Author: Zack Parsons
Publisher: Citadel Press
ISBN: 9780806527581
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 282
Book Description
A detailed and witty examination of 20 real inventions from WWII that never saw the light of day. Each entry includes full technical details, a complete development history, in-depth analysis, one or more illustrations and an acerbic fictionalised account of the invention's success or failure on the battlefield. These are the strangest inventions of WWII - from a 1000 ton tank to an aircraft carrier made out of ice - and for many of them, the original illustrations within are the only surviving images of the inspired lunacy they represent.
My Tank Is Fight!
Author: Zack Parsons
Publisher: Citadel Press
ISBN: 9780806527581
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 282
Book Description
A detailed and witty examination of 20 real inventions from WWII that never saw the light of day. Each entry includes full technical details, a complete development history, in-depth analysis, one or more illustrations and an acerbic fictionalised account of the invention's success or failure on the battlefield. These are the strangest inventions of WWII - from a 1000 ton tank to an aircraft carrier made out of ice - and for many of them, the original illustrations within are the only surviving images of the inspired lunacy they represent.
Publisher: Citadel Press
ISBN: 9780806527581
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 282
Book Description
A detailed and witty examination of 20 real inventions from WWII that never saw the light of day. Each entry includes full technical details, a complete development history, in-depth analysis, one or more illustrations and an acerbic fictionalised account of the invention's success or failure on the battlefield. These are the strangest inventions of WWII - from a 1000 ton tank to an aircraft carrier made out of ice - and for many of them, the original illustrations within are the only surviving images of the inspired lunacy they represent.
Dark Star
Author: Matthew H. Hersch
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262376660
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 329
Book Description
A captivating history of NASA’s Space Transportation System—the space shuttle—chronicling the inevitable failures of a doomed design. In Dark Star, Matthew Hersch challenges the existing narrative of the most significant human space program of the last 50 years, NASA’s space shuttle. He begins with the origins of the space shuttle: a century-long effort to develop a low-cost, reusable, rocket-powered airplane to militarize and commercialize space travel, which Hersch explains was built the wrong way, at the wrong time, and for all the wrong reasons. Describing the unique circumstances that led to the space shuttle’s creation by President Richard Nixon’s administration in 1972 and its subsequent flights from 1981 through 2011, Hersch illustrates how the space shuttle was doomed from the start. While most historians have accepted the view that the space shuttle’s fatal accidents—including the 1986 Challenger explosion—resulted from deficiencies in NASA’s management culture that lulled engineers into a false confidence in the craft, Dark Star reveals the widespread understanding that the shuttle was predestined for failure as a technology demonstrator. The vehicle was intended only to give the United States the appearance of a viable human spaceflight program until funds became available to eliminate its obvious flaws. Hersch’s work seeks to answer the perilous questions of technological choice that confront every generation, and it is a critical read for anyone interested in how we can create a better world through the things we build.
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262376660
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 329
Book Description
A captivating history of NASA’s Space Transportation System—the space shuttle—chronicling the inevitable failures of a doomed design. In Dark Star, Matthew Hersch challenges the existing narrative of the most significant human space program of the last 50 years, NASA’s space shuttle. He begins with the origins of the space shuttle: a century-long effort to develop a low-cost, reusable, rocket-powered airplane to militarize and commercialize space travel, which Hersch explains was built the wrong way, at the wrong time, and for all the wrong reasons. Describing the unique circumstances that led to the space shuttle’s creation by President Richard Nixon’s administration in 1972 and its subsequent flights from 1981 through 2011, Hersch illustrates how the space shuttle was doomed from the start. While most historians have accepted the view that the space shuttle’s fatal accidents—including the 1986 Challenger explosion—resulted from deficiencies in NASA’s management culture that lulled engineers into a false confidence in the craft, Dark Star reveals the widespread understanding that the shuttle was predestined for failure as a technology demonstrator. The vehicle was intended only to give the United States the appearance of a viable human spaceflight program until funds became available to eliminate its obvious flaws. Hersch’s work seeks to answer the perilous questions of technological choice that confront every generation, and it is a critical read for anyone interested in how we can create a better world through the things we build.
