Most excellent X-37B pix! - Page 5

**dhanners** · #41 01-12-2011, 02:54 PM

Here's another reply, with a vote for "off-center"....

Nosirree, that engine bell is not on the vertical centreline.

Even when viewing photos #1 and #7, you can see that the base of the engine bell
is closer to being in line, vertically, with the STBD black ellipse, one of 2,
just above the 'centreline' engine bell.

If we had access to a view of the X-37B from the port side, we might see another
engine bell, or thruster or something.

I imported the photo #5 and did some quick forensic geometry to the image,
(using vanishing points and various visual scaling techniques) and unless the
aft bulkhead is concave, that engine bell is off-vertical centre. It is almost
in line with the ellipse (thruster?) just above it.

Very interesting! and perplexing ... but unless we can see the port side as
well, or a direct aft view, we'll be speculating for awhile.

Pete

**Retired_for_now** · #42 01-12-2011, 04:25 PM

Great info - there is an aft shot in the video clip of the towing operation that pretty clearly shows the engine off-center. Pending a factual answer from Boeing, my vote is still for a "residual effect" of the original design that resulted in using one of two old engine mounts. Speculation, speculation ... do I qualify as a cable pundit yet?
Yogi

**dhanners** · #43 01-12-2011, 04:37 PM

I think before you become a cable pundit, you have to learn to heap abuse on those who disagree with you, i.e., those who believe the nozzle is on the centerline....

I should add that I had planned to build the X-37B because I think it looks cool but I printed the thing out and it was so danged small. I want to build one, but only if I can scale it up. Considerably.

**dhanners** · #44 01-13-2011, 08:23 AM

Yet another reply from the Yahoo space modelers' group. This one is from Jay Chladek, a very knowledgeable guy and space modeler extraordinaire. (I haven't been able to win him over from plastic and resin yet, though.)

His reply:

Kind of like those cooky offset designs Arado came up with in WW2 for the
Germans, partly to offset the torque of the airplane engine they used.

There would have been one heck of a mass offset to one side in that
payload bay to require the engine to be that offset so that normal engine
nozzle gimbals couldn't point it at the proper angle without the requirement for
RCS thrusters to keep the craft stabilized. But then again, the solar array
the artists concepts showed probably was the reason for this.

I have a feeling that other engine placements will likely be tried as well
if different payloads are installed, depending on how much mass they have.
The X-37B is an "experimental" vehicle afterall.

JMC

Zathros · #45 01-13-2011, 08:46 AM

Maybe the "engine" that was there was removed for security reasons and they stuck that nozzle on back with double sided tape.

**Paper Kosmonaut** · #46 01-13-2011, 12:01 PM

Yeah. Maybe the rear end of the X-37b was just widened to fit a dwarf inside to operate a set of pedals that put to work the asymmetrically placed retractable propeller (next to the asymmetrical nozzle) for better manoeuvring in the lower atmosphere.

(nothing new, the soviets did something similar with Sputnik 1, in which they hid a cossack dwarf with a microphone calling out the beeps. I have a picture of that somewhere.) (-;