McDonnell Douglas MD-2001 "Orient Express" Hypersonic Transport

[KJ_Lesnick]

Were those strut-jets "turborockets"? If so, I think I've seen a concept drawing of them before. Did the rocket-cycle work at all speeds, or did they shut off once fast enough? How did they fare compared to most RBCC's in terms of efficiency and weight? And how did they compare to a PDE?


Kendra Lesnick
BTW: If the rocket wasn't used at all speeds, could the "rocket" section retract out of the stream?

 

[airrocket]

They function as ejector rockets which enable air breather to work from zero speed (entrained air). They can run fuel rich as in ducted rocket similar to gas generator ram jet. In this case the rich ejector exhaust mixes with entrained air which is compressed in the intake diffuser section. This rich compressed mixture is then burnt again (after burner effect) in the ram/scram jet combustion chamber. The struts can often be retracted out of the flow has speed reaches hypersonic velocities. If left in the flow path at these speeds the drag of struts would be greater than thrust. At his stage the RBCC functions as pure scramjet. Above M12 or M14 the inlet is closed the struts can deploy again as pure rocket cycle to LEO.

Strut jets are very efficient for quick acceleration through transonic regime and function as pure rockets above M12 where scramjets reach there limits and become inefficient.

 

[flateric]

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/search.aspx?search=mcdonnell+orient+express&searchsubmit=search

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1985/1985 - 3213.html
http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1985/1985%20-%203226.html
http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1986/1986%20-%202182.html
http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1988/1988%20-%202784.html

 

[KJ_Lesnick]

flateric,

Awesome! Thanks!


Kendra Lesnick

 

[quellish]

Speaking of T.A. Heppenheimer.
I've also always wanted to talk to T.A. about that November, 1988 Popular Science "Mach 5 Spy Plane"
cover story! Where the heck did he get that launch it out of a C-5A angle? Actually I saw a paper
on an ICBM launch out of a C-5A some time ago. I was wondering if that is where he was coming
from. But I digress.

At the time there were a lot of "spooky" C-5 flight plans originating out of Southern CA in support of Senior Trend and other programs. Late night C-5 visits and engine test runs lead to all kinds of speculation.

 

[XP67_Moonbat]

That notion of a C-5 luanched Aurora kinda vaguely reminds me of Robert Salkeld's proposal for a C-5 launched spaceplane.


http://web.archive.org/web/20020220085307/www.abo.fi/~mlindroo/SpaceLVs/Slides/sld039.htm


But then again, many people over many years have proposed launching from the C-5 and other heavy lifters as well.
Same old story but the song remains the same. Just more things that make you go hmmm.

 

[Antonio]

Found in a sort of a Spanish "popular science" magazine from the 80's

 

[shockonlip]

Seems related to this one perhaps.

I wish I had sent in for the poster version when they offered it !

 

[Triton]

Model of McDonnell Douglas "Orient Express" on display at the National Air and Space Museum.

In the late 1980s, the U.S. government and the aerospace industry promoted an idea for an airplane that would travel at hypersonic speeds, thus dramatically shortening the time to fly from the United States to the Far East. The concept was officially called the "National Aerospace Plane," also known by the popular name "Orient Express."

This model represents a concept developed by McDonnell Douglas, with Northwest Airlines as a potential customer. Gift of Northwest Airlines, Inc.

Dimensions:
Overall: 1 ft. 8 in. wide x 2 ft. long (50.8 x 61cm)
Materials:
Standard modeling materials: wood body, some misc. parts of plastic or fiberglass.

http://collections.nasm.si.edu/code/emuseum.asp?profile=objects&newstyle=single&quicksearch=A19890110000

 

[Triton]

Artist's concept of McDonnell Douglas MD-2001.

Source: http://ails.arc.nasa.gov/ails/?v=list&st=1&so=unsorted&page=1&r=0&qs=MD-2001&x=0&y=0

 

[hesham]

Hi,

http://books.google.com.eg/books?id=y0ERUPZ1TrQC&pg=PA64&dq=boeing+2707&hl=ar&ei=lwimTJL0HcrsOdT3kaoC&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=15&ved=0CG0Q6AEwDg#v=onepage&q&f=true

 

[hesham]

Who can ID this Hypersonic Aircraft ?.


http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19890003168_1989003168.pdf

 

[Steve Pace]

Part of the X-30 or National Aero Space Program (NASP) I believe. -SP

 

[Orionblamblam]

It's McDonnell-Douglas artwork for the MD2001 "Orient Express" hypersonic transport. The OE was often linked to NASP in the press, but there wasn't, IIRC, a whole lot of real overlap.

