Mercury capsule contractor proposals

[Michel Van]

October 23, 1958 the Langley procurement office mailed preliminary specifications for capsule and subsystems to more than 40 prospective companies. Thirty-eight of these companies sent representatives to a bidder’s conference at Langley Field on November 7.

December 1958 true early January 1959, NASA look true contractor proposals for Mercury program

December 11 deadline eleven companies had submitted bids. They represented virtually all major American aerospace companies: Avco, Convair/Astronautics, Lockheed, McDonnell, Martin, North American, Northrop, Republic, Douglas, Grumman, and Chance-Vought.

the Space Task Group led by Max Faget and Caldwell Johnson start to eliminated
proposals how not fit the demands of Task Group

Avco capsule was too wide at the base.
Martin capsule featured a combined escape/retro-rocket package that fired along the side of the vehicle

Picture
one show: Douglas, Avco, Martin proposals

two show: Douglas proposals in detail.

source:
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/586/1

 

[OM]

Re: Mercury capsul contractor proposals

...Did anyone ever dig up a list of the 39-40 contractor agencies initially contacted?

 

[Michel Van]

Re: Mercury capsul contractor proposals

First Picture "Shape A"
second Picture "Shape B"


source:
http://einestages.spiegel.de/external/ShowTopicAlbumBackgroundXXL/a24073/l7/l0/F.html#featuredEntry
http://einestages.spiegel.de/external/ShowTopicAlbumBackgroundXXL/a24073/l8/l0/F.html#featuredEntry

 

[fightingirish]

Re: Mercury capsul contractor proposals

Tony Chong: Chasing Mercury – The Northrop N-227

Dear mods, if necessary, feel free to move this post to a more suitable topic.

 

[blackstar]

Tony Chong: Chasing Mercury – The Northrop N-227

Dear mods, if necessary, feel free to move this post to a more suitable topic.

I think I have portions of that report. Found those Mercury contractor proposals in NARA.

 

[Michel Van]

Re: Mercury capsul contractor proposals

The Northrop N-227 Mercury capsul

source
http://ghostmodeler.blogspot.de/2012/10/chasing-mercury-northrop-n-227.html

 

[blackstar]

That reminds me that he was looking for info on the Grumman proposal and I'm pretty sure I've got some material I can send him. I'll have to dig it out of my files.

 

[Michel Van]

Re: Mercury capsul contractor proposals

That reminds me that he was looking for info on the Grumman proposal and I'm pretty sure I've got some material I can send him. I'll have to dig it out of my files.

he has posted so info with picture on Grumman G-214 capsule
http://ghostmodeler.blogspot.de/2012/10/the-might-have-been-mercury-grumman-g.html

 

[blackstar]

That reminds me that he was looking for info on the Grumman proposal and I'm pretty sure I've got some material I can send him. I'll have to dig it out of my files.

he has posted so info with picture on Grumman G-214 capsule
http://ghostmodeler.blogspot.de/2012/10/the-might-have-been-mercury-grumman-g.html

Yeah, I know. I have more than that. I just need to look for it.

 

[OM]

...Speaking of Merc proposals, wasn't AVRO the one that submitted what was basically a Vostok sphere with a wire mesh conical as an airbrake during reentry? Or was "Avco" a separate company altogether?

http://www.astronautix.com/graphics/0/7969avco.jpg
Source: Our good friend, only derided by quacks, trolls and nincompoops, Mark Wade



...On a side note "The Arrow" is now on YouTube. I recommend downloading it before some catamite pulls a DMCA flag and the film disappears once again.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vFTHPHTLRc

 

[Michel Van]

...Speaking of Merc proposals, wasn't AVRO the one that submitted what was basically a Vostok sphere with a wire mesh conical as an airbrake during reentry? Or was "Avco" a separate company altogether?

http://www.astronautix.com/graphics/0/7969avco.jpg
Source: Our good friend, only derided by quacks, trolls and nincompoops, Mark Wade

sadly not, AVCO stands for the Air Research and Development Command, a separate research and development command in 1950 for ICBM re-entry vehicles, inside the USAF.
and this was Avco Project 7969 for USAF Man-In-Space-Soonest program abandon, in favor of NASA Mercury program.

