British physics, old chap. It's undignified to belch flames and effluvia all over the pad, what. A true gentlemen's orbital conveyance lifts itself into the air unostentatiously, with the minimum of spectacle and a modicum of grace. Not like our American cousins' launch vehicles, eh?
[Reminded by a mention in another thread]I always liked Black Arrow's party trick......It apparently flew by magic.
Ariane 1.To me it had everything:- multi-colored rocket- goldish exhaust with mild occurence of shock-cones- not a whole lot of smoke- no ugly boosters- slender look...- but also looked like a work-horse- fins on the engine fairings- brute force liquid booster stages- high-efficiency liquid upper stage- Etc, etc.
Quote from: Paul451 on 04/03/2016 10:31 am[Reminded by a mention in another thread]I always liked Black Arrow's party trick......It apparently flew by magic.British physics, old chap. It's undignified to belch flames and effluvia all over the pad, what. A true gentlemen's orbital conveyance lifts itself into the air unostentatiously, with the minimum of spectacle and a modicum of grace. Not like our American cousins' launch vehicles, eh?
Sprint for maximum spectacle.
Mach 10 in 5 seconds. That certainly minimizes gravity losses
Quote from: Oli on 04/13/2016 03:32 pmMach 10 in 5 seconds. That certainly minimizes gravity losses At the expense of colossal drag loss. The skin gets white-hot.
As for sheer impressiveness the N-1 is hard to beat. Especially with its crazy open truss interstage construction.
As said early in this thread, the V-2 really was the archetypal rocket. It looked like the sci-fi books said it should look and every single rocket ever since has just been a deviation from its archetype.It is clear, from looking at the V-2, that it was designed by a dreamer of space exploration. Not just someone wanting to create a weapon that would be easy to produce.As for sheer impressiveness the N-1 is hard to beat. Especially with its crazy open truss interstage construction.
Quote from: The Amazing Catstronaut on 04/06/2016 09:08 pmBritish physics, old chap. It's undignified to belch flames and effluvia all over the pad, what. A true gentlemen's orbital conveyance lifts itself into the air unostentatiously, with the minimum of spectacle and a modicum of grace. Not like our American cousins' launch vehicles, eh?This is the best comment i have seen in years on this forum. Muchos gracias
The V-2 was actually an exact upsize of the 8mm Mauser bullet. The Germans thought it to be the perfect shape for pushing through the atmosphers.
Quote from: spacenut on 05/03/2016 06:26 pmThe V-2 was actually an exact upsize of the 8mm Mauser bullet. The Germans thought it to be the perfect shape for pushing through the atmosphers. Source?Not that I disbelieve; it would just be a nice thing to have a source on.