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Sea Dragon
In the early 1960s, there was no end of spacecraft concepts for super-large boosters. Some made the Saturn V and even today’s SLS look small. The biggest was the Sea Dragon, a design study from 1962. Aside from its gargantuan size — 490 feet long and 75 feet in diameter — the Sea Dragon had another unique feature: it would be launched by towing it out to sea, filling detachable ballast tanks to bring the vehicle upright, and then igniting the massive engine.
That first-stage engine would have 79 million lbs. of thrust; by comparison, the five F-1 engines of the Saturn V’s first stage combined to produce 7.6 million lbs. of thrust. It would be able to carry 600 tons of payload to low Earth orbit; the Saturn V carried 130 tons to LEO. Sea Dragon never made it off the drawing board, but if you’ve watched the series “For All Mankind,” which depicts an alternate history of the space race, you saw the Sea Dragon in the first-season finale. In the series, Sea Dragons are used to resupply a U.S. lunar base. This model of the Sea Dragon is from Zach’s PaperSat Designs (Other models) and is a relatively simple build. I jazzed it up some by making it a cargo version and adding bits of detail throughout to give it a 1960s rocket look. The model is advertised as 1/380th scale. |
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#2
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Nice build from a truly under appreciated show.
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#3
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This is a project that has needed a champion for a long time.
Thank You for sharing Your progress! |
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Beautiful build of an impressive rocket.
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#5
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Very nice to see someone built the Sea Dragon. And in a high quality finish, too. Great!
I can only imagine how it would look in 1/96... |
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#6
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Made a couple of modifications to the Sea Dragon. Added a spike to the nose, so maybe this is a crewed version after all. (I’m resisting the urge to try and do an launch escape tower in 1/380th….)
Also, a number of drawings I found online show the vehicle with some sort of small thrusters at four points around the circumference of the rocket. Each has a nozzle pointing up and one pointing down. Separation motors of some sort? No idea. But I added them. I’m giving some thought to adding a lattice structure (ala Soyuz or India’s GSLV) on the bottom between the rear bulkhead and the first circular engine part. Still mulling whether the look would be worth it. |
#7
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Info if needed.
I have loads of research on the Dragon if You need it. My Father in Law worked on some of the prelim. site stuff near Kings Bay.
Good Luck on the project. |
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