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Old 07-08-2022, 08:29 PM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ez2cDave
Was a "name" ever given to that configuration ?

Was anything else ever done, beyond that drawing ? Wind tunnel testing, perhaps ?

I doubt it ever progressed to "flight testing", but one can hope !

Dave F.
I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if at least model wind tunnel testing was done, and I'd wager that Aerojet did work up a fully-calculated (with individual part weights, etc.) design, because they did want to get the Project Vanguard contract for the launch vehicle. (Later, similarly, Martin did the same thing for the Apollo Command and Service Modules [CSM], and for the Phase C/D Space Shuttle Orbiter [the one that North American Aviation-Rockwell ultimately became the prime contractor for, as they were for the Apollo CSM].) Also:

Aerojet was actually in a better position to build their Bomarc A-based Vanguard launch vehicle, because they already produced both its first stage (used to vertically boost the Bomarc A to ramjet ignition velocity, and then some) and its second stage (based closely upon the Aerobee), plus they had the solid propellant motor expertise--and production facilities--to produce its third stage, but:

Martin--called the Glenn L. Martin Company, back then; Martin Marietta and Lockheed Martin came later--had produced the "ethylox" (ethyl alcohol/LOX-powered) Viking sounding rocket for the U.S. Navy. The Vanguard first stage was based on the Viking, but it -wasn't- a "modified Viking" (as some literature back then said), as Arthur C. Clarke pointed out in "The Making of a Moon: The Story of the Earth Satellite Program": https://www.google.com/search?q=The...sclient=gws-wiz ). The first stage burned RP-1 kerosene (refined by Shell Oil Company) and LOX, in a General Electric X-405 rocket engine (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XLR50 [the Viking's Reaction Motors XLR50 wasn't powerful enough]). Martin also had to contract with Aerojet for the Aerobee-based second stage (later called the Able, used with Thor and Atlas first stages) and with Grand Central Rocket Company--and later with Allegheny Ballistics Laboratory (for Vanguard III's fiberglass-cased Altair)--for the third stage. But Willy Ley, the German-American rocketry and space writer (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willy_Ley - he left Germany in 1935, to emigrate to the U.S.), pointed out a funny thing (which he--and his adoptive country--ultimately regretted):

Had the joint U.S. Army-U.S. Navy Project Orbiter (started in 1954 [see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orbiter *and* http://www.drewexmachina.com/downlo.../SV_1998_01.pdf ]; as Clarke wrote in his book, he accidentally walked in on their first planning meeting, at the U.S. Naval Research Lab! [see: https://www.nrl.navy.mil/ ] :-) ) been left alone, the U.S. would have orbited the world's first artificial satellite in 1956! (For Project Orbiter, the Army would have provided a Redstone-based launch vehicle similar to the later Jupiter-C / Juno I, but originally using multiple, clustered Loki upper stages [using 37 Loki motors in total], instead of the later clustered Baby Sergeant motors, which didn't exist [or at least, weren't yet proven] in 1954; Project Orbiter was to use only existing, then-proven rocket hardware. The Navy would have provided the satellite, and tracking stations/tracking ships.) If any usable Bomarc B solid motors are still around, various existing guided missile motors (Sparrow, Sidewinder, AMRAAM, etc.) could be clustered and stacked atop the Bomarc B motors and spun for stabilization (like with the Jupiter-C / Juno I and the Juno II [which used a stretched Jupiter IRBM first stage]), to make "DIY satellite launch vehicles."
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Last edited by blackshire : 07-08-2022 at 08:48 PM.
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