France unbuilt space launchers of the 60's and 70's

[bgire]

Hello All
I've been on this forum for ten years and this is my first post.
35 years ago I co-wrote for the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society a detailed study of the French National Space programme form the 1950's until its termination to pass onto Ariane in 1973.

http://epizodyspace.ru/bibl/inostr-yazyki/jbis/1987/2/JBIS_1987-2.pdf

During these periods France produced many unbuilt projects as to evolve from the national Diamant space launcher.
Two public organizations worked simultaneously : the Laboratoire de Recherche Balistique et Aérodynamique (LRBA) founded in 1946 which developed many liquid fuelled launchers and the Société d'Etude et de Realisation d'Engins Balistiques (SEREB) founded in 1959 which worked for the Defense to develop solid fuelled launchers from the military ballistic program.

Later these two companies merged into other ones, ending in the SAFRAN group for SEREB and Arianespace for the LRBA.

35 years later I decided to go modelling these unbuilt projects, using 3D design and printing with the aim of producing a series of 1:144 scale resin kits to be made available worldwide through a small French company.

After designing the real space launchers and sounding rockets, I shifted to unbuilt projects.
First I did eight rockets which were proposed as upgraded Diamant: picture 1
Then I focused on the SEREB launchers of 1964-1968 based on various combinations of solid fuelled stages (except a cryogenic upper stage for Turquoise H) : picture 2

I started to print this bunch of kits on my Formlab printer which did the job fine : pictures 3, 4 and 5

Hope to show more in the coming days. Stay tuned.
_Bruno

 

[Deltafan]

Hi,

very interesting, thanks.

 

[Michel Van]

fantastic work, bgire
thanks for Link to PDF

we have here also some info and graphics about French rocket Design

About French Rocket proposals (include Mercure and Orion)

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,2975.0.html

A US company that rebuild Diamant A rocket (feature also Diamant Cluster for Vulcan)

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,29857.0.html

 

[bgire]

fantastic work, bgire
thanks for Link to PDF

we have here also some info and graphics about French rocket Design

About French Rocket proposals (include Mercure and Orion)
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,2975.0.html

A US company that rebuild Diamant A rocket (feature also Diamant Cluster for Vulcan)
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,29857.0.html

Hello Michel,
Thank you for the links which will help solving intricate details on the clustered Catherine (and possibly Octavie) first stages of Vulcain, Supervulcain and Bacchus.
It's right on time as I'm doing the drawings for these projects, to be printed later.

Also when I visited this forum earlier I got in one of your posts the designs for Mercure and I decided to include them in my project, just for the fun of doing a FIVE Vexin first stage!

As of today I'm printing the SEREB projects (Régent, Diogène 2 and Turquoise C and H). Pictures will come in a few days.

Thank you for your support & help
_Bruno

 

[Tonton-42]

Hello All
I've been on this forum for ten years and this is my first post.
35 years ago I co-wrote for the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society a detailed study of the French National Space programme form the 1950's until its termination to pass onto Ariane in 1973.
http://epizodyspace.ru/bibl/inostr-yazyki/jbis/1987/2/JBIS_1987-2.pdf
During these periods France produced many unbuilt projects as to evolve from the national Diamant space launcher.
Two public organizations worked simultaneously : the Laboratoire de Recherche Balistique et Aérodynamique (LRBA) founded in 1946 which developed many liquid fuelled launchers and the Société d'Etude et de Realisation d'Engins Balistiques (SEREB) founded in 1959 which worked for the Defense to develop solid fuelled launchers from the military ballistic program.

Later these two companies merged into other ones, ending in the SAFRAN group for SEREB and Arianespace for the LRBA.

35 years later I decided to go modelling these unbuilt projects, using 3D design and printing with the aim of producing a series of 1:144 scale resin kits to be made available worldwide through a small French company.

After designing the real space launchers and sounding rockets, I shifted to unbuilt projects.
First I did eight rockets which were proposed as upgraded Diamant: picture 1
Then I focused on the SEREB launchers of 1964-1968 based on various combinations of solid fuelled stages (except a cryogenic upper stage for Turquoise H) : picture 2

I started to print this bunch of kits on my Formlab printer which did the job fine : pictures 3, 4 and 5

Hope to show more in the coming days. Stay tuned.
_Bruno

Franchement bravo ! Deeply the continuation ! Few people know the French spatial epic ... even in France !!!

