WOTAN has scooped another blog first!Not content with showing the first Spacex Nuclear Ferry or the first Century 21 Project Sword model, my ongoing researches have just today lead me to discover the awesome origins of the Ferry. Previously thought to have been a concept craft dreamed up by Bob McCall for NASA. It now can be revealed that the Nuclear Ferry concept was actually a design direct from the engineers drawing boards. Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV) Astronautics Division put forward the design in 1964 to the Future Projects Division at Nasa and the ferry as we know it today, became a part of history.
Pictured above is a section from the actual article showing what is indisputably the Nuclear Ferry as we know it in toy form today, with passenger and cargo sections. David S. Portree, space historian and planetary librarian and author of several superb blogs such as Romance to Reality and beyondapollo was kind enough to peruse the Sword blog today at my request to see if he could help identify any of the craft shown and instantly recognised the Ferry.I would like to take this opportunity to thank David for his help and making this another SWORD milestone!
Stependous WOTAN! Definitive.Woodsy
Great! This provides scale data for building a Nuclear Ferry - and it should be possible to use a Saturn upper stage model as the basis of the propulsion section!
ReplyDeleteGrif
And come to think of it - this explains why Project SWORD need Saturn rockets - for lifting Nuclear Ferries into orbit!
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