West Texas Spanloader

a reply to: CiTrus90

Well cruise ships keep getting bigger and deploy things to counter 'that' feeling. What if they deployed control surfaces like the Harrier to counter it?

Is it possible that if a BWB gets bigger it becomes much more stable spanning pockets of turbulence with enough lift it doesn't affect it?

Also, is Bwb the only way to make a lifting body, didn't have blue have some odd flange to increase lift?

I

originally posted by: CiTrus90

Sweet Jesus! Would watch if it were an animated cartoon- looks like the "Teeb3" is about to vent plasma-mercury!

The canard on the F19 looks a bit static but that minor detail is more than made up for by Lazar being on hand to lend his reliable eye witness testimony.

a reply to: boomer135

If I had to guess the huge guy in the back of the hanger is not what is photographed flying over wichita. Unless they added a bunch of stuff to the hanger shot bird to hide it's true identity. But I'm also crazy. I think the Green Lady doesn't look like the depictions in the adds either.

a reply to: Forensick

One of the biggest problems with a passenger carrying BWB is making turns. The outboard passengers are in the wings away from the center of rotation so they're going to lean far enough that if you had food on the tray it would slide off.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Forensick

One of the biggest problems with a passenger carrying BWB is making turns. The outboard passengers are in the wings away from the center of rotation so they're going to lean far enough that if you had food on the tray it would slide off.

Don't the pilots turn such that the local apparent gravity is still straight down?

originally posted by: BASSPLYR
a reply to: boomer135

If I had to guess the huge guy in the back of the hanger is not what is photographed flying over wichita. Unless they added a bunch of stuff to the hanger shot bird to hide it's true identity. But I'm also crazy. I think the Green Lady doesn't look like the depictions in the adds either.

I think the Green Lady looks like a SR-71 plus, with engines more stealth-hidden.

Form follows function. There's a reason the 71 looks as it does.

a reply to: mbkennel

A BWB would have to make skew turns and slide horizontally. That's going to require stressing certain portions of the aircraft in ways they aren't normally. That's going to require more weight on the airframe.

a reply to: mbkennel

You mean she doesn't look like the lawn dart they keep posting depictions of her as?

I agree. I would add a few lessons from other high speed projects but basically I would imagine she looks similar but waaaaay cooler than the SR-71.

IF what I heard is correct, it's an updated design of an old aircraft. A few similarities but not a lot like the -71.

a reply to: Zaphod58


maybe a mix between the WaveRider and the X-15.

a reply to: penroc3

x-15 was tinsy. I bet the Green Lady is pretty big of a bird.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

right, but things scale up.


you have seen this aircraft?(with all due respect / genuinely curious)


air/space craft****

originally posted by: Zaphod58
IF what I heard is correct, it's an updated design of an old aircraft. A few similarities but not a lot like the -71.

Amazing what you can find on Wikipedia


In addition about compression lift, in the discussion there's a mention of "Zip fuel"... and then I followed what 'zip fuel' was---boron hydrides---which burn bright green.

Gerhilde, Waltraute, un Schwertleite, die gruenen Damen!

Hojo-to-HO!


ps: she isn't petite

upload.wikimedia.org...

a reply to: penroc3

Only when she was in flight at 100,000 altitude doing the green thing. But on the ground close up. Nope. Know enough about her though to know she doesn't look like the X-15.

I would look around at proposed recon or bomber pictures for a rough idea. Look for something that screams fast. Has qualities of fast aircraft in the past. Research what worked. SR-71's, Valkries etc... Add that to the mix. Research what they liked better than the 71 but didn't opt for. Like the kingfish. What did they like so much about it. Why is it still mostly classified? Would they include that in a new design? Think of how you would integrate new technologies like heat mitigation, quieter airframes. Some degree of stealthyness. Would you put engines on the bottom or the top? How would you account for air pressure spikes by the nose of the aircraft and how that would play out on the rest of the aircraft. Anyway to harness those shockwaves for added lift. Was there a bird that was really good at that. If you look around you'll see a artists rendering that fits the bill.

The thing has to fly at all speeds cause she needs to take off and land on her own. So she has to be sleek but still have enough lift to take off on her own. So I would steer away from depictions of lawn darts.

a reply to: mbkennel


en.wikipedia.org...

a cool side note for the XB-70

a mach 6 lenticular missile used for in flight SAM intercepts.

makes you wonder about all the high speed disks people saw in the sky at that time.

a reply to: BASSPLYR


uhhhh soooooo jealous. I saw something that was blue and was very very fast. nothing green or yellow.

ahh kingfish, a blast from the past. interesting plan form.

I was thinking more about the engines as far as the X-15,X-51 or wave rider goes. Are you sure it has to get up all by it's self? I know the were experiments with drones like the D-21 and maybe even some for later aircraft like the XB-70.

seems like it would be allot easier to get something up and then to launch it under speed and use it exotic propulsion and have it come back to you at a nice tropical island somewhere.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I was going to say that if I were to build a stealthier, faster, boron-fueled SR-71 successor, I'd look to the A-12's more ambitious competitor, the good old Convair Kingfish.

Glad to see my hunch being confirmed

a reply to: penroc3

Naw the green lady is a stand alone complex. She takes off on her own. Breaths on her own. Flies on her own. lands on her own. She's eeeeeeh .... somewhere around 171 feet long I would say, a beast. Wicked looking too. Not something you will go "Damn I'm disappointed" if she ever makes it to the light of day for folks like us to see. Every kid and enthusiast is gunna want a poster of her or a die cast model to play with from what I hear.


Gotta give her more credit. She's a bad mamma jamma. Fast, sleek, ..... other things.

a reply to: penroc3

The Pye Wacket is fascinating, a fantastic flight envelope, hitting all of its design goals before becoming quickly classified. Who knows where its design follow-ups went. I'd venture to guess that it has something to do with reentry vehicles.

a reply to: penroc3

So maybe that XB-70-derivative "blackstar" launcher malarkey was closer to the truth than we wanted to think it was.