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Old 05-09-2017, 07:01 PM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2009
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Default Rocket/rotor lander

Hello All,

Here is information on a unique subject for a Concept Scale model rocket. There is also a chance, although I wouldn't bet on it, that it might even have been a Scale subject—over 2,500 years ago! (Even if it wasn't, the full-scale design itself would work if built.) Now:

This vehicle is covered in a book (links to a PDF scan of the book, and to associated articles, are provided below) by Josef F. Blumrich, an Austrian astronautical engineer who worked at NASA (see: www.google.com/#q=spaceships+of+ezekiel+pdf ). He devoted a great deal of technical thought (backed up by actual wind tunnel model test data) and work in textual criticism to his book, “The Spaceships of Ezekiel,” which he had begun writing in order to prove Erich von Daniken (author of “Chariots of the Gods?”) wrong. But while Blumrich remained very skeptical of nearly all of von Daniken’s claims, in the course of his research for the book he found an exception—in Ezekiel’s accounts of “The Wheel.” The hypothetical short-range, planetary excursion spacecraft that Blumrich designed based on Ezekiel’s accounts (and whose body shape was wind tunnel tested) would be a versatile, aerodynamic flight-capable (via rotary wings) vehicle that we could build today, and:

Here (see: http://www.campbellmgold.com/archiv...umrich_1972.pdf ) is a PDF version of the book, and there are links to articles about his work in the above-linked Google citations list. Here (see: http://www.google.com/search?q=spac...0&bih=794&dpr=1 ) are illustrations and drawings of the vehicle. Regardless of what one may think of Blumrich’s thesis—that our Earth was visited by closely-humanoid beings, who communicated with Ezekiel—the design of his planetary excursion vehicle would be a very efficient one (in terms of its low structural mass [due to its profile shape, which is mostly tension-loaded], maneuverability, and utility), and I would not be surprised to see it (or something very similar) utilized when human explorers require such “landing boats” for interplanetary or interstellar spaceships. Also:

A Concept Scale model of this spacecraft could utilize both rocket propulsion and electric motor-driven rotors. It could, in fact, be a rocket-equipped R/C quad-copter. Blumrich describes the full-scale vehicle as using a plug nozzle-equipped nuclear rocket engine (whose conical plug nozzle doubles as an atmospheric entry heat shield; this is the reason for the vehicle’s concave-sided, tension-loaded, conical lower body). Four folding landing legs—each of which is equipped with a four-bladed helicopter rotor with folding blades, a cluster of attitude thrusters, and a self-propelled landing wheel—would be folded above the craft’s upper body during atmospheric entry, then would fold down and lock after a low-altitude braking burn of the rocket slowed the vehicle to a stop, or nearly so, and:

At that point the rotors—perhaps utilizing residual airflow to start their rotation, if deployed at a low airspeed—would power-up and start spinning to lower the craft to a soft landing, and they would give the crew ample opportunity to select a touchdown point. (The vehicle could land using rocket power, but using the rotors for landing would prevent ignition and radioactive contamination of vegetation and harm to surrounding structures and living things.) Under rotor power, the craft could also take off again and fly from one location to another. The ascent back to orbit, to dock with the mother ship, could begin either under rocket power or after a rotor-powered ascent to about 3,000 feet, with a rocket-powered liftoff being used only if an emergency situation made it necessary. The landing leg/rotor modules (which could, if an emergency situation necessitated it, be jettisoned either in the air or at takeoff [using rocket power]) would remain in their landing configuration—with their rotor blades folded, once the rocket engine took hold—during the high-speed atmospheric portion of the ascent. Once the vehicle was back in orbit after its rocket engine shut down, the landing legs could be folded back above the main body.

I hope this information will be helpful.
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