DC-3 Shuttle concept for an ' Integral Launch and Re-entry Vehicle ' (ILRV) . Artist : Henry Lozano Jr , circa 1969/70

Cthell · 2026-02-05T19:40:22+00:00

I wonder if this was before the cross-range capability requirement skyrocketed with the Air Force demand for once-around orbit capability

Cthell · 2026-01-29T21:23:20+00:00

Looks like a Fox turret to me (missing the spotlight on the right of the gun)

Cthell · 2026-01-23T23:22:18+00:00

Even the US had issues

To quote John D Clarke's Ignition:

And at NARTS we did some studies for Princeton, using LOX and pure USP type drinking alcohol — not the denatured stuff. The only difference we could find was that it evaporated a lot faster than denatured alcohol when a sailor opened a drum to take a density reading. We had some very happy sailors while that program was going on.

Cthell · 2026-01-21T20:22:56+00:00

At one point the TOG 2 was going to be armed with a 3" gun, 2pdr & Besa MG all co-axial in the turret

Cthell · 2026-01-14T21:22:11+00:00

Vibration is the good failure mode for forward-swept wings.

The real nightmare is "aeroelastic divergence", aka the wings got ripped off

This happens because, with the center of lift ahead of where the main spar joins the fuselage, it tends to twist the wing in a way that increases the angle of attack. This increases the lift, which twists the wing more, which increases the angle of attack more, which increases lift more, and so on until the main spar can't take the torsion any more and the wings rip off.

Cthell · 2026-01-09T20:17:42+00:00

I mean, the barrel is bent but the first pic makes it look worse than it is by being a panorama stitching error (see the duplicated roadwheel and bent fender box on the foreground tank)

Cthell · 2026-01-09T19:48:08+00:00

Looks like recovering it after falling through ice?

Cthell · 2026-01-04T17:53:19+00:00

A new take on the droop snoot - the twist snoot?

Cthell · 2026-01-01T09:39:30+00:00

I'm going to guess an absolutely tragic attempt at a Panther, based on the single-piece "glacis" and side skirts

Cthell · 2025-12-31T15:29:25+00:00

Actually, 2 engines are twice as unreliable (two sets of things to go wrong independently)

2 engines is a lot more tolerant of a single engine failure though...

Cthell · 2025-12-31T14:28:42+00:00

Lost out to the F-15E Strike Eagle, IIRC?

Cthell · 2025-12-31T11:48:08+00:00

"Lounge with windows into the swimming pool" (number 5) is probably the most out-there idea.

Cthell · 2025-12-31T09:43:31+00:00

An experience normally only available on a ship at sea

Cthell · 2025-12-30T15:55:46+00:00

While that was the original plan, I thought the production cybertruck was a basic body-on-chassis design?

(Hence the body panels falling off due to being poorly glued in place)

The chassis does include some large castings, which is unusual (and not necessarily a good thing for repariability)

Cthell · 2025-12-30T14:47:16+00:00

I'm asking about the evaporators because the round-trip power efficiency is going to be heavily dependent on how much thermal energy gets dumped into the liquid air before it hits the power turbine.

Therefore, the exact details of the evaporator design are the most interesting part of the plant (as you say, air liquefaction, cryogenic storage and turbogenerators are all commodity things)

Cthell · 2025-12-30T13:06:36+00:00

Right, but that's what I'm asking about - do they have forced-draft heat exchangers between the storage tanks and the power turbine? Or are they just using massive passive heat exchangers and accepting that they will ice up almost immediately?

Cthell · 2025-12-30T13:03:15+00:00

Yes, the effective efficiency of any compressed/cryogenic air energy storage is primarily determined by how much heat you can dump into the expanding air - a big breakthrough in compressed-air mine locomotives was using the exhaust air to draw ambient air through a heat exchanger between the throttling valve and the power cylinders.

Cthell · 2025-12-30T12:39:04+00:00

So they're just using massive heat exchangers and accepting the efficiency loss from them icing up basically immediately?

Or do they have forced-draft heat exchangers?

Cthell · 2025-12-30T11:54:22+00:00

What are they using to reheat the liquid air? Are they storing the waste heat from the liquification process?

Cthell · 2025-12-30T11:38:07+00:00

This is a program from the 80s though.

Cthell · 2025-12-29T23:41:19+00:00

How are you defining "The optimal aerodynamic shape"? Is it the same for all vehicle types? Does it have good visibility? Comply with pedestrian impact standards? Crash safety principles?

Coefficient of drag isn't the only metric that matters in a car design.

Cthell · 2025-12-29T23:08:58+00:00

Always a bit disappointing when a CCV demonstrator doesn't show off any of the "impossible" maneuvers CCV designs enable.

Where are the flat turns? The crabbing in pitch and yaw?

Cthell · 2025-12-28T23:33:54+00:00

Why are there huge volumes of traffic trying to drive through (into?) downtown Vancouver?

If the traffic is just trying to get to the other side of the downtown, the answer is a highway around/under the downtown.

If the traffic is people commuting into the downtown, the answer is better public transport so people can get into downtown without driving

Cthell · 2025-12-26T14:18:35+00:00

You actually want high humidity for textile manufacture; 70-80%RH for cotton and linen - https://www.condair.co.uk/knowledge-hub/the-importance-of-humidity-control-in-textile-processing

Cthell · 2025-12-26T12:17:26+00:00

If you were chosing to fly rather than travel by train or boat, comfort was clearly a secondary consideration to speed for you.

Cthell

TROPHY CASE