Tremulis spaceplane

archipeppe

archipeppe

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Does anybody has some information, or better images, related to the Tremulis spaceplane?

Alex S. Tremulis was a well known automotive designer (his most famous work was about the Tucker cars), during the war he was hired by USAAC and transferred to Wright Field (now Wright-Patterson AFB) and in 1944 he elaborated a proposal about a small, single pilot, spaceplane launched vertically atop a booster (roughly resembling a V2, still unknown at that time).
After the boost phase the spaceplane was to reach orbit or maximum altitude (in event of sub-orbital flight) and glide back to its homebase.
In principle it was the very first example of what later become X20 and STS.

The proposal was initially named "Zero Fighter" (probably due to its vertical take-off) and after renamed "Operation Dyna Soar" (nothing in common with the actual X20 project of 15 years later).
 
Perhaps it's connected to this project.

http://www.up-ship.com/apr/extras/v2plane.htm
 
XP67_Moonbat said:
Perhaps it's connected to this project.
Click to expand...

Wuz wondering that m'self. There was no date on the drawing, but it was tucked in with similarly poorly-reproduced images of wartime North American bomber designs, so it *could* have dated from 1944, with "V-2" being a postwar assumption.
 
XP67_Moonbat said:
Perhaps it's connected to this project.

http://www.up-ship.com/apr/extras/v2plane.htm
Click to expand...

Interesting, but is not exactly what I was looking for.
Once I saw, over Internet, one b/w image (signed by Tremulis itself) which represented the flight profile of the rocketplane and its booster since launch pad to re-entry.
Unfortunately I not saved the image and I was unable to recover it by the net.... :'(
 
sorry archipeppe
i look true my data

found only the name "Tremulis Zero Fighter"
but no picture :'(
 
Michel Van said:
sorry archipeppe
i look true my data

found only the name "Tremulis Zero Fighter"
but no picture :'(
Click to expand...

Many thanks anyway Michel, I find out the same.
 
http://www.coachbuilt.com/des/t/tremulis/tremulis.htm

A little bio on Tremulis including a description of the "Zero Fighter", but sadly, no picture.

Moonbat
 
XP67_Moonbat said:
http://www.coachbuilt.com/des/t/tremulis/tremulis.htm

A little bio on Tremulis including a description of the "Zero Fighter", but sadly, no picture.

Moonbat
Click to expand...

Yep. this is the clue that I'm not only "dreamed" such image.....
 
SCOTT YOU'RE GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Many, many thanks for this gift. ;D ;D
 
Thanks to Scott's finding I was able to reconstruct some drawings of TVT (Tremulis forgiving....)
 

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And now a little bit of "what if".

1) This drawing represents the start of TVT career, in January 1946, according of what writes Allen M. Steele in his "Goddard's People" and "Tranquillity Alternative", this "Lucky Linda II" was responsible of the first Sanger Silbervogel shootdown (President Truman official speech).

2) This drawing represents an unarmed TVT exploited by NACA, in mid '50s, for high speed trials and launched by a Convair B-36D.

3) This drawing represents a much modified TVT utilized as hypersonic research vehicle by NASA in early '60s.
 

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Bravo, Peppe, but the last one is, er, rather implausible. Accorciagli le ali (clip its wings..). :D
 
An update: The "Zero Fighter" has been selected to be modeled in CAD (by me) and turned into a kit for Fantastic Plastic. I plan on using Giuseppe's reconstruction as a starting point... I can't see where he got much of anything wrong. Not sure if 1/72 or 1/48 yet. There are a number of other models in the pipeline ahead of it, but it shouldn't prove to be a challenging build.
 
I'd assume that an hypersonic research aircraft (like tha last rendering is) would use a different wing plan. That's why I said "clip the wings" somewhat.
 
Orionblamblam said:
An update: The "Zero Fighter" has been selected to be modeled in CAD (by me) and turned into a kit for Fantastic Plastic. I plan on using Giuseppe's reconstruction as a starting point... I can't see where he got much of anything wrong. Not sure if 1/72 or 1/48 yet. There are a number of other models in the pipeline ahead of it, but it shouldn't prove to be a challenging build.
Click to expand...

Great!!
I'm eager to see that model!!!
 
Wow fantastic at last a USA forties X-plane that's rocket powered and way ahead of its time. And now am I seeing things or is that an aerospike type nozzle sticking out of the booster and the hyper plane?
 
airrocket said:
is that an aerospike type nozzle sticking out of the booster and the hyper plane?
Click to expand...

It seems to be. Since this illustration is all I have, I can't say just what the design intent here is... whether it's a plug cluster, a toroidal aerospike, or an artist just going gonzo.
 
Scot,

I vote for 1/72!


Orionblamblam said:
An update: The "Zero Fighter" has been selected to be modeled in CAD (by me) and turned into a kit for Fantastic Plastic. I plan on using Giuseppe's reconstruction as a starting point... I can't see where he got much of anything wrong. Not sure if 1/72 or 1/48 yet. There are a number of other models in the pipeline ahead of it, but it shouldn't prove to be a challenging build.
Click to expand...
 
Orionblamblam said:
airrocket said:
is that an aerospike type nozzle sticking out of the booster and the hyper plane?
Click to expand...

It seems to be. Since this illustration is all I have, I can't say just what the design intent here is... whether it's a plug cluster, a toroidal aerospike, or an artist just going gonzo.
Click to expand...
FYI it looks to be an actual "Aero-Spike" exhaust ramp. IIRC some early jet work said that to operate over a wide range of altitudes jet engines, (which at the time assumed rocket engines as "jet propulsion") would require some form of adjustable exhaust expansion. Since a movable/adjustable nozzle seemed to mechanically complex a "spike" was stuck in the exhaust and moved in and out to adjust the exhaust expansion.

Speculation on my part of course :)

I'll vote for 1/72nd myself BTW

Randy
 
Alex Tremulis Zero Fighter

Just saw this on Fantastic Plastic website in 1/48 scale:

Alex S. Tremulis is best known as an automotive designer. However, he enlisted in the Army following Pearl Harbor and, in 1944, joined the Army Air Corps' R&D team at Wright Field outside Dayton, Ohio, to design advanced concept aircraft. One of these, dubbed the "Zero Fighter," was a rocket-powered vertical take-off fighter intended to operate at extreme altitudes.

Tremulis envisioned a one-man rocket plane launched atop a liquid-fueled booster. (This was before the Allies were aware of Germany's V-2.) The booster would propel the fighter on a sub-orbital or even orbital trajectory. Upon completion of the mission, the swept-winged aircraft would glide back to earth and land like a conventional airplane.Although the Zero Fighter never made it beyond the design stage, many of its concepts helped the Air Force develop the X-20 Dyna-Soar 15 years later.

http://www.fantastic-plastic.com/TremulisZeroFighterCatalogPage.htm
 

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Sorry for re-opening this old post, but... are there any data about what engine he wanted to use on his booster? Or it was just the "engine" with the assumption that it would be developed for this project?
 
Tremulis with a model of a straight winged v-tailed "vertical take-off fighter"
 

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