X-15 ?

[airrocket]

Aside from this single artistic rendering I have not seen any other documentation of this X-15 design concept. Was this merely a single artistic exercise or were there actually design studies, drawings, plans etc... to back it up?

 

[Just call me Ray]

For starters, it seems to be suggesting air-breathing engines, which in turn suggests to me it was an artist's concept before knowledge of the X-15's eventual powerplant became available.

 

[airrocket]

The wings tips are (anhedral) slopping downwards reminds me of the XB-70 valkerie compression sharing concept?

 

[airrocket]

For starters, it seems to be suggesting air-breathing engines, which in turn suggests to me it was an artist's concept before knowledge of the X-15's eventual powerplant became available

I have one lead to go on which if accurate would rule out pre-X-15 design but rather late fifties follow-on concept. NACA Ames Aeronautical Laboratory 1957 "beyond X-15" mach 10 technology demonstrator concept? Anyone able to substantiate or elaborate on this?

 

[TomS]

This picture appears in Dennis Jenkins' Space Shuttle with this caption:

One of the most radical advanced X-15 proposals was this delta-wing configuration that was to have been powered by a pair of ventral scramjets. Noteworthy are the canards mounted under the windscreen, which were to be used for trim during transonic and low-supersonic flight, and retracted into the fuselage during high-speed portions of flight (North American Rockwell)

Sadly, there are no additional details in the text.

Edit: The Jenkins book does have a section on the Ames Mach 10 concept, which was not this design. I don't have a scanner, but it's discussed in APR V2N4.

 

[Orionblamblam]

Sadly, there are no additional details in the text.

There are very few details to be had, period. The artwork, which I found a very nice glossy of in the Boeing archives some years back, was clear, detailed and very impressive, but nobody knows anything about the design other than the art was in an X-15 binder.

 

[airrocket]

North American Emblem on the vertical stab. Now is that a single central vertical stab? Or is there possibly another vertical stab hidden from view by the fuse? I was hoping to find a drawing to clarify that

 

[Barrington Bond]

Ooh!

http://crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/crgis/images/e/e4/PEN00062.pdf

 

[Barrington Bond]

And an unmanned version with rocket booster.

 

[XP67_Moonbat]

Nice!