Lockheed CL-616 & CL-421

[hesham]

Hi,


the Lockheed CL-616 was a reusable orbit carrier vehicle and the CL-421 was a
ferry space vehicle;


http://aviationarchives.blogspot.com/2014/02/off-drawing-boardlockheed-cl-616-cl-421.html

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

This is a Bill Slayton ("Fats") article from Crazed Plastic magazine, published by the St. Louis Gateway Chapter of the International Plastic Model Society (IPMS).

High res version attached.

 

[blackstar]

Am I missing something or does that nowhere state what year this was considered?

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

Indeed not.


CL-421 ~1958
CL-616 ~1962.


(Inferred from dates of nearby models)

 

[Retrofit]

Very interesting information, Thanks PaulMM for sharing!

The second and third pages presents 3V drawing of the Lockheed CL-616 in two configurations: The first one with the Lockheed California second stage; the second with the Convair second stage.
Those two complete projects are also drescribed in "The Space Shuttle, the first 100 missions" by Denis Jenkiins page 63. On that same page, the Convair second stage is also described, but not the Lockheed's one.
Note: The Convair second stage appears on a lot of documents (Jenkins'book and NASA reports) , but stragely nothing on the Lockheed second stage, except for the CL-616 with the Lockheed 's one seemed to be the only one to use it.

Is there any more detail available about that Lockheed second stage, and why the selection of the Convair's one on so many projects documents.

Thanks in advance,

Philippe

 

[cluttonfred]

Thanks, great stuff. That CL-421 makes for an interesting counterpoint to the one-piece lifting body designs of the period. Did Lockheed ever flight test a proof-of-concept or scale models of that folding swallow tail configuration? Cheers, Matthew