The Planes that never were

[hot air baboon]

MUSTARD - Multi Unit Space Transportation And Recovery Device.

 

[HAL9000]

MUSTARD - Multi Unit Space Transportation And Recovery Device.

It looks very much like venture star. Failed single stage to orbit spacecraft


VentureStar - Wikipedia

 

[A380]

MUSTARD - Multi Unit Space Transportation And Recovery Device.

From memory...It was supposed to be staged. The vehicles were the same but they would have used three together. Two suborbital boosters and then the third would go on to orbit. Bonkers. Looks cool though.

 

[Idris2002]

 

[Idris2002]

MUSTARD - Multi Unit Space Transportation And Recovery Device.

Son of BASTARD, the British Advanced Space Transport and Recovery Device

 

[pogofish]

An undeveloped proposal from Convair for a flyable rocket plane/recoverable booster for the Atlas missile:

It got as far as wind tunnel testing.

 

[petee]

re: the seaplanes on the first page. the kernel of what is now Laguardia Airport was a seaplane port. it's been preserved and still functions (though not as a seaplane port).

Marine Air Terminal - Wikipedia

you may know that already, but still.

 

[gosub]

 

[pogofish]

The Convair Sea Dart was intended to be close support for this beauty - The Martin P6M Seamaster:

A "high speed minelayer" (!) that was really intended to bring the nuclear strike crown back into the US Navy's grasp as the B52 of the waves!

It came within six months of entering service before its propensity to crash spectacularly brought the program to an end. The Seamaster was also the last aircraft produced by the Martin Company before the various mergers that ended-up with its being consumed by Lockheed.

And if that had worked, they had a truly bonkers nuclear powered version waiting in the wings!

 

[Crispy]

Thunderbirds are go!

 

[pogofish]

If you want real Tracey Island stuff - try the RR Griffith - Supersonic, VTOL!

And yes the US's nuclear powered bomber - which again came disturbingly close to actually happening!

The engine testbeds are still a bit of a hotspot today:

And the less said about project PLUTO - The nuclear ramjet, probably the better!

...a locomotive-size missile that would travel at near-treetop level at three times the speed of sound, tossing out sixteen-plus hydrogen bombs as it roared overhead. Pluto’s designers calculated that its shock wave alone might kill people on the ground. Then there was the problem of fallout. In addition to gamma and neutron radiation from the unshielded reactor, Pluto’s nuclear ramjet would spew fission fragments out in its exhaust as it flew by. (One enterprising weaponeer had a plan to turn an obvious peace-time liability into a wartime asset: he suggested flying the radioactive rocket back and forth over the Soviet Union after it had dropped its bombs.)

As advanced as it was, Pluto was riddled with bigger issues. Even setting aside the moral issues of using such a weapon, the logistics proved tricky, too. In order to keep it from being detected by Soviet radar, Pluto would need to fly extremely low. That was expected. What wasn’t so well considered was the fact that to get to the USSR at those low altitudes, Pluto would have to fly over the US and/or much of our allies in Western Europe. Which means we would have been terrorizing and killing our own people and friends.

And, it’s probably worth mentioning the thing couldn’t be turned off, as such. If this was actually used, that’s less of an issue, since if you’re using it you’re pretty much writing off habitability for wherever you’ve sent it to, so you may as well circle it around until it either crashes or everyone’s dead. For testing purposes, the best option they came up with was ditching it deep into the ocean.

Could it get any more mad?

 

[pogofish]

And another gem from the wonderful Convair/General Dynamics archive:

Yes, a study for a submersible seaplane for the US Navy.

 

[High Voltage]

Apart from using atomic power as a day to day power source, I'd have LOVED to have seen any one (preferably ALL) of those being made

 

[nuffsaid]

Kecksburg Acorn, or the nazi Bell, as that's where it came from - or so they say.

first UFO prototype - or so they say....

 

[gosub]

If you want real Tracey Island stuff - try the RR Griffith - Supersonic, VTOL!

And yes the US's nuclear powered bomber - which again came disturbingly close to actually happening!




The engine testbeds are still a bit of a hotspot today:


And the less said about project PLUTO - The nuclear ramjet, probably the better!



Could it get any more mad?

When I was at Dunsfold 20 years back, prior to selling Alpha Lima we had an X ray crack inspection done, and the giger counters went mad. We had 4 RR Viper engines in the next room as part of business development we had planned. turned out a lot of each engine was made of thorium.

Went to Model Engineer exhibition at Ally Pally a few years later and there was a group that were trying to turn a viper into a display thing. They didn't know about the thorium and went white as sheet when i told them.

 

[pogofish]

WWe had 4 RR Viper engines in the next room as part of business development we had planned. turned out a lot of each engine was made of thorium.

Of course the Viper was never originally intended to power manned aircraft - It was to be a small/light powerplant for drones/remote control applications. Its use in manned aircraft is just another of those accidents of history - or "value for money" AKA "penny pinching at all-cost, no matter what the risk" economy drives that the British government was all too famous for foisting on the aircraft producers.

IIRC magnesium/thorium/zirconium and magnesium/zinc/zirconium/thorium alloys are still used in some jet components but the thorium content is much more strictly regulated since the 1980s?

 

[Idris2002]

1960s British design for a "variable geometry" (I think that's the term) space plane:

 

[pogofish]

Finally got my new year trip booked.

Fuck Christmas, Schleißheim here I come!

 

[2hats]

Could it get any more mad?

OK, not strictly a plane, but how about >1km long Soviet nuclear zeppelin for some degree of batshit? Complete with what looks like a contra-rotating propellor.

 

[pogofish]

Major batshit...!

 

[DaveCinzano]

OK, not strictly a plane, but how about >1km long Soviet nuclear zeppelin for some degree of batshit? Complete with what looks like a contra-rotating propellor.

A nuclear powered airship the size of a small town? Sounds like a great idea!

 

[Lancman]

A contra-rotating propellor would be a jolly good idea considering the amount of torque that a single-disc one would produce.

 

[Chz]

To be fair to them, it's a lot saner than a nuclear-powered jet.

 

[Idris2002]

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY ROUBLES.

 

[Idris2002]

Guys is this real? A swing-wing EE Lightning? Really?

 

[gosub]

Guys is this real? A swing-wing EE Lightning? Really?

Proposed replacement for the Sea Vixen, never built. F4 bought instead

 

[kebabking]

Guys is this real? A swing-wing EE Lightning? Really?

It's certainly not a real photo...

There were two proposals for swing wing lightning's, but the wing swung from much closer to the wing root in both cases - this looks much closer to the Soviet SU-22 Fitter (I think...) solution.

In neither proposal was a mock up built, and certainly no prototype was built.

And, of course, the photo is of a lightning in German service, and Germany never operated them....

I'd say that a swing wing lightning is a catastrophe in search of an idiot with an unlimited budget - I'm quite surprised it didn't get off the ground.

 

[pogofish]

A few highlights from Flugwerft Schleißheim:

 

[Crispy]

100,000 dmarks to any pilot who dared to fly D-9518

 

[Cid]

OK, not strictly a plane, but how about >1km long Soviet nuclear zeppelin for some degree of batshit? Complete with what looks like a contra-rotating propellor.

Er... I'm not an aviation expert or anything, but they appear to have filled the lifting gas bit with things like people, aircraft and power stations. Many of which are heavier than air.