From the current issue of the British Interplanetary Society’s Space Chronicles.
Based on studies of manned Blue Steel to do the same research as the X-15
The Vulcan Obiter Z 124
By October 1962 ambitions had increased to the extent of considering a brand new rocket vehicle completely different in principal from Blue Steel. The concept began with the recognition that the Vulcan, because of its delta wing, had very tall undercarriage. This would permit the installation of a large ballistic multi-stage rocket weighing up to 40,000lb (the drawing shows the missile hanging outside the bomb bay which appears to have had the doors removed). This would be carried and air launched much as was Blue Steel, from a height of about 50,000ft, but the trajectory would be more akin to that of the ballistic Skybolt as the obiter was wing-less. It was calculated that this three-stage vehicle could place a 650lb payload into a low earth orbit. Although less design detailing was done on the obiter than on the manned Blue Steel its potential was recognised. Here was a revolutionary way of placing application satellites (for communications, meteorology, survey, navigation etc) in orbit launched from a mobile platform. Two advantages sprang from this: firstly the Vulcan could fly to any base in Europe, collect its rocket and launch into a variety of orbital planes; secondly, with flight refuelling, the craft could be placed in an equatorial orbit. In this way Europe could have had its very own launching system, quite different from that of the USA, which was totally expendable.
This project was announced at a lecture and received a lot of publicity. Whether it was ever considered seriously by HMG is doubted but it could have given the RAF an opportunity to take a bold step, into spaceflight.
By: Bager1968 - 23rd January 2007 at 03:07
True, but operating a Tristar launch platform is, I am sure, a much cheaper timng than would be a Vulcan launch platform.
After all, Orbital Sciences IS a commercial, for-profit enterprise… not a government-run/sponsored money-pit.
And to forstall the knee-jerk screaming, I was not talking about TVOC, or any other such thing… I was referring to NASA.
If the US government was less protective of NASA’s near-monopoly on non-military space-flight in the US, the International Space Station and other manned space-flight projects would be far more numerous, and far more advanced… but the government has until recently refused to allow serious private/commercial space work.
Orbital Sciences is one of the few exceptions, but I remember when they were starting up that the US only granted them their permits to operate with a hard limit on the maximum payload size… that would prohibit any attempt at launching major satellites or a manned craft.
By: DaveF68 - 22nd January 2007 at 15:52
I was once told that the Vulcan was surveyed as a launch vehicle for the Pegasus, but that an incorrct calculation on the MOD’s part as to carry-able load meant that they dismissed it as a possibility, when in fact it could have done the job.
By: alertken - 21st January 2007 at 11:36
Pegasus
Marshall’s worked on this – not just airframe maintenance, IIRC.
By: alertken - 21st January 2007 at 11:32
M.52 and X-1
(Slight thread creep, but) Brits really should stop this “scandalous and ill-starred” calumny of Bell “stealing” Miles’ wit. M.52 was chopped Feb.46 because MAP sought wit-ley, not Wood-ley: swept, not straight wings, then seen as needing much concrete to unstick. The proven fighterbuilders, already funded for (to be Attacker), were about to be funded for the lines that became Sea Hawk/Hunter, Swift/Scimitar. M.52 had been funded in Sept.43 as flying test bed for one of Whittle’s profusion of ideas: reheated hi-by pass W2/700. That was passed, by nationalised Power Jets (R&D), to Napier who did little with it, then to RR who did less. Feel free to resurrect the wisdom of denying production to Whittle, but don’t assume UK could afford to be first through Mach 1 as a pointless exercise when we were hungry and cold. Its straight, razor wing was an anachronism of no military utility until the sheer oomph of J79 did the job for F-104. X-1 was an FTB for German rocketry, not a weapon.
MAP R&D Controller Sir B.Lockspeiser has been traduced for his excuse of not endangering the pilot: he was just trying to avoid blighting Brabazon Type VA Marathon, entrusted to a firm “very good at biffing out small cardboard (types, but who) hadn’t really produced (subsonic) let alone supersonic ones” M.Morgan,DCARD/MoS,P108,R.Turnill/A.Reed, Farnborough,Story of RAE, Hale,1980. Metalwork had been Monitor (chopped) and not much else. There is always a reason for a cancellation – which Ministers detest because it impugns their prowess. The axe swings, either because work drifts, or things change and the Buyer doesn’t want it any more.
By: RMAllnutt - 20th January 2007 at 18:42
a few years ago i was involved in an almost identical project but using a Tristar airliner.
it was used for a while for research and commercially, but i think its now retired.just do a google of Stargazer or orbital sciences.
Orbital Sciences still use the Tristar as far as I know to lauch satellites with their Pegasus booster. They are based just down the road from me at Dulles airport, although they do their launches from elsewhere I believe.
An interesting concept.
While I agree that the US probably gained significantly from the Miles M.52 for their Bell XS-1 project, I don’t think that there can be any claim that the X-15 program, or, indeed, the launch platform for the XS-1 were derived from the Vulcan orbiter launch system proposal (in fact, I would say quite the opposite).
Cheers,
Richard
By: bloodnok - 20th January 2007 at 07:41
a few years ago i was involved in an almost identical project but using a Tristar airliner.
it was used for a while for research and commercially, but i think its now retired.
just do a google of Stargazer or orbital sciences.
By: cypherus - 19th January 2007 at 19:22
So not only did Bell knick the all flying tail idea for the X1 from the brits, they may even have knicked the very idea for the whole plane itself from us..:diablo:
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January 19, 2007 at 6:29 pm