Wingless Jet VTOL Transport Aircraft

Hi,

here is incredible design for NASA from October 1959,a Wingless jet
VTOL transport aircraft,can you imagine how to fly?.

Apparently it was to be sustained by the array of side jets... and geared through various shifts of the same... You could pay me a million bucks and I still would NOT climb into one of these if they existed!

...Why is it that when I saw that, the first thing that popped into my mind was "No bucks, no Buck Rogers...literally!"?

Hi,

also a wingless transport VTOL aircraft.
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19750011151_1975011151.pdf

Hi,

http://crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/historic/12-Foot_Low_Speed_Tunnel

Say: wingless aircraft. Say it again together: "wingless aircraft". Now say something else: flying brick. Lost propulsion? Say: falling brick.

Wasn't there a wingless jet aircraft design nicknamed the "Flying Pig"?

I remember reading about that somewhere.

Stargazer2006 said:

Apparently it was to be sustained by the array of side jets... and geared through various shifts of the same... You could pay me a million bucks and I still would NOT climb into one of these if they existed!

Click to expand...

There isn't any indication of intermediate gearing, or are you referring to the turn tables themselves? My guess, like many early VTOL projects is they had the number of engines they had such that the loss of one or more of the engines wouldn't be catastrophic. Still, that many engines seems risky for the time. However, given the reliability of today's engines, I could see this as doable. But, there are probably better layouts for the lift system with today's powerplants. Such as, just having two engines on each side of the fuselage, an F-35 lift-fan type system, but that would take up so much fuselage volume, I don't know that it would be worth it. Having said that, I find this design very cool, especially how well it compares to a standard aircraft in the low altitude regime it is meant to fly in.

"..I still would NOT climb into one of these .."

This design seems to have multiple engines, several of the Bristol Siddeley "Flying Pig"
designs had just one BS Pegasus: http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,1525.0/highlight,flying%20pig.html
;D

But at low level, loss of power or malfunctions of the gear/rotorsystem may be catastrophic for
a helicopter, too.

Regardless of any safety/reliability issues, just imagine the kind of specific fuel consumption this thing would have (think: guzzling JP4 like a hole in the ground......), relying as it apparently does on direct jet lift. And ground erosion? Ground erosion would dig the above-mentioned hole in the ground for you. And judging from the shape, there's not much chance of body lift, even at speed.

But all the same, pretty cool.

Regards & all,

Thomas L. Nielsen
Luxembourg

Hi,

as I know also a lighter transport Project was considerable.

Hi,