Category Archives: Design

Why precool but not liquify – Skylon and SABRE

Posted on Fri, 2010-10-29 by gravityloss

Well, I thought maybe I could add some content. Everybody’s heard about the British Hotol follower Skylon and its airbreathing SABRE engines. What’s special about them? My understandin’s based on this excellent document from Reaction Engines explaining why the system … Continue reading →

Posted in airplane, Architecture, Design, Energy, engines, ESA, industry, Launchers, RLV:s, Suborbital, Transportation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Airbags, parachutes, Rogallo wings and all that

Posted on Sun, 2010-10-17 by gravityloss

NASA of the sixties reminds me of the Armadillo Aerospace of today. Drop tests, I think an F-111 model and various parachute, parawing and Rogallo wing things. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDyGMPHFteE] Airbags, landing rockets, landing gears (Dyna-Soar like rig) [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ia5iWRg4wE&feature=related] Thank you NASA … Continue reading →

Posted in Design, NASA, RLV:s, Spacecraft | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Helo Speed Records

Posted on Sat, 2010-10-09 by gravityloss

This is becoming an aerospace video blog. 🙂 The eighties [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba-dln366-E&feature=player_embedded] Versus the teens [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK7ktLXhq88&feature=player_embedded] Westland Lynx only reached 90 m/s while X2 is doing 130 m/s. The ability to let the rotor spin slowly since only the advancing blade … Continue reading →

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Parawings and Rogallo wings, again

Posted on Thu, 2010-10-07 by gravityloss

Inspired by Michel Van (not Scott Lowther as mentioned earlier) at Secret Projects, who ran into the Gemini inflatable Rogallo wing test videos that are now available (not embeddable so linked only). There are parafoil systems for airdropping stuff, though … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Design, industry, RLV:s, Spacecraft, Suborbital | 2 Comments

Gravity Assist Competition

Posted on Wed, 2010-10-06 by gravityloss

Or The Space Game, by ESA. This is a nice javascript webpage where a probe is shot from Earth to Jupiter with gravity assists at Venus (twice), Earth and Mars. You try to achieve the lowest propulsive delta vee. You … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Astronomy, Depot, Design, Energy, ESA, Homebuilt, industry, Launchers, Lunar, Models, Motivation, Science Links, Spacecraft | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sankrithi Channels Wallis

Posted on Mon, 2010-09-27 by gravityloss

Most people with interest in aerospace history know of Barnes Wallis’ geodetic structures, most famously used on the Vickers Wellington. He first invented them for the R100 airship, basically a weave of thin aluminum shapes going in different directions, forming … Continue reading →

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The Turn-Boost-Glide-Back approach for first stages

Posted on Sun, 2010-09-26 by gravityloss

In a patent by the famous Barnaby Wainfan. EDIT: corrected the link. This patent was filed in 2006 and granted in 2008.

Posted in airplane, Architecture, Art, Design, engines, industry, Launchers, RLV:s, Suborbital | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Automotive X-Prize Winners

Posted on Sat, 2010-09-18 by gravityloss

Huh, it always takes a long time to find anything on web pages that are so cluttered up. Here. No idea what the MPGe or miles per gallon equivalent is. EDIT: Here’s ERA’s video (they didn’t win, although they were … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art, Climate, Design, Energy, engines, Homebuilt, industry, RLV:s | Leave a comment

On Pressure Fed Rockets and Scaling

Posted on Sat, 2010-09-18 by gravityloss

Well, scaling seems to be my pet issue. I recently wrote something not entirely well reasoned in a comment at Paul Breed’s. (For some reason Chrome complains about blogrolling.com malware there so continue if you’re sure you’re safe.) So let’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Design, engines, Launchers, RLV:s, Spacecraft, Suborbital, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The State of the Art of Washing Machines

Posted on Mon, 2010-09-13 by gravityloss

..is despicable. They take clearly too little water. They take it clearly too slowly. They idle far too much at the beginning. They idle far too much at the end. They do not offer fast forward capability like mechanical machines … Continue reading →

Posted in Demotivation, Design, Humor, idiocracy, industry, Motivation | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment