BETA & BETA II Spaceplane?

XP67_Moonbat

XP67_Moonbat

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Are there any unclass pictures or drawings of the BETA and BETA II spaceplane study from the 1980's. I'm working on another project and I tried the search engine. The only images I found were the Beta SSTO from, and (shaking my head 'no') "Blackstar". IIRC, The BETA I'm looking for was part of a project called Science Realm.
 
Not this one...these ones...

The Aeropropulsion Analysis Office of the NASA Lewis Research Center was studying
propulsion systems for possible low-risk replacements for the space shuttle. This study focused its work on a
smaller version of an Boeing / USAF two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) concept called Beta.

The NASA concept, Beta II, is to deliver 10,000 pounds to low polar orbit. (The original Beta vehicle is sized to delivered 50,000 pounds.)
 

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NASA Lewis BETA II
 

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Also. BETA. Wind tunnel config. tested. As far as I can remember, in an AEDC tunnel. Better res image may even have been released in an AEDC leaflet. Saw that once, a long time agao...

Regards
 

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More.

BETA explored various types of potential upper stages, including a manned "mini" space shuttle, and "air-launched" X-30 / Nasp.


By the way, BETA puzzled me a lot and I would be grateful to anyone of you who would be able to tell why the project was called BETA. Was STS (aka Space Shuttle) ALPHA? For those who can remember in the early 1980s, the "space station" (yet to become ISS...) was sometimes refereed to as ALPHA, then Freedom, etc.
 

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Re: BETA & BETA II Spaceplane? Image Sateg separation effects

Confirmed. BETA stage separation effect color image taken from AEDC brochure.

Antigravite
 

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USAF BETA wind tunell model
 

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Weird. Looks like BETA but I can't relate it to other published material. Looks like student work or publicity...
 
Hi,

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19920012293_1992012293.pdf
 

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Overview of the BETA II Two-Stage-To-Orbit Design [AIAA-91-3175]:

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19920001816_1992001816.pdf
 
I'm fairly certain all of the images in the thread are BETA II configurations. I've never seen a BETA image in the public domain.
 
quellish said:
I'm fairly certain all of the images in the thread are BETA II configurations. I've never seen a BETA image in the public domain.
Click to expand...
According to the BETA-II history paper the BETA design is the one with the T-Tail but never really proceeded beyond a vesability study. The AF changed the parameters and re-issued the contract for the BETA-II and that became the more published and illustrated version it would seem.

Randy
 

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I know it's the drive, but great boeing artwork
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/26156/is-this-concept-art-of-a-mysterious-space-launch-mothership-a-missing-link-in-area-51s-past
 
The pics.
 

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Very nice. Was this related to the german SSTO projects, also called Beta ? by Dietrich Koelle ?

http://www.astronautix.com/b/beta.html
 
Archibald said:
Very nice. Was this related to the german SSTO projects, also called Beta ? by Dietrich Koelle ?

http://www.astronautix.com/b/beta.html
Click to expand...

No - as the Astronautix entry already indicates, Koelle's BETA is the German acronym for Ballistisches Einstufiges Traeger-Aggregat (literally translated ballistic single stage carrier unit [or more correctly launch vehicle]).
 
Some great drawings and detail in Boeing's patent
https://patents.google.com/patent/US4802639A/en
 
Sorry for bringing this thread back up again; But am i understanding correctly that all of the "new" Boeing artwork show BETA-I (NOT BETA-II) since it has T-tail configuration and so on. If BRILLIANT BUZZARD was/is real it would be a follow up to BETA-II configuration but the sightnings and detail seem to suggest a configuration in size closer to original BETA-I in terms of payload?
 
flanker said:
Sorry for bringing this thread back up again; But am i understanding correctly that all of the "new" Boeing artwork show BETA-I (NOT BETA-II) since it has T-tail configuration and so on. If BRILLIANT BUZZARD was/is real it would be a follow up to BETA-II configuration but the sightnings and detail seem to suggest a configuration in size closer to original BETA-I in terms of payload?
Click to expand...
I don't think there's been much 'new' artwork for the design. Most of it is what Boeing released from their initial studies and work which was mostly to 'pitch' the BETA I before the Air Force changed the specifications. Boeing dropped out and then NASA-Lewis took over and worked with the Air Force on the BETA II design. Unlike BETA-1, which was designed for an orbital payload of 50,000lbs the BETA II was only designed to put a total 10,000lbs of payload into orbit so the Booster only used air-breathing kerosene engines rather than the kerosene/LH2 engines of the BETA 1.

"BRILLIANT BUZZARD" (if it exists) is supposed to be "very-SR-71" like as opposed to either of the BETA designs which would be better described as "super-sized" F-15 like :) Also the BETA 1 was pretty big considering it had to mount an SSME and the LOX/LH2 tanks to feed it PLUS the LOX/LH2 for the 'orbiter' stage as well.

Since the above links no longer work here's the "Design Evolution" paper no NTRS:

And they "Payload Sizing" paper for the BETA II:

Randy
 
As I've posted before nearly three years ago, "The Earth is covered by two-thirds water and one-third space launch studies." Secretary of the U.S. Air Force Sheila A. Widnall, December 1992. RLV concepts are a dime a dozen, because dancing electrons are even cheaper than printed paper.
 

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