Transcontinental Passenger Rocket

[frank2056]

What if the US had really gone into space much sooner (say, early 1950s) and had a viable transcontinental passenger service by the mid 1950s?

I based my vehicle on the drawings for a "Transcontinental Transport" on page 34 of Willy Ley and Chesley Bonestell's "Conquest of Space" and the line drawings in "Spaceship Handbook". My father worked for Western Airlines, so I thought it would be fun to put the rocket in "Western Spacelines" livery. I made the decals based on mid - late 50's Western Airlines livery.

The rocket is in 1/350 scale, and it's made from two Estes NC-5 nose cones trimmed and joined at their bases. The wings and tail were cut from the fake credit cards that come in credit card junk mail. The rocket exhaust is from a Wave accessory kit. It has a  divider that I'm using as the replacement for an elevator. The knob above the exhaust is the drag chute container... and also helps hide a gaping hole I forgot to fill in.

I've been working on this for far too long, considering how simple the design is. I did get married during the process, but that still doesn't excuse some of the screwups I made on this thing, especially with the painting. At some point, you just have to call the thing "done".

Here it is:

Before painting:






Top view of the finished model:


Starboard view:


Port view:


The "press release" for the first flight, dated October 4, 1956... one year before Sputnik:



Frank

[GTX]

Wow - nice idea.

I did get married during the process,

The excuses some people will come up with .

Regards,

Greg

[AeroplaneDriver]

Very creative!  I love it!  

Reminds me of 'When Worlds Collide".

[The Rat]

Fantastic!  

The wings and tail were cut from the fake credit cards that come in credit card junk mail.

Best use ever for those things!

[frank2056]

Thanks for the comments, guys!

I have a huge collection of those crappy fake credit cards, plus I keep old expired ATM and credit cards - if they're styrene, I'll use them!

I made a horrible mistake with my model - Western Airlines only served the (duh) West Coast of the US, although towards the end they did fly to the UK. So in this Alternate Universe, Western Spacelines either opened a terminal in New York City, or they started flying out of London.

[frank2056]

I finished this project by mounting it on a clear acrylic rod:



The final picture (which is big, so I'm just linking it) shows the rocket in flight from L.A. to New York, flying over the Gran Canyon:

http://149.142.139.138/web/Images/bonestel...ll/inflight.jpg

Frank

[Jetfixer]

One word, AWESOME!!!.

Greg

[Brian da Basher]

That's just fantastic work! It's got a great Buck Rogers feel to it that I really like! Excellent!
B)
Brian da Basher

[McGreig]

A nice, simple idea and a really impressive result      

[dragon]

They will have to lose your luggage ahead of time!
Looks good and believable. B)  

[noxioux]

Very cool.  I only have one question:  Where are the portholes?

Looks great anyhow!

[BlackOps]

Frank, this is way cool! Very nicely done

[cthulhu77]

Slick!  Takes me back to those days of comic books.

[frank2056]

Very cool.  I only have one question:  Where are the portholes?

Looks great anyhow!

There's one porthole in the hatch; the crew and passengers both have huge 13" color television sets installed in the cockpit (two) and cabin (one). Made with miniaturized tubes, the sets weigh in at a feather-light 40 lbs each!

During the 30 minute flight (launch, coast and landing) the passengers can watch film shorts and cartoons recorded on special reel to reel magnetic tape! They can also watch the launch, coast phase and landing - the same view enjoyed by the flight crew - at the mere press of an ultrasonic remote control device!

It's all surely amazing technology today, but will be affordable and available in your homes by 1960!

[Joe C-P]

Amazing work sir, and a fine back story.  

JoeP