Tonton

 

[Archibald]

Vraiment bien. Du beau boulot.

The most impressive Diamant derivative ever imagined was the Supervulcain B, which rivalled a Soyuz or Ariane 1 in size. Do you plan to model that one ?

https://www.flightglobal.com/FlightPDFArchive/1968/1968%20-%200795.PDF

https://www.flightglobal.com/FlightPDFArchive/1968/1968%20-%200796.PDF

 

[bgire]

Vraiment bien. Du beau boulot.

The most impressive Diamant derivative ever imagined was the Supervulcain B, which rivalled a Soyuz or Ariane 1 in size. Do you plan to model that one ?

https://www.flightglobal.com/FlightPDFArchive/1968/1968%20-%200795.PDF
https://www.flightglobal.com/FlightPDFArchive/1968/1968%20-%200796.PDF

Hello Archibald,
YES, of course. I'm precisely drawing the designs for the "LRBA projects" which will include: Mercure, Carmen, Vulcain C, Vulcain P, Vulcain H, Bacchus and.... SUPERVULCAIN B)
Works is now well advanced on Carmen. I'm working on the complex Vexin bays.

Two days ago I printed the "lower height" parts for the SEREB projects. That is the part which aren't too high to have a short printing duration (only 6h40!).
Yesterday I printed the "higher height" parts for Régent and Diogène 2.... 9h30 of continuous printing.
Below are some results before polishing.

Today I printed the last of SEREB projects : Turquoise C and H... 11h30 and just finished, now curing in the UV oven. Will post pictures tomorrow.

Stay tuned.
_Bruno

 

[bgire]

continued...

The Turquoise C and Turquoise H mid-size launchers which could have compared to the Delta.
Now shifting onto LRBA heavy projects... lot of work left
_Bruno

 

[bgire]

Hello
Working further with the French never built launchers I'm now shifting on the large ones designed by LRBA in 1967-68.
To get a chance to have them taken into consideration by the French authorities, LRBA designed a family of launchers using as much existing hardware as possible.
They went to clustered stages like the Soviet contemporary R-7 by using either Catherine, a cluster formed from four Améthyste (Diamant B) first stages, or Octavie which was the same design based on four Diane, an enlarged version of Améthyste, yet to be designed. Vexin engine was chosen against the more recent Valois as it was found easy to convert and fit to the new propulsion bays.

Fellows on this forum supplied me with a rare drawing detailing the Catherine cluster and I took it as a basis to design my own, completely conjectural, Diane propulsion bay of the Carmen launcher with twin gimballed Vexin engines. I tried to design using comparable arrangement as these projects were issued at about the same date by the same design bureau.

Picture 1: the LRBA family
Picture 2: the Catherine stage
Pictures 3 to 7: conjectural Carmen/ Diane propulsion bay
Lot of fun doing this indeed. Hope they'll print well in a few days.
_Bruno

 

[bgire]

Hello,
Yesterday I printed the Carmen launcher.
Pictures below.
Next week I'll print the Vulcain clustered launcher.
_Bruno

 

[Michel Van]

wonderful Work Bruno

Note to Vulcain and Europa Analog rocket
Around 1968 the British menaced to leave ELDO and stop payment and Blue Streak production.
French LRBA, SEREB and German Bölkow offers Alternatives to replace the Blue Streak

So far i know was one the Vulcan rocket with Coralie and Astris stage

Nord-Aviation proposal was quite interesting cluster of Seven Diamant B rockets

French (LRBA?) German (Bölkow) proposed the L-95 build on Diamant B hardware
using 4 engines, total thrust 160 tons, isp 276 sec burn time 142 second
16,035 meter long 3,00 meter ø, empty mass 7.121 kg, fuel around 95.000 kg

But British gave the Blue Streak production to ELDO
how far the L-95 let to development of L-120 of Europa III/L-140 Ariane 1 is unclear to me.