Energiya-Buran
Author: Bart Hendrickx
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 038773984X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 541
Book Description
This absorbing book describes the long development of the Soviet space shuttle system, its infrastructure and the space agency’s plans to follow up the first historic unmanned mission. The book includes comparisons with the American shuttle system and offers accounts of the Soviet test pilots chosen for training to fly the system, and the operational, political and engineering problems that finally sealed the fate of Buran and ultimately of NASA’s Shuttle fleet.
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 038773984X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 541
Book Description
This absorbing book describes the long development of the Soviet space shuttle system, its infrastructure and the space agency’s plans to follow up the first historic unmanned mission. The book includes comparisons with the American shuttle system and offers accounts of the Soviet test pilots chosen for training to fly the system, and the operational, political and engineering problems that finally sealed the fate of Buran and ultimately of NASA’s Shuttle fleet.
Rocketing Into the Future
Author: Michel van Pelt
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461432006
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 378
Book Description
This book describes the technology, history, and future of rocket planes. Michel van Pelt journies into this exciting world, examining the exotic concepts and actual flying vehicles that have been devised over the last hundred years. He recounts the history of rocket airplanes, from the early pioneers who attached simple rockets onto their wooden glider airplanes to the modern world of high-tech research vehicles. The author visits museums where rare examples of early rocket planes are kept and modern laboratories where future spaceplanes are being developed. He explains the technology in an easily understandable way, describing the various types of rocket airplanes and looking at the possibilities for the future. Michel van Pelt considers future spaceplanes, presenting various modern concepts and developments. He describes the development from cutting edge research via demonstrator vehicles to operational use. He also evaluates the replacement of the Space Shuttle with a seemingly old-fashioned capsule system, the parallel developments in suborbital spaceplanes such as SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo, piloted versus automatic flight, and related developments in airliners and military aircraft.
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461432006
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 378
Book Description
This book describes the technology, history, and future of rocket planes. Michel van Pelt journies into this exciting world, examining the exotic concepts and actual flying vehicles that have been devised over the last hundred years. He recounts the history of rocket airplanes, from the early pioneers who attached simple rockets onto their wooden glider airplanes to the modern world of high-tech research vehicles. The author visits museums where rare examples of early rocket planes are kept and modern laboratories where future spaceplanes are being developed. He explains the technology in an easily understandable way, describing the various types of rocket airplanes and looking at the possibilities for the future. Michel van Pelt considers future spaceplanes, presenting various modern concepts and developments. He describes the development from cutting edge research via demonstrator vehicles to operational use. He also evaluates the replacement of the Space Shuttle with a seemingly old-fashioned capsule system, the parallel developments in suborbital spaceplanes such as SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo, piloted versus automatic flight, and related developments in airliners and military aircraft.
Dream Missions
Author: Michel van Pelt
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319539418
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 265
Book Description
This book takes the reader on a journey through the history of extremely ambitious, large and complex space missions that never happened. What were the dreams and expectations of the visionaries behind these plans, and why were they not successful in bringing their projects to reality thus far? As spaceflight development progressed, new technologies and ideas led to pushing the boundaries of engineering and technology though still grounded in real scientific possibilities. Examples are space colonies, nuclear-propelled interplanetary spacecraft, space telescopes consisting of multiple satellites and canon launch systems. Each project described in this book says something about the dreams and expectations of their time, and their demise was often linked to an important change in the cultural, political and social state of the world. For each mission or spacecraft concept, the following will be covered: • Description of the design. • Overview of the history of the concept and the people involved. • Why it was never developed and flown • What if the mission was actually carried out – consequences, further developments, etc.
