Something new.
I cleaned up the last page from the document posted by Blackstar on top of this page, in 2017. Lot of interesting stuff. Not least that the date is 1966, quite late for some of the concepts listed in the many columns. TAGBOARD (on the left column) is well known. ISINGLASS (second column) is also recognizable: B-52, LOX/LH-2 (= XLR-129 although not mentionned), Mach 21 [snip]
I red about this recently. The CIA send ROCAF pilots into the Chinese SA-2 meatgrinder. First time, they dropped the sensors from a U-2. Did not worked. Second try: they send a ROCAF C-130 Hercules at low level - 5000 miles ! - from Thailand to Lop Nor and back. Ten or twelve hours spent hugging the Chinese ground... and they dropped the sensors and made it back alive. The CIA also tried to spy Lop Nor from an Indian, himalayan mountain 25000 ft high and 1500 miles away. With a RTG powered sensor. That was swept by a snow avalanche... or perhaps stolen by the Indians. They never knew. ...... sometimes it makes a fun read, excellent food for one's imagination; and sometimes you're left shaking your head in disbelief and wondering "wow, they did THAT ?"
There are still a lot of unanswered questions about this program (and RHEINBERRY). I think the biggest question is what had been done when the program was canceled? At most they were doing early hardware testing. How much and what kind? And had they settled on a basic vehicle design? Or were they still looking at multiple options?We don't even have a good chronology of the program.
The results of this work were presented to Air Force Systems Command in March 1965 in a report titled Manned Hypersonic Vehicle Study.Manned Hypersonic Vehicle StudyThe Manned Hypersonic Vehicle study summarized the work done in the previous phases for Mach 4 to 6 designs and then addressed two classes of Mach 6 to 12 hydrogen-powered designs. The first class, called Early Availability, consisted of vehicles with conventional propulsion systems, including currently available turbojets and subsonic combustion ramjets. The second class, called Later Availability, consisted of vehicles with advanced propulsion systems, including advanced turbojets and supersonic combustion ramjets.None of the designs were B-58 parasites, which is not surprising since Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara formally announced the retirement of the B-58 program in late 1965.Three design approaches were presented for the Early Availability category. They were based on three variations of the same reconnaissance mission concept—a pre-zone leg at subsonic speeds and medium altitudes that covered at least 2,000 nautical miles from the area to be reconnoitered; a zone leg at maximum altitude and super- or hypersonic cruising speed that covered 4,000 nautical miles; and a post-zone leg at subsonic speed that returned the vehicle to the home base or a safe base in another location.The first design approached the mission with a boost-glide vehicle. This design, called Configuration R-3, had a maximum speed of Mach 9 and a maximum altitude of 130,000 feet. Powered to max speed and altitude by a liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen rocket booster with thrust of 190,000 pounds, it then glided for the remainder of the time in the reconnaissance zone. Subsonic propulsion for pre- and post-zone operations was provided by a single Bristol Siddeley 100/8 turbojet engine.R-3 had a gross weight of 146,000 pounds and a zone range of 1,100 nautical miles. The variable sweep wings, when extended, gave the aircraft a wingspan of eighty feet. The overall length of the aircraft was 141.8 feet. The sweep angle of the leading edge when not extended was eighty-two degrees.The second design, called Configuration B-2, approached the mission by air-launching a satellite payload from a rocket-propelled missile pod attached to the underside of a hypersonic carrier. The carrier vehicle had a maximum speed of Mach 8. It was powered by four General Electric J93 engines and one liquid oxygen/JP-fueled rocket motor. The rocket had a thrust of 250,000 pounds. The aircraft was 134.7 feet long with a fixed wing span of 77.8 feet and a sweep angle of sixty degrees. It weighed 299,000 pounds without the pod.The satellite pod in B-2 was powered by two rockets. The first rocket, which ignited after the pod separated from the carrier at Mach 8, consisted of a two-stage UGM-27 Polaris A2 sea-launched ballistic missile. The second rocket was a forty-inch diameter Thiokol rocket. The combination satellite/missile pod weighed 25,000 pounds.The third design approached the mission with a cruise vehicle. Called Configuration C-3, this design had a maximum speed of Mach 8 and a zone altitude of 115,000 feet. The twin-tail, fixed-wing aircraft was powered by four Pratt & Whitney advanced TF30 turbofan engines and one Marquardt dual fuel ramjet.The turbojets would power the aircraft to Mach 3 at which point the ramjets would be ignited and powered by JP-4 fuel, the same fuel used to power the turbojets. Once the aircraft reached 115,000 feet and Mach 8, the ramjets would switch to liquid hydrogen for the duration of the zone leg. The dual-fuel approach allowed the aircraft to be sized smaller than a single-fuel design and to be refueled by existing KC-135 tanker aircraft.C-3 had a gross weight of 170,000 pounds. It was 158.4 feet long and had a wingspan of 68.4 feet. An alternate configuration, which placed all four turbojets between the twin tails, had a length of 147.9 feet and a wingspan of 68.5 feet.The Later Availability vehicles were based on engine and structural advances as applied to Configuration C-3. These advances included supersonic combustion ramjets and advanced turbojets. These designs, which were not detailed and not pursued, according to Kent, would be capable of reaching orbital velocities.