Source
Flight International, 12 December 1968

 

[bgire]

Hello

Still on my project. Now is the turn of the Vulcain C mid-size launcher of 1967. An equivalent of the Atlas with 1,050kg in low orbit and 170kg in geostationary orbit.

The Vulcain family was based on a new first stage, Catherine, which was a cluster of four Améthyste (Diamant B) tanks feeding four modified Vexin engines (Diamant A).
Each tank carried only one ergol : two tanks for UDMH and two for nitrogen peroxide.
In the middle of the cluster was the two stage device which injected pressurized gases into the tanks to force the chemicals out to the ejectors. The Vexin engine was a simple one which lacked turbo-pump.
A pile of pressure air bottles was used to push UDMH and Nitrogen peroxide into a central small engine where they burned, producing neutral exhaust gases. These were injected into the main tanks to force the chemical out to the main engines. A simple and reliable solution which was then standard on the French launchers and Coralie.

I really enjoyed "playing the engineer" in drawing the whole stuff from the scheme supplied (see above) and three pictures of a Catherine prototype which was presented to Le Bourget air show in 1968.

This kit is much more complex and elaborate than the previous ones. It will include resin, photo etched parts and brass rods.
The second stage was a Coralie, borrowed from the Europa programme. The third was a Rita 1, a solid (powder) stage borrowed from the military ICBM programme (this was later used on Diamant BP4).

Here are rendering of my CAD. later I'll post printed prototype parts.
_Bruno

 

[Michel Van]

Again fantastic work, Bruno

I can confirm most part of Vulcain proposal
they study into
"Vulcain C" Catherine- extended Coralie - P4 Solid
"Vulcain P" use of the P16 solid as second stage (putting the french ICBM on top of Catherine)
"Vulcain H" Catherine- extended Coralie - with third stage H3.5 with Hydrolox HM-4 engine (a small pressured fed?)

was any plan to put a aerodynamic cover around Catherine ?

 

[bgire]

Again fantastic work, Bruno

I can confirm most part of Vulcain proposal
they study into
"Vulcain C" Catherine- extended Coralie - P4 Solid
"Vulcain P" use of the P16 solid as second stage (putting the french ICBM on top of Catherine)
"Vulcain H" Catherine- extended Coralie - with third stage H3.5 with Hydrolox HM-4 engine (a small pressured fed?)

was any plan to put a aerodynamic cover around Catherine ?

Aerodynamic cover? I've been thinking about for a long time.
I mean an aft skirt the same way as for Saturn I rocket.
On the other side, an uncovered bay, "Titan II style" enlightens the complex bay & piping.
Maybe I'll design an optional skirt after all, as I did for Carmen... Thanks for the suggestion.

Of course I'm right now working on Vulcain P and H

_Bruno

 

[bgire]

I completed the drawings for the Vulcain family, adding :
- Vulcain P (for Powder) : Catherine first stage, P16 second stage (from French ICBM), Rita 1 P4 third stage (from ICBM)
- Vulcain H (for Hydrogen) : Catherine first stage, Coralie second stage, new H3.5 cryogenic third stage

Family pictures here.
_Bruno

 

[Archibald]

Me like beaucoup !

 

[bgire]

And fresh from the printer, the Vulcain family.
Now working on Bacchus and Super Vulcain. More next week-end.
_Bruno

 

[Hobbes]

I like these projects. Never heard of half of them (and I've got a few books on European space projects on my bookshelf), but the more unusual the better.

 

[bgire]

Hello Folks
Continuing my projects. Going to the last and biggest launchers: Bacchus and SuperVulcain, both of 1968.

Both shared a new first stage, called Octavie, which was a cluster of four Diane (from Carmen), each with two ejectors, making eight Vexin in total.
As with the Catherine cluster two tanks were devoted to nitrogen peroxide and two to UDMH with cross connecting tubing.
SuperVulcain's Octavie tanks were lengthened, so I included more pressure air bottles inside and a larger gas generator for pressurization of a larger volume.

I designed this stage using the same concept than Catherine, but adapted to twice the number of ejectors.

