McDonnell MRLS

[Dew]

Don't know if they really belong in lifting bodies thread and can't find other clear references for them as a group, so here they are. Any pointers would be appreciated.
Struggling to read dates, the clearest being Ballistic arrgt. of 1963 (which appears to be very similar to that mentioned in Big Gemini thread). Booster is Saturn IB.

Ballistic:






High L/D:






Lifting Body:






Variable Geometry:

 

[nivek626]

Fantastic find Thank You Any more?

 

[robunos]

That VG one looks a lot like the MURP . . .

cheers,
Robin

 

[Dew]

Any more?

Only these:

Ballistic:







High L/D:









Lifting Body:









Variable Geometry:

 

[nivek626]

this is great info thank you again

 

[Archibald]

Ok, so @Dew has decided to make my Christmas even better. Now I'm following him and need to frantically download all the stuff he posted over the last days.

How many treasures like this do you have or intends to post ?

 

[Dew]

How many treasures like this do you have or intends to post ?

The well is starting to run dry, but I'm always on the look out !

 

[Dew]

That VG one looks a lot like the MURP . . .

You are quite right. I now believe these were part of a c. '64 study for space station support vehicles.



Ballistic
This design utilizes a scaled up Gemini heat shield shape and a 60° conical forebody. It is capable of a maximum hypersonic L/D up to about 0.6, depending on center of gravity position; for this study the spacecraft was ballasted to obtain the L/D of 0.25 considered adequate to correct entry dispersions.



HL-10
This is a NASA Langley Research Center design representative of lifting body shapes. It has a hypersonic L/D near 1 and a subsonic L/D adequate for horizontal land landing.



Variable Geometry
This configuration is a modified version of a NASA Langley Research Center design configured in this study for a maximum hypersonic L/D of about 1.8 with the wings folded and stowed. With the wings extended to a 30° sweep position, it has a subsonic L/D of about 8



Winged Body
This configuration was defined for the study to provide a maximum hypersonic L/D ratio of about 2.7 and a subsonic L/D of about 4.5.

 

[Dew]

bonus MURP artwork:

 

[Orionblamblam]

These designs are from the 1965 McDonnell "Mission Requirements of Lifting Systems - Engineering Aspects" reports from August, 1965. A wide variety of designs were examined to resupply a MORL-type space lab, but they boiled down to these four. I was sure these reports were mentioned on this forum before, but I could find no reference to them.

 

[Dew]

These designs are from the 1965 McDonnell "Mission Requirements of Lifting Systems - Engineering Aspects" reports from August, 1965. A wide variety of designs were examined to resupply a MORL-type space lab, but they boiled down to these four. I was sure these reports were mentioned on this forum before, but I could find no reference to them.

Thank you, neither could I, hence my initial "Any pointers would be appreciated."
I'd found "THE INFLUENCE OF MANNED MISSION REQUIREMENTS ON SPACECRAFT DESIGN AND SELECTION" which is a '66 AIAA paper referencing the same NASA contract for the report you had mentioned. The '64 date I'd mentioned being the Douglas "Report on the Optimization of the Manned Orbital Research Laboratory (MORL) Systems Concept"