Space Shuttle Wings

[einsteiner]

It seems well known that the space shuttle had over-sized wings because the Air Force needed large cross-range ability to do one polar orbit and return to the launch site. Without that requirement what would the shuttle have looked like? I found a picture of an early straight-winged design in this article. Has anybody seen or read about a delta-winged version that would have smaller wings?

[TheSaint]

Here is an illustration of the competing shuttle designs before the Air Force stuck their fingers in the pie:

[Zad Fnark]

Probably more of a pure lifting body design.

ZF-

[Moar Boosters]

This is early concept art of the General Dynamics shuttle design. If Nasa got their way they would have probably build something very similar. Both the booster and orbiter would have been fully reusable. The military didn't just change the wing design, they also brought the requirement of having a giant cargo bay. This design would only have worked because the orbiter is packed full of rocket fuel the same as the booster. I believe Nasa still wanted to go fully reusable even with a giant cargo bay, but the the estimated costs they calculated for R&D were too high, so they went with semi-reusable instead.

[Chrisd857]

Here is an illustration of the competing shuttle designs before the Air Force stuck their fingers in the pie:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Space_Shuttle_concepts.jpg

Upper right illustration looks strangely like the Mythbusters' escape from Alcatraz raft.

[astropapi1]

Here is an illustration of the competing shuttle designs before the Air Force stuck their fingers in the pie:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Space_Shuttle_concepts.jpg

What's that upper left thing? Looks like the apollo LES...

[Accelerando]

it's chrystler SERV, vertical rocket and jet SSTO

[Nibb31]

Before the Shuttle got wings, most of the research, both in the USSR and the USA, was on lifting body designs.

[Kerbin Dallas Multipass]

@Nibb31

Whoa that russian one looks like the spitting image of the Dream Chaser. What year is this from?

[Canopus]

@Nibb31

Whoa that russian one looks like the spitting image of the Dream Chaser. What year is this from?

You mean the dream chaser looks like the spitting image of the russian one because im sure it was there first. I think its the Spiral? In that case it would be from the 70s.

http://www.buran-energia.com/spiral/spiral-project-desc.php

Edited April 3, 2014 by Canopus

[Nibb31]

@Nibb31

Whoa that russian one looks like the spitting image of the Dream Chaser. What year is this from?

There is a lineage actually. The Russian prototype is BOR-4, which flew as an unmanned prototype for the Russian Spiral program. It would have ended up operationally as the MiG-105.

DreamChaser is based on NASA's HL-20 reference design from the 1990s, which was a combination of the HL-10 and X-24 lifting bodies of the sixties, with input from the Spiral program results. HL-20 was cancelled, but the aerodynamic studies continued as part of the X-38 CRV program, which was a joint design from NASA and ESA, also with input from Spiral.

The unique thing about BOR-4/MiG-105 was that it acted like a lifting body during reentry and then the wings folded down to provide better lift at lower speed.

[Kerbin Dallas Multipass]

Canopus

Nibb31

Very interesting, thanks!

[TeeGee]

WHY was this never built???

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SERV

50 ton payload AND SSTO AND fully reusable.

What was NASA thinking?

[SuperFastJellyfish]

Edit: Nevermind.

Edited April 3, 2014 by SuperFastJellyfish

[jwenting]

yup, the little Soviet MiG space fighter...

Designed to counter Dynasoar.

[bigdad84]

I think the next time NASA gets involved with building another spaceplane craft, the Air Force should keep out.

[Vanamonde]

the Air Force should keep out.

They've got their own, now.

[TeeGee]

I think the next time NASA gets involved with building another spaceplane craft, the Air Force should keep out.

Who would have thought that Chrysler would have designs for such an amazing spacecraft... maybe they missed their calling.

[jwenting]

I think the next time NASA gets involved with building another spaceplane craft, the Air Force should keep out.

without the AF funding it would never have been built in the first place...

Which would have been a good thing, come to think. What did get built put the US back 30 years in rocket design and manufacturing.

Of course without the AF there'd not have been a US space program at all, most likely.