Here are the drawings:

 

[bgire]

Hello

Two more views of the Bacchus launcher:

 

[Michel Van]

I like them
good work, bgire

 

[bgire]

... And the last but not the least: SuperVulcain (1968) of 363tons with a GTO capacity of 600kg, about the capabilities of Ariane 1.
First stage, enlarged Octavie, was to be a cluster of four Diane with lengthened tanks and eight modified Vexin engines.
Second stage, Catherine, was to be a cluster of four Améthyste with four modified Vexin engines.
Third stage was to be Coralie from the Europa programme with four L10 engines.

This completes my study of unbuilt French launchers. Now it's the time to print the masters, prepare the kits an assemble them. Lot of work left !

_Bruno

Pictures of Super Vulcain:

 

[Archibald]

Great job ! I really, really want to see Supervulcain B for "real" that is a model of it. You can be pretty sure it will be a unique model in your collection or even in the world (Supervulcain B ? what's that ?)

What scale for your model, by the way ?

 

[bgire]

Hello Archibald,
My kits will be at the standard 1:144 scale. Super Vulcain B will be 312mm high.
I plan to complete all these kits by next September. In the meantime I'll post pictures when ready.

And I'm still willing to made these kit available commercially.
_Bruno

 

[Archibald]

I've stopped modelling a while back, but this is sooo tempting... my hands are itching...

 

[bgire]

Yesterday I started printing the small parts for Super Vulcain B.

Some parts (left of the ruler) will be replaced by photo etched ones which will be easier to handle, but the overall rendering is excellent.
Tomorrow I'll print the tanks.
_Bruno

 

[Archibald]

I always liked SuperVulcain B because it is really the largest Diamant derivative and the real funny thing was, it was an Europa III or Ariane 1 class launcher. It would be really awesome to get Supervulcain, Europa and Ariane 1 side by side on a shelf.

Also, SuperVulcain was just big enough, it could have orbited a Gemini or a truncated Soyuz (minus the forward, orbital module - that is, a Zond, albeit not a cislunar one)

If you ever heard of France Fights On, I'm really tempted to include Supervulcain B in their universe...

 

[Michel Van]

If you ever heard of France Fights On, I'm really tempted to include Supervulcain B in their universe...

that Alternate History story were in June 1940 France moved its government and armies to Algiers and continue the War against germany
more here
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/france-fights-on.337031/

 

[bgire]

Continued...

Small printed corrections yesterday, and a new "big" part: the Bacchus inter-stage skirt.
This truncated cone was but a challenge for me, as that kind of thin part (.4mm thick) is a nightmare for most printers.
I spent more than an hour placing correctly the numerous temporary supports to get a printing without deformation and Yipikaï!, it turned very fine.
Tomorrow I'll have my last printing session on this project with the huge stage tanks.

_Bruno

 

[bgire]

And here comes Bacchus. These are only dry fit of the rough printed parts, just to give an idea.
Well, somewhat surprised by the size... I was expecting a smaller launcher ;D

The printing phase will end tomorrow with Super Vulcain B.

 

[bgire]

At last the phase 2 of this project (printing) is done. next step will be the lengthy preparation and polishing of each part to be cast. In the meantime I'll send the photo-etched sheet to the etcher.

Thanks for watching. Stay tuned.
_Bruno

Images:
Dry fit of Bacchus and Super Vulcain B (printed parts only)
Bacchus
Super Vulcain B
Photo etched accompanying sheet

 

[bgire]

Today the photo etching arrived.
To be continued...
_Bruno

 

[bgire]

Hello!
At last, after nearly two years of waiting the French manufacturer l'Arsenal 2.0 finally is about to issue a first batch of these projects with 1:144 resin kits.
Closely following my original article I designed 7 volumes, each including between 2 and 8 rockets/ launchers to cover the whole French space programme, real launchers and projected.
Volumes 1 to 4 will be made available early next month. List is:
Vol 1: the early liquid fueled rockets from LRBA (Veronique and Vesta)
Vol 2: the early solid propeled rockets from SEREB (Aigle, Agate, Topaze)
Vol 3: the "Precious Stones" (Rubis, Emeraude, Diamant)
Vol 4: the Diamant follow-on projects (Diamant 2, Diamant 10T, Super Diamant, Hyper Diamant, Diamant BC, Black Diamant, L-433)
Next to be issued this Fall:
Vol 5: the SEREB projects (Régent, Diogène, Turquoise)
Vol 6: the LRBA projects (Carmen, Vulcain)
Vol 7: the LRBA heavy launcher projects (Bacchus, Super Vulcain)
And this last will put an end to my own 40+ year dream of having the national French launcher history under kit form...
_Bruno

 

[Archibald]

Congratulations for this stupendous work.