 

[GeorgeA]

Avco (The Aviation Corporation) was one of the 1930s aviation holding companies that was broken up by the Roosevelt administration. It once owned American Airlines and a controlling interest in Consolidated-Vultee. It remained in business for many years and in the late 1950s pioneered work on reentry vehicles, along with GE. Today, a lot of their RV and thermal protection heritage is owned by Textron (e.g. the Orion heat shield). They also owned stuff like Avco Lycoming, Avco Records, and Avco Embassy Pictures.

 

[OM]

They also owned stuff like Avco Lycoming, Avco Records, and Avco Embassy Pictures.

...Ah! So that's who Avco was. They also owned Avco (Embassy) Television, which owned at least one station in all of the top 25 US markets up until the late 70s. I had a tangential encounter with them in the summer of '79, during my first internship at the local See-BS affiliate. Avco was trying to get Lady Byrd and Times Mirror to sell the station to them, and I had some Avco suit show up one afternoon and quiz me on what my duties were, and why they needed an intern to do them. My response was first to ask him if he was now my boss, and when he answered "no, not yet.", I casually told him to come back when he'd achieved that position, and in the meantime if he wanted to get his hands dirty lifting those heavy 2" Ampex tape reels, he'd probably get his answers a lot quicker through experience.


Needless to say, the suit declined my offer. Never did see him after that, as Mrs. Johnson reportedly put her foot down and refused to sell. Lovely woman, she was

:OM:

 

[blackstar]

That reminds me that he was looking for info on the Grumman proposal and I'm pretty sure I've got some material I can send him. I'll have to dig it out of my files.

he has posted so info with picture on Grumman G-214 capsule
http://ghostmodeler.blogspot.de/2012/10/the-might-have-been-mercury-grumman-g.html

Yeah, I know. I have more than that. I just need to look for it.

I stumbled across my Grumman file while doing general cleaning. I'll have to scan the document and send to him.

 

[Byeman]

sadly not, AVCO stands for the Air Research and Development Command, a separate research and development command in 1950 for ICBM re-entry vehicles, inside the USAF.

that was ARDC.

 

[Michel Van]

sadly not, AVCO stands for the Air Research and Development Command, a separate research and development command in 1950 for ICBM re-entry vehicles, inside the USAF.

that was ARDC.

Dam...

 

[OM]

sadly not, AVCO stands for the Air Research and Development Command, a separate research and development command in 1950 for ICBM re-entry vehicles, inside the USAF.

that was ARDC.

Dam...

...He's excused. He was trying to transliterate the acronym from an obscure Romanian dialect.

 

[Michel Van]

...He's excused. He was trying to transliterate the acronym from an obscure Romanian dialect.

Me, German, looking for thinks...*
got my info from Encyclopedia Astronautica

after look in my books, i found one AVCO aka Avco Manufacturing Corporation, is that the one ?




total off topic
*=

 

[Michel Van]

The Grumman G-214 proposal
interesting is the Flaps especially, the one on the capsule base near heat-shield.

McDonnell proposed a similar system for advance mercury mission. but that became Mercury Mark II => Gemini program

Note: i photoshop the source picture for better viewing.

http://ghostmodeler.blogspot.de/2012/10/the-might-have-been-mercury-grumman-g.html
Source:

 

[OM]

Note: i photoshop the source picture for better viewing.

...I assume that meant contrast tweaking? If so, damn fair job, sir. If only more people did this - and especially adding 10% to the chroma levels on color images - there'd be a lot less eyestrain on the internet these days. Again, my thanks! B)

 

[Boxman]

Cruising through the San Diego Air & Space Museum (SDASM) Archives photostream on Flickr and came across the diagram below. It's labeled as part of the Convair Little Joe collection, however, given the illustration and description at the Encyclopedia Astronautica (link), this would appear to be the Convair 7969 (Convair Project 7969) proposal.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/8126309021/in/photostream

 

[Barrington Bond]