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319539418
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 265
Book Description
This book takes the reader on a journey through the history of extremely ambitious, large and complex space missions that never happened. What were the dreams and expectations of the visionaries behind these plans, and why were they not successful in bringing their projects to reality thus far? As spaceflight development progressed, new technologies and ideas led to pushing the boundaries of engineering and technology though still grounded in real scientific possibilities. Examples are space colonies, nuclear-propelled interplanetary spacecraft, space telescopes consisting of multiple satellites and canon launch systems. Each project described in this book says something about the dreams and expectations of their time, and their demise was often linked to an important change in the cultural, political and social state of the world. For each mission or spacecraft concept, the following will be covered: • Description of the design. • Overview of the history of the concept and the people involved. • Why it was never developed and flown • What if the mission was actually carried out – consequences, further developments, etc.
Into the Black
Author: Rowland White
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501123645
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 480
Book Description
A book “no aviation buff will want to miss” (The Wall Street Journal) and “the perfect tale that educates as it entertains” (Clive Cussler, #1 bestselling author), Into the Black recaptures the historic moments leading up to and the exciting story of the astronauts who flew the daring maiden flight of the space shuttle Columbia. Using interviews, NASA oral histories, and recently declassified material, Into the Black pieces together the dramatic untold story of the Columbia mission and the brave people who dedicated themselves to help the United States succeed in the age of space exploration. On April 12, 1981, NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral. It was the most advanced, state-of-the-art flying machine ever built, challenging the minds and imagination of America’s top engineers and pilots. Columbia was the world’s first real spaceship: a winged rocket plane, the size of an airliner, and capable of flying to space and back before preparing to fly again. On board were moonwalker John Young and test pilot Bob Crippen. Less than an hour after Young and Crippen’s spectacular departure from the Cape, all was not well. Tiles designed to protect the ship from the blowtorch burn of re-entry were missing from the heat shield. If the damage to Columbia was too great, the astronauts wouldn’t be able to return safely to earth. NASA turned to the National Reconnaissance Office, a spy agency hidden deep inside the Pentagon whose very existence was classified. To help the ship, the NRO would attempt something never done before. Success would require skill, perfect timing, and luck. Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, Into the Black is a thrilling race against time and the incredible true story of the first space shuttle mission that celebrates our passion for spaceflight.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501123645
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 480
Book Description
A book “no aviation buff will want to miss” (The Wall Street Journal) and “the perfect tale that educates as it entertains” (Clive Cussler, #1 bestselling author), Into the Black recaptures the historic moments leading up to and the exciting story of the astronauts who flew the daring maiden flight of the space shuttle Columbia. Using interviews, NASA oral histories, and recently declassified material, Into the Black pieces together the dramatic untold story of the Columbia mission and the brave people who dedicated themselves to help the United States succeed in the age of space exploration. On April 12, 1981, NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral. It was the most advanced, state-of-the-art flying machine ever built, challenging the minds and imagination of America’s top engineers and pilots. Columbia was the world’s first real spaceship: a winged rocket plane, the size of an airliner, and capable of flying to space and back before preparing to fly again. On board were moonwalker John Young and test pilot Bob Crippen. Less than an hour after Young and Crippen’s spectacular departure from the Cape, all was not well. Tiles designed to protect the ship from the blowtorch burn of re-entry were missing from the heat shield. If the damage to Columbia was too great, the astronauts wouldn’t be able to return safely to earth. NASA turned to the National Reconnaissance Office, a spy agency hidden deep inside the Pentagon whose very existence was classified. To help the ship, the NRO would attempt something never done before. Success would require skill, perfect timing, and luck. Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, Into the Black is a thrilling race against time and the incredible true story of the first space shuttle mission that celebrates our passion for spaceflight.