 

[galgot]

Bravo !

 

[bgire]

Hello,
I designed and printed the accompanying decal sheet. Of course with these never-weres decoration is hypothetical.
I'm starting assembly of one of the first production kits... some finished pictures expected next week.
Stay tuned

_Bruno

 

[Temistocle]

Sorry, the link in the post #1 does not work: does anyone have the pdf?
Thank you

 

[Michel Van]

Sorry, the link in the post #1 does not work: does anyone have the pdf?
Thank you

Try the PDF File here #167

 

[bgire]

I'm proud to announce my 40+ year work on various 1:144 space launchers and 1:24 space probe has reached a milestone with the production by L'Arsenal 2.0 of France of a series of new or uprated kits in direct 3D printing.
Here are their kits from the "Spacio" range : 1:144 space launchers and 1:24 space probe. All of them have been uprated, assembly simplified, with more surface details and less PE.
Volume 1 : The French National Space Program 1950-1975 - early rockets from LRBA : Veronique and Vesta
Volume 2 : The French National Space Program 1950-1975 -early solid fueled rockets from SEREB : Aigle, Agate, Topaze
Volume 3 : The French National Space Program 1950-1975 -the "Precious Stones" : Rubis, Émeraude, Saphir, Diamant
Volume 4 : The French National Space Program 1950-1975 -Diamant follow-ons : Diamant 2, Diamant 10T, Super Diamant, Hyper Diamant, Advanced Diamant, Diamant BC, Black Diamant, L433
Volume 5 : The French National Space Program 1950-1975 -Medium powder powered launchers projects from SEREB : Régent, Diogène 2, Turquoise
Volume 6 : The French National Space Program 1950-1975 -Medium liquid powered launchers projects from LRBA : Carmen, Vulcain
Volume 7 : The French National Space Program 1950-1975 -Heavy liquid powered launchers projects from LRBA : Bacchus, Super Vulcain B
Their earlier kit of NASA light launcher SCOUT family has been upgraded the same way
Their 1:24 NASA lunar probe Ranger 8 has been uprated with easier assembly, more surface details
All these kits are now available from l'Arsenal 2.0 :
http://www.larsenal.com/1-144-c102x2500029
Next productions in this series will include the British National Space programme (Black Knight, Blue Streak, Black Arrow) and the early European programme (Europa 1 and 2). Next will come the Ariane family.

 

[Archibald]

Wow, this is fantastic. You are getting the full and entire early European rocketry family (I suppose the SCOUT is the italian side of the whole thing ? because Italy had one heck of a space program even if no Black Arrow or Diamant - they did wonders with Scout nonetheless).

Thanks to you, we will get, for the first time in history: Supervulcain B, Europa 2 and Ariane 1 side by side. And this is priceless !

I remember the moment when I discovered Supervulcain B in the Flight International (late) archive. My mind was blown: France very own R-7 Soyuz class launcher, build out Diamant stages glued together: Valois, Valois everywhere. A cluster half smaller but quite similar to Saturn I & Saturn IB.

Supervulcain B was the ultimate development of Diamant, and when put side by side with Europa 2 and 3, Ariane 1 and Soyuz (the later in Kourou !)... what might have been. It could have lifted 6 metric tons in orbit: treshold to manned spaceflight.
But France could not paid the bill all alone - so it was either Europa or Ariane.

---------

(Can't help asking: Europa IIIB and also the lost Ariane 5s : 5P is the familiar one, but 5C was all Vulcain and all cryo, while 5R was a stretched Ariane 44L with one more Viking and a Vulcain stage 2...)

I realized a long time ago that the 1983 Ariane 5R was kind of reborn 1972 Europa IIIB - via Ariane 44L.

Bottom line: 4, 8 or 9 Vikings on stage 1 plus a HM-20 / HM-60 / Vulcain stage 2.