Aero Spacelines and the "Saro Princess"

[The Artist]

Great finding, Paul. My favourite is the attached one. A long way to the pilot's workplace ;D .

This one is a Dee Howard design. Estimating from the dimensions in the drawing I've seen, but been asked not to share, this thing could have carried the Saturn V first or second stage. The cockpit would have been either a DC-7 or C-97 forward fuselage. The wings and engines would have been from DC-7s.

I've not been able to find a Dee Howard thread. Do we have one?

 

[hesham]

Hi,


I don't remember if we sent those drawings before or not.

 

[hesham]

Hi,


I don't remember if we sent those drawings before or not.

Also from L + K magazine.

 

[blackkite]

She was not so cute compared with her name. ;D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV1eUeo27tc

 

[Bill S]

Great finding, Paul. My favourite is the attached one. A long way to the pilot's workplace ;D.

Howard DBA which was tested in Vought's LSWT
Here are a couple of images of it in the tunnel.
VAHF photos

 

[hesham]

Nice find my dear Bill.

 

[NoBarrelRolls]

Took the liberty of combining all three drawings previously posted into a three view drawing.

 

[Archibald]

That's truly a morbidly obese plane... and think about trying to land that pachyderm with any light crosswind(s).

 

[Topi]

Took the liberty of combining all three drawings previously posted into a three view drawing.

View attachment 722881

It looks somewhat like a tick which has just sucked a year's worth of blood.

 

[Grey Havoc]

Another proposal for NASA, involving B-52G cockpit, wings and tailplane:

Aero Spacelines Colossal Guppy: You are the one for me, Fatty (XVI).

Like with the S-IVB, NASA also considered for some time air transport as an option for the big S-II Saturn 2nd stage. One of the offers came obviously from Aero Spacelines. Going all the way, they …

elpoderdelasgalaxias.wordpress.com

 

[taildragger]

Another proposal for NASA, involving B-52G cockpit, wings and tailplane:

Aero Spacelines Colossal Guppy: You are the one for me, Fatty (XVI).

Like with the S-IVB, NASA also considered for some time air transport as an option for the big S-II Saturn 2nd stage. One of the offers came obviously from Aero Spacelines. Going all the way, they …

elpoderdelasgalaxias.wordpress.com

That doesn't seem like a very practical proposal.
The addition of 2 engines to each wing would likely involve a reengineering/modification effort that might not be cheaper than a new design.
No remnant of the B-52 fuselage seems to be retained so the use of the B-52 nose section is just showmanship.
The landing gear isn't depicted but it looks like something other than the B-52 quadricycle set would be required. That configuration imposes takeoff and landing complications and, with the wing arrangement illustrated, would probably not be tall enough to keep the engine nacelles off the ground.

 

[martinbayer]

That doesn't seem like a very practical proposal.

I strongly believe that statement is valid for the vast majority of unbuilt designs featured in this thread.

 

[Grey Havoc]

No remnant of the B-52 fuselage seems to be retained so the use of the B-52 nose section is just showmanship.

That particular choice might have been an attempt to save on both time and development costs, since there would have been ample surplus B-52 cockpits available for conversion, at least in theory. The same could be said for the other B-52 components to be used.

 

[taildragger]

That particular choice might have been an attempt to save on both time and development costs, since there would have been ample surplus B-52 cockpits available for conversion, at least in theory. The same could be said for the other B-52 components to be used.

This proposal would probably date to 1963-1966. The last B-52 was produced in 1963 and I don't know if any had been retired by then and any that had (other than maybe a prototype) would have been preserved for reactivation, not having it's nose severed. Adding one more unit to a USAF production lot is like pulling teeth (I assume it was the same back then) and I'd think that a cheaper and roomier cockpit from an in-production commercial aircraft (707 or DC-8 come to mind) would have been a better choice. I don't think that a B-52 cockpit would have been easier to integrate than that from any other large jet.

 

[Grey Havoc]

The B-52Bs had begun to be phased out from 1965 onwards (the few B-52As built were still being used as company/USAF testbeds I think), and there were even proposals for the manned bomber fleet to be retired outright by the mid-1970s (ICBM proponents then being mostly in the ascendant during McNamara's reign, at least until his insane 'Strategic Sufficency' doctrine started to disasterously undermine MAD along with the Vietnam War escalating). So there would have been at least some B-52 airframes and associated spares inventory that would have been likely considered 'surplus to requirements' by the bureaucrats.