Safety in Aviation and Astronautics
Author: Simon Ashley Bennett
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000506967
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 227
Book Description
Aviation safety and astronautics safety are taught as technical subjects informed, for the most part, by quantitative methods. Here, as in other fields, safety is often framed as an engineering problem requiring mathematics-informed solutions. This book argues that the socio-technical approach, encompassing theories grounded in sociology and psychology – such as active learning, high-reliability organising, mindfulness, leadership, followership and empowerment – has much to contribute to the safety performance of these vital industries. It sets out to inspire professionals to embed the whole-system approach into design and operation regimen and describes the reputational and financial benefits to manufacturers and operators that accrue from adopting a whole-system approach to design and operation. The book defines the socio-technical approach to risk assessment and management in aviation and astronautics (astronautics is taken to mean "the design and operation of vehicles for use beyond the earth’s atmosphere"), then demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of this approach through case studies of, for example, the Boeing 737MAX-8 accidents and the loss of the SpaceShipTwo orbiter. Grounding the discourse in familiar case studies engages busy aviation and astronautics professionals. The book’s arguments are explained in such a way that they are readily comprehensible to non-experts. Key concepts are defined within a glossary. Photographs, charts and diagrams illustrate key points. Written for a practitioner audience, specifically aviation and astronautics professionals, this book provides a valuable and accessible social sciences perspective on safety that will be directly relevant to their roles.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000506967
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 227
Book Description
Aviation safety and astronautics safety are taught as technical subjects informed, for the most part, by quantitative methods. Here, as in other fields, safety is often framed as an engineering problem requiring mathematics-informed solutions. This book argues that the socio-technical approach, encompassing theories grounded in sociology and psychology – such as active learning, high-reliability organising, mindfulness, leadership, followership and empowerment – has much to contribute to the safety performance of these vital industries. It sets out to inspire professionals to embed the whole-system approach into design and operation regimen and describes the reputational and financial benefits to manufacturers and operators that accrue from adopting a whole-system approach to design and operation. The book defines the socio-technical approach to risk assessment and management in aviation and astronautics (astronautics is taken to mean "the design and operation of vehicles for use beyond the earth’s atmosphere"), then demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of this approach through case studies of, for example, the Boeing 737MAX-8 accidents and the loss of the SpaceShipTwo orbiter. Grounding the discourse in familiar case studies engages busy aviation and astronautics professionals. The book’s arguments are explained in such a way that they are readily comprehensible to non-experts. Key concepts are defined within a glossary. Photographs, charts and diagrams illustrate key points. Written for a practitioner audience, specifically aviation and astronautics professionals, this book provides a valuable and accessible social sciences perspective on safety that will be directly relevant to their roles.
Nazi UFOs
Author: S.D. Tucker
Publisher: Frontline Books
ISBN: 1399071599
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 218
Book Description
Nazi UFOs tells the strange tale of how, following the first alleged flying saucer sightings made in the USA in 1947, a series of fantasists and neo-fascists came forward to create a media myth that the Nazis may have invented these incredible craft as a means for winning the Second World War, a plan which was tantalisingly close to completion before the Allies conquered Berlin in 1945. Today, the fantasy of Nazi UFOs has grown into an entire mythology in books, on TV and online. Did Germany back-engineer anti-gravity craft, and even a full-blown time-machine, by stripping technology from a crashed alien saucer? Did the SS secretly invent ‘Green’ technology for use in their star ship engines, and was this planet-saving discovery later suppressed at the behest of a sinister Big Oil conspiracy? Did Himmler try to develop ‘lightning weapons’ for use in aerial combat? By contrasting the fake military-industrial pseudo-histories of Nazi UFO theorists with details of real-life Nazi aerospace achievements, the author demonstrates both how this modern-day mythology came about and how it cannot possibly be more than fractionally true. For the first time, this fake ‘alternative military history’ is laid out in full. This book features an appealing cast of con-men and spies, complete madmen, real-life Nazis and completely made-up ones, operating right across the globe from South America to wartime Europe and Japan. A good example may be the ‘mad professor’, Viktor Schauberger, who actually genuinely did manage to gain a personal audience with Adolf Hitler in order to try and convince him that he had discovered and then exploited some amazing new source of natural ‘free energy’ which could make objects (such as saucers, in the opinion of some) float. Hitler dismissed his plan, but it does nonetheless show how close some bizarre schemes came to being implemented in Nazi Germany.
