Having seen Orion's Martin Dyna Soar drawings, he must have visited the Niagara Aerospace Museum behind me...sort of following in my footsteps so to speak!
The Arnold Wind Tunnel Boeing Dyna Soar is for real folks! I interviewed two Boeing model builders who traveled with the very large model...they also set up the model in the Arnold tunnel and looked after it during and after testes were completed. Furthermore, one became a very close friend and shared some "inside" information since he was initially hired on as a machinist. The Model Shop found out and got their hands on him, where he did outstanding model building work. The Arnold model was the largets BAC Dyna Soar to be constructed and the belly consisted of long aluminum "U" shaped channels side by side; the rest of course was constructed of sheet metal. They were not hypersonic tunnel tests but lower speed tests, and numerous of them occurred at many Institutes, not just Boeing who owned and operated a hypersonic blow-down tunnel at the edge of Boeing Field. They also had a supersonic wind tunnel but took their smaller Dyna Soar models to the University of Washington's low speed tunnel for tests as well. My friend traveled up there by car, and with custom made cases housing the Dyna Soar models, and any sting attachment items needed. The U of Washington's Aeronautics section helped test the models, but all photos and data went back with either an accompanying engineer or the tunnel troops accompanying the models. I believe its top speed was around 350 mph...many of the Boeing commercial transport configs were also tested there.
Boeing recently or pulled out of their secret storage unit somewhere in the Kent/Auburn valley, a 1/3 or so size Dyna Soar model and it is now hung at the Aerodynamics department at Purdue University! Meaning...who knows but the Shadow and their Mommy, who talks not to us mortals, but obviously Purdue also was involved in fine tuning the aerodynamics of Boeing's design. Numerous small models of the Martin-Bell and Boeing Dyna Soar Configs were constructed by Arnold model builder and tested at Arnold's wind tunnels.
I still maintain that the December, 1959 BoMi Division (Bell teamed with Martin formed this branch with that name) configuration seen on DVD that comes the Canadian author's book was a viable and workable design except for the wrong nose design, and cheaper without a raised cockpit canopy as was Boeing's expensive design. The periscope system and angled forward fuselage where the portholes were located were slanted enough for the pilot to see out the portholes but at a shallow angle forward, plus the periscope view was considered viable enough for a pilot to land the glider, despite its very high landing speed...I believe, somewhat higher than X-15. The Bell X-16 utilized a periscope allowing a view below...watch out for da Migs, and their boost-gliders all utilized one as well. The forward cockpit bulkhead on all Bell boost-gliders and their Dyna Soar designs was filled with instruments and some switches. I also see that Orion overboard embellishing the April, 1959 Martin-Bell Dyna Soar. It was black with white USAF letters and tail numbers...not this somewhat kinky-wierd "commercial-glitzy" decoration or whatever you want to call it!
Nuff said.
Bomiwriter
