Real Life "Kerbalisms"

[DDE]

14 hours ago, SciMan said:

at a time when they did not have the tooling

* rail width. If it's above 4.1 m, then you either need to place your entire rocket factory at Baikonur like N-1 did, or

14 hours ago, SciMan said:

IIRC, it was fueled by hypergolic fuels, so you also get the "infinite restarts

No. RD-253 definitely had a pyrovalve-driven activation and shutdown sequences, and probably so did Gkushko's hypergolic Raptor RD-270.

15 hours ago, SciMan said:

Having a hard time linking the picture from Wikipedia, but there's a model of it in a picture

It's a small one, IIRC at the Museum of Cosmonautics.

A bigger one within a mile of there, at VDNKh:

And one of the 1:10 models from the 1960s is still on the vibration test stand:

[kerbiloid]

Moar 3d pics here.

http://fai.org.ru/forum/topic/37753-ur-700/

 

26 minutes ago, DDE said:

rail width. If it's above 4.1 m, then you either need to place your entire rocket factory at Baikonur like N-1 did, or

(the plane pic).

As it's said, 4.15 m was a railroad limit, but not just it.

1. The developer was military-oriented.
So, it was important for him to deliver any manufactured production to any place with rocket base.
The huge planes or local plants were not an option, while the railroad was his general and natural way of delivery.
So, he was designing any craft fitting the railroad width limit.

2. His manufacturing plant was placed near Moscow, unlike OKB-1's which were given their own Baikonur, and another KSC was at Plesetsk.
So, it was important to easily deliver any craft without anothers' help, on its own.
That's also why it was designed to fit the N-1 launchpad. To kick N-1 away and take its place without the site rebuild.

3. He was not assigned to be the main space rocket developer, so his bigger rocket project would likely be rejected, as there was already the N-1 one.
But as UR-700 consisted of standard 4.15 rings, and required same equipment as the serially manufactured Proton, so required no new plants, equipment, infrastructrure, else; and, what is important, its producing could be ceased and restarted exactly when it's needed, while bigger N-1, Saturn, etc, should be manufactured in advance and require specialized plants.

So, it was technologically much more flexible than N-1.

Edited August 12, 2020 by kerbiloid

[DDE]

1 minute ago, kerbiloid said:

Moar 3d pics here.

http://fai.org.ru/forum/topic/37753-ur-700/

 

(the plane pic).

As it's said, 4.15 m was a railroad limit, but not just it.

1. The developer was military-oriented.
So, it was important for him to deliver any manufactured production to any place with rocket base.
The huge planes or local plants were not an option, while the railroad was his general and natural way of delivery.
So, he was designing any craft fitting the railroad width limit.

2. His manufacturing plant was placed near Moscow, unlike OKB-1's which were given their own Baikonur, and another KSC was at Plesetsk.
So, it was important to easily deliver any craft without anothers' help, on its own.
That's also why it was designed to fit the N-1 launchpad. To kick N-1 away and take its place without the site rebuild.

3. He was not assigned to be the main space rocket developer, so his bigger rocket project would likely be rejected, as there was already the N-1 one.
But as UR-700 consisted of standard 4.15 rings, and required same equipment as the serially manufactured Proton, so required no new plants, equipment, infrastructrure, else; and, what is important its production could be ceased and restarted exactly when it's needed, while bigger N-1, Saturn, etc, should be manufactured in advance and require specialized plants.

So, it was technologically much more flexible than N-1.

And on top of that, Glushko also had the military's darling Yangel also propose what was originally a clustered rocket called the R-56.

[kerbiloid]

20 minutes ago, DDE said:

And on top of that, Glushko also had the military's darling Yangel also propose what was originally a clustered rocket called the R-56.

But it looks just like the overgrown first variant of UR-500 (proto-Proton), when it consisted of four two-staged UR-200 with another UR-200 stage on top.

UR-700 looks more intriguing.

Early versions of Proton

Spoiler

Those things to the right are two-staged each.

UR-700
 

Spoiler

 

Edited August 12, 2020 by kerbiloid

[SciMan]

I'm glad someone was willing to put more work into finding UR-700 pictures than I was, I really didn't do it justice. That last one from @kerbiloid looks to be of a similar quality and style to William Beck's excellent 3d models, would be really nice if we could get the engines for it in Tantares so we could build it with the Proton fuel tanks that are already in.