Publisher: Frontline Books
ISBN: 1399071599
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 218
Book Description
Nazi UFOs tells the strange tale of how, following the first alleged flying saucer sightings made in the USA in 1947, a series of fantasists and neo-fascists came forward to create a media myth that the Nazis may have invented these incredible craft as a means for winning the Second World War, a plan which was tantalisingly close to completion before the Allies conquered Berlin in 1945. Today, the fantasy of Nazi UFOs has grown into an entire mythology in books, on TV and online. Did Germany back-engineer anti-gravity craft, and even a full-blown time-machine, by stripping technology from a crashed alien saucer? Did the SS secretly invent ‘Green’ technology for use in their star ship engines, and was this planet-saving discovery later suppressed at the behest of a sinister Big Oil conspiracy? Did Himmler try to develop ‘lightning weapons’ for use in aerial combat? By contrasting the fake military-industrial pseudo-histories of Nazi UFO theorists with details of real-life Nazi aerospace achievements, the author demonstrates both how this modern-day mythology came about and how it cannot possibly be more than fractionally true. For the first time, this fake ‘alternative military history’ is laid out in full. This book features an appealing cast of con-men and spies, complete madmen, real-life Nazis and completely made-up ones, operating right across the globe from South America to wartime Europe and Japan. A good example may be the ‘mad professor’, Viktor Schauberger, who actually genuinely did manage to gain a personal audience with Adolf Hitler in order to try and convince him that he had discovered and then exploited some amazing new source of natural ‘free energy’ which could make objects (such as saucers, in the opinion of some) float. Hitler dismissed his plan, but it does nonetheless show how close some bizarre schemes came to being implemented in Nazi Germany.
Single Stage to Orbit
Author: Andrew J. Butrica
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 080188134X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 285
Book Description
Winner of the Michael C. Robinson Prize for Historical Analysis given by the National Council on Public History While the glories and tragedies of the space shuttle make headlines and move the nation, the story of the shuttle forms an inseparabe part of a lesser-known but no less important drama—the search for a reusable single-stage-to-orbit rocket. Here an award-winning student of space science, Andrew J. Butrica, examines the long and tangled history of this ambitious concept, from it first glimmerings in the 1920s, when technicians dismissed it as unfeasible, to its highly expensive heyday in the midst of the Cold War, when conservative-backed government programs struggled to produce an operational flight vehicle. Butrica finds a blending of far-sighted engineering and heavy-handed politics. To the first and oldest idea—that of the reusable rocket-powered single-stage-to-orbit vehicle—planners who belonged to what President Eisenhower referred to as the military-industrial complex.added experimental ("X"), "aircraft-like" capabilties and, eventually, a "faster, cheaper, smaller" managerial approach. Single Stage to Orbit traces the interplay of technology, corporate interest, and politics, a combination that well served the conservative space agenda and ultimately triumphed—not in the realization of inexpensive, reliable space transport—but in a vision of space militarization and commercialization that would appear settled United States policy in the early twenty-first century.
