WHIFS found while Google-ing

rickshaw · January 19, 2018, 08:34:24 PM

It is interesting. The French went for Ramjets. The British for rockets. Neither worked out very well. The US and fUSSR went for turbjets.

PR19_Kit · January 20, 2018, 11:25:23 AM

Quote from: rickshaw on January 19, 2018, 08:34:24 PM

It is interesting. The French went for Ramjets. The British for rockets. Neither worked out very well. The US and fUSSR went for turbjets.

Sure, but someone had to try alternatives, that way lies progress.

Weaver · January 20, 2018, 05:57:56 PM

Well the French went for rockets too, look at the SO.9000 Trident and the SE.212 Durandal, and the Americans also played with them as auxiliary propulsion, in the Republic XF-91 Thunderceptor, for instance. I believe the Soviets also flew an experimental rocket-interceptor, but I can't recall the name at the moment.

Britain also did a lot of work on ramjets, but the only practical applications to come out of it were the Bloodhound and Sea Dart SAMs. There were plenty of paper projects though, not least the English Electric P.10 and related projects with their combined ramjet-wings.

zenrat · January 21, 2018, 01:03:08 AM

Click here.

The Rat · April 08, 2018, 01:12:20 PM

Interesting aircraft from The Trigan Empire. It looks as if the rudders can be canted outward to become dive brakes. There's an idea one of us might be able to use o something.

zenrat · April 09, 2018, 03:48:11 AM

I have a huge amount of Trigan Empire in PDF format and I did start reading it all, saving any interesting aircraft designs as I went.
I must continue and then do something with the pics.

Dizzyfugu · April 12, 2018, 07:14:46 AM

Well, it's not really a whif, but...

PR19_Kit · April 12, 2018, 08:29:11 AM

Whatever it is, it's HUGE!

Dizzyfugu · April 12, 2018, 08:35:52 AM

Note all the other inflatable stuff in the boxes. There's a B-2, too!

Weaver · April 14, 2018, 03:48:57 PM

Ron Thornton was the visual effects designer on Babylon 5 in seasons 1-3. He's also worked on other popular TV shows and feature films including Star Trek, Starship Troopers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Crazies and Spaceballs. This is a Dune ornithopter that he built for his own amusement. It's carved from jelutong (I presume some bits are vac-formed from jelutong masters, and it's fully articulated for stop-motion photography:

The pics are from a short but interesting article that he wrote on movie spacecraft design here: https://www.creativebloq.com/graphic-design/ron-thornton-starship-design-11135146

Dizzyfugu · April 15, 2018, 12:48:37 AM

I black it could have been an alternative (but serious) Batwing design...? Looks very good, though.

zenrat · April 15, 2018, 04:52:53 AM

Can't beat a good ornithopter.

Interesting link. I read somewhere that the Babylon Five Starfury space fighters were designed by (or with the assistance of) NASA engineers.

scooter · April 15, 2018, 09:48:51 AM

Quote from: zenrat on April 15, 2018, 04:52:53 AM
Can't beat a good ornithopter.

Interesting link. I read somewhere that the Babylon Five Starfury space fighters were designed by (or with the assistance of) NASA engineers.

I remember a chat the late Jerry Doyle was having at I-Con 14 (?) held at SUNY Stony Brook, way back in 94-95 time frame. I think he'd mentioned that a lot of rocket surgeons were keen on B5, and that a lot of the tech was considered to be plausible.

Weaver · April 15, 2018, 02:37:50 PM

As i understand it, the NASA/Starfury story wasn't that NASA helped design it, it was that they took an interest in it when they saw it on TV, because they'd been looking at geometries for a small craft to work around space stations (it was described as a 'space fork-lift') and they liked the cruciform arrangement of engines and thrusters. Apparently they called up the production company and had a meeting with the craft's designers.

Babylon 5 itself was an O'Neill Cylinder (kind of) that's a realistic, if probably unaffordable, scheme for a space station, and the Omega class Destroyers used by Earth were based squarely on the Alexi Leonov from 2010, which was designed along credible principles in line with the nature of the 2001 story.

Weaver · April 16, 2018, 04:29:20 AM

Quote from: zenrat on April 15, 2018, 04:52:53 AM
Can't beat a good ornithopter.

Interesting link. I read somewhere that the Babylon Five Starfury space fighters were designed by (or with the assistance of) NASA engineers.

18-wing RC ornithopter that works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbKpPsmsg58&feature=youtu.be

The rest of that channel's worth looking at too (all in Japanese, I'm afraid)

Original link posted on Twitter by Massimo, who posts all kinds of interesting stuff: https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/985839721548075009