atomic-powered spy device. Then there are stories about a lost RTG-powered device on an Indian mountain in the mid-60's (complete with someone involved getting testicular cancer from the plutonium). The device disappeared, supposedly, in a massive avalanche, and is described as a huge environmental catastrophe waiting to happen. These stories appear to have come out after the Wignall book.I'm not even going to try to guess how much of the above is true.
Those working on the A-12 replacement project initially referred to it by an internal billing designation—Work Order 540. The initial studies were divided into four two-month phases that spanned November 1963 through June 1964.A budget status chart at the end of the report for Phase 3 indicated that Work Order 540 would run through July 1965 with an overall budget of $165,000, and approximately $110,000 had been spent for the first three phases. However, no status reports beyond Phase 3 were found in researching this article. The gap, however, is covered by follow-on design work that was initiated in August 1964. The results of this work were presented to Air Force Systems Command in March 1965 in a report titled Manned Hypersonic Vehicle Study.
The Manned Hypersonic Vehicle study summarized the work done in the previous phases for Mach 4 to 6 designs and then addressed two classes of Mach 6 to 12 hydrogen-powered designs. The first class, called Early Availability, consisted of vehicles with conventional propulsion systems, including currently available turbojets and subsonic combustion ramjets. The second class, called Later Availability, consisted of vehicles with advanced propulsion systems, including advanced turbojets and supersonic combustion ramjets.None of the designs were B-58 parasites, which is not surprising since Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara formally announced the retirement of the B-58 program in late 1965.Three design approaches were presented for the Early Availability category.The first design approached the mission with a boost-glide vehicle. This design, called Configuration R-3, had a maximum speed of Mach 9 and a maximum altitude of 130,000 feet. Powered to max speed and altitude by a liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen rocket booster with thrust of 190,000 pounds, it then glided for the remainder of the time in the reconnaissance zone. Subsonic propulsion for pre- and post-zone operations was provided by a single Bristol Siddeley 100/8 turbojet engine.
The Later Availability vehicles were based on engine and structural advances as applied to Configuration C-3. These advances included supersonic combustion ramjets and advanced turbojets. These designs, which were not detailed and not pursued, according to Kent, would be capable of reaching orbital velocities.
Cunningham said that he and CIA officials Jack Ledford and John Parangosky met with Jim McDonnell and his son to discuss the project. This was most likely in early 1965.McDonnell Douglas worked on the project for approximately 14 months (May 1966 aprox.)
Quote from: libra on 01/26/2021 01:20 pmI cleaned up the last page from the document posted by Blackstar on top of this page, in 2017. Lot of interesting stuff. Not least that the date is 1966, quite late for some of the concepts listed in the many columns. TAGBOARD (on the left column) is well known. ISINGLASS (second column) is also recognizable: B-52, LOX/LH-2 (= XLR-129 although not mentionned), Mach 21 [snip]Any thoughts on ISINGLASS/McDonnell and connections to earlier hydrogen aircraft work at Lockheed by Ben Rich and Kelly Johnson? The relevant chapter in "Skunkworks", chapter 8 "Blowing up Burbank", where they were looking into LH2 planes from about 1956 to ~~1960. That included Suntan 1956-1958. ISINGLASS is later while Lockheed works on the A12 but anyway?
Document attached is a 1961 study about technical issues related to boost-glide reconnaissance. "1961" means DynaSoar (obviously) but it may be of interest for ISINGLASS and RHEINBERRY too.
Digging this further... cleaned up file 2.0, attached. -------No idea what S-105 / ISINGLASS would do with a "Skybolt 2nd stage". Perhaps an auxiliary rocket engine to help accelerating the ramjets from the B-58's Mach 2 to ISINGLASS Mach 4 cruise speed ? Ramjets work better at mach 3 than Mach 2... they usually need a booster. --------S-103 "air launched reconnaissance satellite" the booster is a Minuteman II + Able-Star stage as described on Ed Kyle website. AJ10-41 was Able-Star engine. https://www.spacelaunchreport.com/thorh2.htmlhttps://minutemanmissile.com/solidrocketboosters.htmlI did some calculations for a B-52 + Minuteman II + Able-Star launcher; the overall weight and payload to orbit matches very well. Minuteman II 63 000 pounds and Able-star is 10 000 pounds, so total 73 000 pounds. Payload to orbit corresponds, too: 1100 pounds.