Note the "Northwest Orient" logo painted on the plane.

Same design is hanging in model form in the NASM.

 

[RyanC]

Same design is hanging in model form in the NASM.

Not anymore. They cleared out that gallery to remodel it into something new.

 

[Stargazer]

Same design is hanging in model form in the NASM.

Not quite. The fins are pointed in hesham's picture, but they're cut straight across in the pictures you linked. Also the aft line is straight while hesham's model seems to be slightly angled.

 

[Orionblamblam]

They cleared out that gallery to remodel it into something new.

Why do I have the feeling "new" can be accurately re-written as "lame?"

 

[Orionblamblam]

Not quite.

In the grand scheme of conceptual design, the differences are tiny. The pointy fins in the sketch are pretty unusual, so they might just be artistic license.

 

[hesham]

It's McDonnell-Douglas artwork for the MD2001 "Orient Express" hypersonic transport. The OE was often linked to NASP in the press, but there wasn't, IIRC, a whole lot of real overlap.

Note the "Northwest Orient" logo painted on the plane.

Same design is hanging in model form in the NASM.

Thank you my dear Scott.

 

[Triton]

Model of McDonnell Douglas "Orient Express" on display at the National Air and Space Museum.

Source:
http://airandspace.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?id=A19890110000

 

[Triton]

Poster of McDonnell Douglas DC-1 and Orient Express poster found on eBay.

Source:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-MCDONNELL-DOUGLAS-EMPLOYEE-POSTER-DC-1-AND-CONCEPT-PLANE-23x17-/221627059968?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item339a008f00

 

[blackkite]

Hi!
https://northwestairlineshistory.org/aircraft-mcdonnell-douglas-hst/

 

[sgeorges4]

Out of curiostiy, did other airlines than northwest were interested in the orient express?

 

[LowObservable]

Out of curiostiy, did other airlines than northwest were interested in the orient express?

FedEx - indeed, Fred Smith at one point offered to put up capital for development.

 

[Archibald]

Paul Czycz interview somewhere on this forum expressly mentions Fedex and Northwest, Fred Smith and Ben Lightfoot interest for Orient Express.

 

[hesham]

From Aviationa magazine 1986.

 

[Dew]

Paul Czycz interview somewhere on this forum expressly mentions Fedex and Northwest, Fred Smith and Ben Lightfoot interest for Orient Express.

from the interview

 

[hesham]

From Aviationa magazine 1988.

 

[Dew]

From Aviationa magazine 1986.

The retractable canard & droop-snoot not too often shown (as in your second pic)

from High speed aeronautics : hearing before the Subcommittee on Transportation, Aviation, and Materials of the Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives, Ninety-ninth Congress, first session, July 24, 1985

 

[flateric]

...

 

[hesham]

Hi,

Ken Miller built this "Orient Express" flight of fancy in Lufthansa colors- very tidy

Monogram 1/??

Flickriver - view images as a 'river of photos' and more...

www.flickriver.com

 

[Tuomasn]

Hi,

Ken Miller built this "Orient Express" flight of fancy in Lufthansa colors- very tidy

Monogram 1/??

Flickriver - view images as a 'river of photos' and more...

www.flickriver.com

Except this model has nothing to do with actual McDonnell Douglas Orient Express but is a Monogram self designed idea of what an X-30 could look like.

 

[Tuomasn]

View attachment 699085

BTW @Dew do you have the full image where this was cropped from? There's only a lower resolution version upthread

 

[Dew]

BTW @Dew do you have the full image where this was cropped from? There's only a lower resolution version upthread

This one ?

 

[Tuomasn]

This one ?

View attachment 747071

Magnificient! Thanks!

 

[Dew]

from NARA

Background looks suspiciously like it's 'borrowed' from a horizontally flipped & cropped picture of Concorde going supersonic taken by Adrian Meredith.

 

[Dew]

So here's a strange one (from GRC via NARA) :

ORIENT EXPRESS AIRPLANE MODEL

CASE as-in International Harvester ?!

 

[aim9xray]

So here's a strange one (from GRC via NARA) :

CASE as-in International Harvester ?!

CASE as in Case Western University Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering? Dunno.

Canards are interesting.

 

[flateric]

When you need to do model for moving expo overnight. Plywood carcase + thermoshrink film. My 5 cents

 

[Dew]

When you need to do model for moving expo overnight. Plywood carcase + thermoshrink film. My 5 cents

Yes, the model is surely a quick and easy way to show the general form and nothing more

edit: a quick image search suggests CASE IH didn't use that typeface, that i can see.