but will require some training and/or a few hours to perhaps a day of adaptation by visitors.
• Up to 6 rpm is unlikely to be a problem for residents but may require extensive visitor training and/or adaptation (multiple days). Some particularly susceptible individuals may have a great deal of difficulty.
• Up to 10 rpm adaptation has been achieved with specific training. However, the radius of a space colony at these rotation rates is so small (under ~20 m for seven rpm) it’s hard to imagine anyone wanting to live there permanently, much less raise children. But military personnel could be trained to tolerate it.

thats why I recon space tourism will be rubbish till its cheap enough to do two weeks, so you can get used to it. You'll spend the first week puking up your food. In micro g. Nice

NASA issues medication patches for space sickness, I'm sure they'd happily sell them to any space tourism operators.

 

[Idris2002]

Having just read a book about the V weapons, that's not the only reason why this should happen.

By "V weapons" do you mean the vergeltungswaffe, or the UK V-bomber force?

In either case, what was the Duncan Sandys connection?

 

[Idris2002]

my dad was on the design team of the WG30 in his youth - but don't worry, he now designs earthquake-proof nuclear refuelling systems...

if anyone is interested, i had a trip in the US V-22 Osprey during the week. it somewhat noisy - if you've ever thought a Chinook was noisy, well, i have a news for you...

NO, I SAID "CHINOOKY AR LA"

 

[spitfire]

This just popped up an faceache, never seen it before.

Martin-Baker MB 5 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Martin Baker MB5 experimental fighter

 

[Idris2002]

This just popped up an faceache, never seen it before.

Martin-Baker MB 5 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Martin Baker MB5 experimental fighter

So are you going to change your username now?

 

[spitfire]

So are you going to change your username now?

No.

 

[DownwardDog]

If No.1 Fighter Squadron had stayed in business...

 

[SpookyFrank]

Didnt someone build a copy of that some years back to see if it would have flown

IIRC the problem was getting the bloody thing out of its attic and launching it, more than whether or not it would fly.

 

[Crispy]

IS crew experience nausea regularl because they are spinning round the earth very fast (and freefall). Hadfields song has the line 'Can't put my feet up, can't keep my lunch down'

They're not spinning - the ISS is in free fall as are the people inside. What happens in 0G is that the fluids in your inner ear slosh around, making your sense of balance confused. Your brain thinks you've eaten some bad plants and makes you want to spew them back up.

its thought that further rotation would make people impossibly sick, if I recall the article I was reading. And the ISS bods will have been on one of those massive centrifuge things that spins you till you puke to test limits and been found of stable stomach. God knows what it would do to someone who gets a little travel sickness eh!

A rotating space station would simulate gravity but would have weird Coriolis effects (remember the spiraling tea in The Expanse?). Also, if the radius was quite small (eg the Discovery in 2001) then your feet would experience more "gravity" than your head which wouldn't be great for your circulation.

 

[Crispy]

Now reincarnated as Skylon. Think it'll ever happen?

Skylon's amazing and it would totally work, but SpaceX will achieve full reusability first, removing the business case.

 

[Idris2002]

If No.1 Fighter Squadron had stayed in business...

Liberate the six counties first thing monday.

 

[kebabking]

Liberate the six counties first thing monday.

better put the drip trays out then, it leaked like a sieve. a sieve with an enormous hole torn in the middle...

i'm pretty sure the RAF looked at the F-14, and possibly the F-15, in the 70's - but government decided that jobs in marginal constituancies, sorry, i mean strategic investment in critical national infrastructure, was more important than having a fighter with a radar in it, or the ability to overtake a hanglider at any kind of altitude... hence the Tornado F2/F3, the fighter you get when you take a low level bomber and paint it grey.

 

[Idris2002]

better put the drip trays out then, it leaked like a sieve. a sieve with an enormous hole torn in the middle...

i'm pretty sure the RAF looked at the F-14, and possibly the F-15, in the 70's - but government decided that jobs in marginal constituancies, sorry, i mean strategic investment in critical national infrastructure, was more important than having a fighter with a radar in it, or the ability to overtake a hanglider at any kind of altitude... hence the Tornado F2/F3, the fighter you get when you take a low level bomber and paint it grey.

We'd better go with these, in that case:

 

[spitfire]

Onwards to a glorious socialist republic mo chara!