I thought I would provide some historical background on the Aero-Bat, Acro_Bat and the X-21.

The Aero_bat was designed in late 1961 by Lee Piester after ereturning from NARAM-3 in August 1961 where he saw the Shultz BG demo. It made it into the Centuri 1962 catalog which came out in early to mid 1962.

Back then there was a battle for BG supremacy in cometition between the Estes Space Plane, favored by the western rocketeers centered in Colorado, and the eastern rocketeers, cenetered in New York who favored the Centuri Aero-Bat.

The Centuri Acro-Bat and X-21 where both based on Paul Hans 1962 design. The only differences between the Acro_bat and the X-21 was that the X-21 had a small clear payload section and swept canards.

Gordon Mnadell credits Paul Hans with being the first person to design a BG with canardsm, although Gordon also did extensive research and fight testing with delta canard BG's. (See TR-7)

Attached are 3 photos:

1. This is a diagram of some modes to the base Aer-Bar design. I don't know if its to scale but if it is we can determine sizes as we know the body tube and nose cone used . see the 62-64 centuri catalaogs for parts.

2. A photo of the original Paul Hans BG next to a space plane like design with canards by G. Harry Stine

3. A liftoff photo of an upscaled 2 stage Paul Hans original Acro-Bat design using Coaster engines.

Paul Hans is also credited with being the first person to stage BG's.

I hope you enjoy this.


terry dean

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