From my earliest encounter with Space Shuttle designs in space books and magazines in the sixties, I always assumed they would look super-cool and aerodynamic, with extra boosters, swept wings and piggybacked orbiters.
Developmental concepts from a multitude of engineering companies show how the idea was explored, revealing some quite exotic designs being generated. A lot of the imagery may look a little too science fiction for practicality, such as Ed Valigursky's beautiful siamese twin shuttles, from 'Man in Space'
Some of the design concepts found their way into toy designs, such as the Project SWORD Dyna Soar, which was an almost direct lift from the drawing board and the Space Glider, which was influenced by the NASA Lifting Body project.
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| M1-F1 Lifting Body |
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| HL-10 Lifting Body |
Even British Aerospace were keen to get into the Shuttle business, with the odd MUSTARD design, featuring three identical craft, clustered together in various configurations at liftoff, to deliver a final stage to orbit.
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| British MUSTARD (Multi-Unit Space Transport and Recovery Device) |
My favourite designs were the more unconventional ones, with a touch of Thunderbirds in their execution, such as these delta shaped craft and the Grumman design, below as seen in Brooke Bonds 'Race into Space' tea card set.
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| Boeing Concept |
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| Dyna Soar and Lenticular Hull Designs |
Fascinating. The shuttle did seem comparetively dull to me too but I did warm to it. The daftest thing was that for decades there was nowhere for it to shuttle TO as it was approved by Congress but the Space Station it was meant to shuttle to wasn't for a long time.
ReplyDeleteHa ha - very true Kevin. Space Stations are another thorn in my side, as the imagery I had become familiar with was very different from Skylab, Salyut, Mir and eventually the ISS.
ReplyDeleteA model version of the lifting body appeared in the film "Marooned", about an Apollo craft which has an accident in space. Came out not long before Apollo 13.
ReplyDeleteThats right Andy, I couldn't find a decent shot of it though.
ReplyDeleteSpaceship design in the conceptual stage was always a lot more "sexy" than the resulting craft, which makes sense from a marketing viewpoint. The conceptual artists were trying to "sell" the idea to the public, to the government, to industry and contracters, etc. But when it came down to the nuts and bolts of financing, that's when all the bells and whistles came off. That is one reason I will always be a devout fan of fantasy spacecraft, fictional spacecraft, conceptual spacecraft, etc., over the "real" stuff. A lot of modelers go all nuts about the latest LEM or Saturn V rocket model, but I couldn't care less. I'm more interested in what DIDN'T get made! Guess that's the hopeless Sci-Fi nerd in me... ;<]
ReplyDeletePS I do like the British M.U.S.T.A.R.D. design though, which looks like it could have fallen out of Dr Who episode! (The good ones, from the 60s/70s)
ReplyDeleteIm right with you on that sentiment, the stuff on the drawing board is always far more exciting!
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