Martin 344 Long Range Interceptor, 1957

[Antonio]

http://crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/historic/Additional_Photos_for_Unitary_and_Continuous-Flow_Hypersonic_Tunnels_4#M4_.2B_Wings

What kind of beast is the Martin 344?. It looks awesome!

 

[Orionblamblam]

What kind of beast is the Martin 344?. It looks awesome!

I just got this: "The project is listed as a Long Range Interceptor, Assigned engineer is Mr. Zuraw and dated 1-9-57." No further info at this time. I've gone through the Langley wind tunnel reports from 1957 on NTRS, but didn't see anything on this one.

Also: I just fired off an email requesting more info to the Responsible NASA Official.
UPDATE: Insta-reply: "I am out of the office until September 21." Hmmph.

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

Interesting Martin long range interceptor design, believed to be for the renewed LRI requirement circa 1957, therefore in competition with the NAA design that became the F-108. I rotated some of the images.

Source:
http://crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/historic/Additional_Photos_for_Unitary_and_Continuous-Flow_Hypersonic_Tunnels_4#Martin_344.22_Model

 

[Orionblamblam]

Got a response:

You set off a flurry of activity on our end. We do not have much information but I would like to pass on what little we have.

Apparently, in the 1950s and 60s we conducted a few tests for the Air Force. There was an interest in developing a strategic aero-space plane vehicle. A retired researcher remembered that there was an interest in military aircraft with semi-global range that would enable the pilot to return to the US after spotting something on the ground. This test vehicle was probably a two-stage vehicle. They were also testing heating and thermal protection, which was never resolved.

I checked with our technical library to see if there were any classified documents. The librarian reported that it "looks like it was a test only for Martin and we did not publish any results or gave the results to Martin or the Air force. I checked the unclassified section of DTIC (defense technical information center) and they did not have any reports."

Sorry we cannot assist you further. Should you find any other information, please feel free to pass it along and I will post it on our site.

Damn.

 

[Sundog]

Very cool design. BTW, what the hell is the 1963 Rebel? It looks like a high mach jet powered test plane to me.

 

[Orionblamblam]

Very cool design. BTW, what the hell is the 1963 Rebel? It looks like a high mach jet powered test plane to me.

I've seen that before... it's a first stage for an airbreathing space booster. At least that's how it was described in the test documentation.