North American Aviation Lenticular Space Bomber

[Orionblamblam]

Just released by Fantastic Plastic:



Read about it here: http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=1450

and order it here: http://www.fantastic-plastic.com/LRVCatalogPage.htm

[KJ_Lesnick]

Kind of reminds me of an ogival hypersonic transport idea I cooked up.  It had a similar kind of ogival/spatular-nose, though the spatular section only was 1/2 the wingspan with the rest of the wing looking similar to the LERX on the F/A-18E; it had a compression ramp, an expansion ramp, and the engine-bay on the underside.

[PR19_Kit]

Are you sure that's not a re-painted toilet seat cover?  

[kitbasher]

Or one of those George Foreman frier thingies?

[PR19_Kit]

Or one of those George Foreman frier thingies?

No, I've got one of those and it's a lot thicker than that. (Works a treat to warm up styrene for plunge moulding too....  )

[Gondor]

Or one of those George Foreman frier thingies?

No, I've got one of those and it's a lot thicker than that. (Works a treat to warm up styrene for plunge moulding too....  )

You will never see that tip in any of the magazines either 

Gondor

[Glenn]

It just shows you that you don't have to buy 'a model' when you can go to a hardware or department store and butcher something from anything. IE, once Easter comes along, clear plastic Easter Egg containers make great cockpit canopies.
Glenn

[KJ_Lesnick]

I've heard some contradictory data about the LRV: Some said it was nuclear powered, others say it had a solar sail system instead since it was actually more practical; Others said it would be launched atop a Saturn-type rocket, others said a Titan II, some said it had a nuclear rocket that would allow it to rocket into space, some claims were made that it had a helium tank to inflate a massive series of balloons to lift it up to altitude and then rockets would carry it the rest of the way to orbit.

The problem with the LRV seems basically as follows

• It's a bad deterrent system as it's existence would lead to a space-weapons race which we could actually lose: The US is more technologically advanced, but the Russians are can mobilize tremendous resources under sheer might
  
• Keeping it secret removes the deterrent value and instead makes it an ace in the hole: Works if you plan to use it for a first strike, but if your enemy finds out it could be perceived as a doomsday weapon, which it of course would be, you could get nuked.
  
• The warheads were supposed to be several small warheads per missile (4), which would likely be inadequate for destruction of hardened target, which would mean it would be a counter-value only weapon: Counter-value weapons as a first strike is disgusting and rather pointless as the people who caused things to get so insane effectively survive in bunkers while millions get vaporized or roasted largely for doing nothing.
  
• Submarines can do the same job and don't trigger a space-race: They are either first or second strike depending on yield, accuracy, policy
  

[Rick Lowe]

It just shows you that you don't have to buy 'a model' when you can go to a hardware or department store and butcher something from anything. IE, once Easter comes along, clear plastic Easter Egg containers make great cockpit canopies.
Glenn

I've seen someone turn a 'Dustbuster' hand-held vacuum cleaner into a spacecraft, though I can't recall where he got the Big-Donkey engine pods from.