Leviathan

[Dyna-Soar]

Essentially, a 21st century Sea Dragon, the Leviathan is a sea-launched super heavy launch vehicle with a payload capacity 7 times that of the space shuttle. It consists of 2 stages with plug-nozzle aerospike engines and is fully reusable.
Sea Dragon vs Leviathan The Unwanted Blog
The model itself is made from cardstock, which I plan to paint over. I may shorten the body a bit, since it look too long.


Up next is either a Sea Dragon or an Ajax in 1/144

[davidoo]

Nice model and nice concept, thanks for making us discover that ^^

Yep the body needs to be shortened, but it already look very cool, hope you will process it and propose to us

[Dyna-Soar]

Finished:

[Retired_for_now]

Now that's the kind of loony concept - sorry - I meant out of the box thinking we need to get the cost per kilogram to orbit down to something reasonable.

Yogi (everything's out there if we can just climb out of the gravity well ...)

[Dyna-Soar]

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Wow. That's a big, quick and topical model, Dyna! What were your base parts? ET? And the spike? scratch? tell us something more about the build.

Apart from that: as much as I like that Leviathan, I truly love the SCA / Enterprise sep you got there hanging on your wall.
That is an idea I have too, but haven't made yet. The change in plane (wall-orientated instead of on a shelf) is very refreshing to see.
*edit* And hey! did I see a twin-tailed shuttle there? One of the early 1971 design propositions of Lockheed?

Back to that Leviathan: Sure, it's a loony idea but where do we go if there weren't loonies and similar ideas to start out with? (I am mainly worried about the fish swimming underneath - not so much of the hydrolox but more the noise...)

[Dyna-Soar]

Originally Posted by Paper Kosmonaut

Wow. That's a big, quick and topical model, Dyna! What were your base parts? ET? And the spike? scratch? tell us something more about the build.

Apart from that: as much as I like that Leviathan, I truly love the SCA / Enterprise sep you got there hanging on your wall.
That is an idea I have too, but haven't made yet. The change in plane (wall-orientated instead of on a shelf) is very refreshing to see.
*edit* And hey! did I see a twin-tailed shuttle there? One of the early 1971 design propositions of Lockheed?

Back to that Leviathan: Sure, it's a loony idea but where do we go if there weren't loonies and similar ideas to start out with? (I am mainly worried about the fish swimming underneath - not so much of the hydrolox but more the noise...)

First of all, I used the 1/96 shuttle ET from the Lhvcc site. The Aerospike engine was basically a second nosecone with the second conic inverted and placed inside the first and the third placed on top of that normally. I made the final cone in a free shroud calculator program I found.

Next the twin tailed shuttle was inspired by a blog post* from Homer Hickam (of October Sky/ Rocket Boys fame) where he mentions a manned development of the X-37. This was my take on the idea, which I called the Boeing CST-250 (cargo/ repair) and -350 (passenger).
CST-350 Bruce Melnick(in USCG Livery)


CST-250 Beagle (NASA Livery) and C-17 carrier aircraft (with Chip Foose inspired paint job)



Unfortunately plastic, I've been wanting to do a paper version for some time.

*Link: Homer Hickam official Web site – The Dinosaur Hunter, October Sky/Rocket Boys.

[SAustin16]

A c-17 as a launch vehicle...very cool concept.

[Dyna-Soar]

Originally Posted by SAustin16

A c-17 as a launch vehicle...very cool concept.

Well, I suppose it could launch Space Sortie Vehicle-type mission, but I had envisioned it more as a modular carrier aircraft, with both internal and external hauling capabilites.

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Ah, so it is a lot smaller than the original shuttle. From a distance it looked a lot like this Lockheed threeview drawing of the shuttle when is was in phase B of its development. the choice for Rockwell wasn't yet made:



Note the different shaped delta with RCS thrusters at the tips and the four smaller (OMS only?) engines.