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 080188134X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 285
Book Description
Winner of the Michael C. Robinson Prize for Historical Analysis given by the National Council on Public History While the glories and tragedies of the space shuttle make headlines and move the nation, the story of the shuttle forms an inseparabe part of a lesser-known but no less important drama—the search for a reusable single-stage-to-orbit rocket. Here an award-winning student of space science, Andrew J. Butrica, examines the long and tangled history of this ambitious concept, from it first glimmerings in the 1920s, when technicians dismissed it as unfeasible, to its highly expensive heyday in the midst of the Cold War, when conservative-backed government programs struggled to produce an operational flight vehicle. Butrica finds a blending of far-sighted engineering and heavy-handed politics. To the first and oldest idea—that of the reusable rocket-powered single-stage-to-orbit vehicle—planners who belonged to what President Eisenhower referred to as the military-industrial complex.added experimental ("X"), "aircraft-like" capabilties and, eventually, a "faster, cheaper, smaller" managerial approach. Single Stage to Orbit traces the interplay of technology, corporate interest, and politics, a combination that well served the conservative space agenda and ultimately triumphed—not in the realization of inexpensive, reliable space transport—but in a vision of space militarization and commercialization that would appear settled United States policy in the early twenty-first century.
Facing the Heat Barrier
Author: T. A. Heppenheimer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 364
Book Description
Hypersonics is the study of flight at speeds where aerodynamic heating dominates the physics of the problem. Typically this is Mach 5 and higher. Hypersonics is an engineering science with close links to supersonics and engine design. Within this field, many of the most important results have been experimental. The principal facilities have been wind tunnels and related devices, which have produced flows with speeds up to orbital velocity. Why is it important? Hypersonics has had two major applications. The first has been to provide thermal protection during atmospheric entry. Success in this enterprise has supported ballistic-missile nose cones, has returned strategic reconnaissance photos from orbit and astronauts from the Moon, and has even dropped an instrument package into the atmosphere of Jupiter. The last of these approached Jupiter at four times the speed of a lunar mission returning to Earth. Work with re-entry has advanced rapidly because of its obvious importance. The second application has involved high-speed propulsion and has sought to develop the scramjet as an advanced airbreathing ramjet. Scramjets are built to run cool and thereby to achieve near-orbital speeds. They were important during the Strategic Defense Initiative, when a set of these engines was to power the experimental X-30 as a major new launch vehicle. This effort fell short, but the X-43A, carrying a scramjet, has recently flown at Mach 9.65 by using a rocket. Atmospheric entry today is fully mature as an engineering discipline. Still, the Jupiter experience shows that work with its applications continues to reach for new achievements. Studies of scramjets, by contrast, still seek full success, in which such engines can accelerate a vehicle without the use of rockets. Hence, there is much to do in this area as well. For instance, work with computers may soon show just how good scramjets can become. NASA SP-2007-4232
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 364
Book Description
Hypersonics is the study of flight at speeds where aerodynamic heating dominates the physics of the problem. Typically this is Mach 5 and higher. Hypersonics is an engineering science with close links to supersonics and engine design. Within this field, many of the most important results have been experimental. The principal facilities have been wind tunnels and related devices, which have produced flows with speeds up to orbital velocity. Why is it important? Hypersonics has had two major applications. The first has been to provide thermal protection during atmospheric entry. Success in this enterprise has supported ballistic-missile nose cones, has returned strategic reconnaissance photos from orbit and astronauts from the Moon, and has even dropped an instrument package into the atmosphere of Jupiter. The last of these approached Jupiter at four times the speed of a lunar mission returning to Earth. Work with re-entry has advanced rapidly because of its obvious importance. The second application has involved high-speed propulsion and has sought to develop the scramjet as an advanced airbreathing ramjet. Scramjets are built to run cool and thereby to achieve near-orbital speeds. They were important during the Strategic Defense Initiative, when a set of these engines was to power the experimental X-30 as a major new launch vehicle. This effort fell short, but the X-43A, carrying a scramjet, has recently flown at Mach 9.65 by using a rocket. Atmospheric entry today is fully mature as an engineering discipline. Still, the Jupiter experience shows that work with its applications continues to reach for new achievements. Studies of scramjets, by contrast, still seek full success, in which such engines can accelerate a vehicle without the use of rockets. Hence, there is much to do in this area as well. For instance, work with computers may soon show just how good scramjets can become. NASA SP-2007-4232