Ridiculous and crazy spaceflight ideas

[Keatah]

The 1960's aerospace industry was jam packed full of creativity and craziness.

My favorite example was a monster-sized helicopter bigger than a football field. This chopper was designed to snatch the 1st stage of a Saturn V out of the air after it burned out but before it hit the ocean. Thus providing an element of re-usability.

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1045/1

 

[jedidia]

OMG! It has jet engines on the rotor tips! And the rotor tips almost breach the speed of sound! Sounds like something an overzealous SF Mangaka might have designed :lol:

 

[Urwumpe]

OMG! It has jet engines on the rotor tips! And the rotor tips almost breach the speed of sound! Sounds like something an overzealous SF Mangaka might have designed :lol:

Who had invented it... ze Germans. Such a design already appeared in the Heinkel Lerche design studies. But the late German designs had been crazy, but far from ridiculous in general - except if it is about Hitlers obscession with building the biggest of everything. I am pretty sure, he and Stalin had very very short pipes.

Still, the most famous of the designs would still make a sweet aircraft: [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinkel_Lerche"]Heinkel Lerche - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

Sad that still nobody tried building such a configuration.

 

[Keatah]

I'm always intrigued by the sheer number of German experimental designs.

And tip-jets -- [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipjets"]Tip jet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame] -- have been used on helicopters with varying degrees of success. Most designs were canned because of inefficiencies and noise. Especially with the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Rotodyne"]Fairey Rotodyne - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame] -.

They've tried piping compressed air/fuel mixtures through the blades and the whole trailing edge of the airfoil would be propulsive. That had to be a sight to see at night. But typically tip-jets & "afterburners" would make a screaming un-earthly howl. Exceeding 120dB IIRC.

When just plain jets weren't working they experimented with aerospikes and bona-fide ramjets.

Next up is the Roton -- [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_Rocket"]Rotary Rocket - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
http://www.damer.com/pictures/events/rotaryrocket99/nittygritty.html
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Kp63-an2ts"]Rotary Rocket Roton - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Urwumpe]

Well, when things are dire and you badly need a good idea to at least not lose the war that you have started... sure you put everything you can into a good R&D budget.

It is not like it had been a bad investment, the war just developed to the disadvantage of the German engineers. Man advanced technologies of today had already been in use in Germany then, but in too small numbers to have an effect.

 

[statickid]

Yeah I've heard of the ramjet copter. My Aerospace professor briefly mentioned it. That was in 2000, he may have very well been talking about roton!

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Hiller did a few tip-jet designs in the 60's, so I'm not suprised to see that they came up with such a monster...

Now, you want crazy: How about replacing the first stage of a Saturn with this?

 

[T.Neo]

Now, you want crazy: How about replacing the first stage of a Saturn with this?

Well, the Saturn IB, anyway. It's modelled as part of Velcro Saturns.

Retro Ares.

 

[boogabooga]

Who had invented it... ze Germans. Such a design already appeared in the Heinkel Lerche design studies. But the late German designs had been crazy, but far from ridiculous in general - except if it is about Hitlers obscession with building the biggest of everything. I am pretty sure, he and Stalin had very very short pipes.

Still, the most famous of the designs would still make a sweet aircraft: Heinkel Lerche - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sad that still nobody tried building such a configuration.

IIRC there was an attempt that failed miserably.

BTW, this is a featured aircraft in IL-2 1946.

 

[Kyle]

Can we make up crazy spaceflight ideas too? I've got a fair share of them, just look at anything I post on the screenshot thread!

I actually heard a proposal back in June 2009 from my father, who was attending a spaceflight meeting in Colorado, that a company had pitched to his group that they wanted to commercially use Ares I-X to launch a satellite that would be attached to the side of the vehicle. As I recall, the engineers from Huntsville, I believe, laughed them off and pretty much said "you don't want to use that booster for jack *censored*"