EDIT: also, @kerbiloid that first image you linked (the early versions of proton) didn't seem to work right. I'd love to see it, but it doesn't load for me.

Edited August 15, 2020 by SciMan

[kerbiloid]

2 minutes ago, SciMan said:

I'd love to see it, but it doesn't load for me.

@SciMan, an article

http://militaryrussia.ru/blog/topic-799.html

Spoiler

 

[DDE]

 

[s_gamer101]

Let‘s attach an SSME to every airliner, since an SSME is running with Hydrogen and Oxigen which doesn‘t emit CO2. Jet engines would be used for takeoff and landing and the SSME for supersonic flight, greatly reducing the time of flight.

(Just joking)

[Lisias]

On 8/18/2020 at 10:07 AM, DDE said:

 

Fabulous! And Boeing even had a Simulator for the pilots trying the stunt! FANTASTIC CONCEPT!

https://www.thespacereview.com/article/1608/1

Edited August 21, 2020 by Lisias
Yep. Tyops!

[kerbiloid]

(Can't remember if this already was here).

MBT-70.
The driver sits in the turret, instead of the loader (who is absent because 152 mm arre too heavy for the weak earthlings).
To let him always look forward, the basket with the driver's seat counter-rotates on the turret turns.

Spoiler

 

Pay attention: the middle of the video is horizontally mirrored. The guy in white helmet and sunglasses actually is to the left from the gun.

[DDE]

On 8/28/2020 at 7:56 PM, kerbiloid said:

(Can't remember if this already was here).

MBT-70.
The driver sits in the turret, instead of the loader (who is absent because 152 mm arre too heavy for the weak earthlings).
To let him always look forward, the basket with the driver's seat counter-rotates on the turret turns.

  Hide contents

 

Pay attention: the middle of the video is horizontally mirrored. The guy in white helmet and sunglasses actually is to the left from the gun.

There were several Soviet designs with the same trick. The results were... flat.

As in, Yandex answers "Object 775" when I search for "flat tank".

 

[Dirkidirk]

 

[kerbiloid]

At least it didn't require the LF2-LH2 booster like Spiral.

Spoiler

 

[Lisias]

2 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

At least it didn't require the LF2-LH2 booster like Spiral.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

MIG-105 лапоть. Don't fly with untied shoes!

(Magnificent landing skids, no?)

[kerbiloid]

The metallic rubber doesn't burn.

[steve_v]

3 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

LF2-LH2 booster

LF2... *shudder*

[kerbiloid]

If we had crabs in KSP.

Spoiler

 

[DDE]

On 9/1/2020 at 1:33 PM, steve_v said:

LF2... *shudder*

[DDE]

 

[s_gamer101]

Project Aquiline, a CIA project from the cold war:

A small drone that was supposed to spy on the Soviet Unions terrain, powered by some kind of an RTG that would make it possible to stay in the air for up to 30 days. It was designed to look like a bird and the plan was to also fly like a large bird so that it could hide in plain sight. A landing gear was not included, it they would have had to capture it with a net. It should have stayed over the area that it was spying for a long time and send the data it collected to U-2R spy planes. It could also drop small payloads.

https://www.google.ch/amp/s/www.popularmechanics.com/military/research/amp33565112/cia-nuclear-bird-drone-spy-communists-declassified/

[DDE]

Ah, one of the most appropriate things for this thread

 

[Lisias]

Since we talking about tanks... Ruskies!!!

 

-- POST EDIT --

Whoops.... Involuntary double post. @razark post it first!

 

Edited September 19, 2020 by Lisias
post edit

[Lisias]

Not exactly real life, but it's too good to let it pass.

Microsost stole the MoHole on their Flight Simulator!

 

[Lisias]

Piasecki PA 97 Helistat.

Dr Wernher von Kerman would not made "better".

4 Sikorsky helicopters strapped on a huge blimp.

There's a video on Youtube showing its first flight, but since the outcome was less than ideal, I don't know how it would cope with Forum rules so I will not link to it. But you can google for it.

[StrandedonEarth]

You know, the more I think about it, the more I think that this thing was designed and built by the kerbals recovered from Roswell and kept in Area 51...

Spoiler