On 4 January 1955 the USAF issued Systems Requirement SR-12 for the Weapons System WS-118P high-speed reconnaissance vehicle. Range was to be over 5000 km, altitude over 30 km. Bell provided a proposal on 1 December 1955, calling for a three-phase program using a glider designed to be boosted by a two-stage rocket to Mach 15 at 50 km altitude (Phase I would produce an 8,000 km range vehicle; Phase II a 16,000 km range vehicle; and Phase III an orbital vehicle). Below are some of the documents released on this program. Declassified Documents Aircraft Configuration Survey for Weapon System…
Author: John Greenewald
Vertical and/or Short Take-Off and Landing (V/STOL) is a term used to describe aircraft that are able to take-off or land vertically or on short runways. Most were experiments or outright failures from the 1950s to 1970s. Vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) describes craft which do not require short runways. Generally, a V/STOL aircraft needs to be able to hover; helicopters are not typically considered under the V/STOL classification. Below are documents pertaining to different aircraft, designs and concepts obtained under the Freedom of Information Act: V/STOL Concepts and Developed Aircraft. Volume 1. A Historical Report (1940-1986) [454 Pages, 26.41MB]
Background Project Silver Bug was the American “Black” project version of the Avro Aircraft Canada Y-2 undertaken by the United States Air Force in 1953. Declassified Documents Project Silver Bug Technical Report
The Combat Talon was initially developed between December 1964 and January 1967 by Lockheed Air Services (LAS) at Ontario, California, as the result of a study by Big Safari, the USAF’s program office responsible for modification and sustainment of special mission aircraft. From it two highly classified test bed aircraft (originally serial no. 64-0506 and -0507, but with all numbers “sanitized” from the aircraft), were assigned to Project Thin Slice to develop a low level clandestine penetration aircraft suitable for Special Forces operations in Southeast Asia. In 1964 Lockheed had modified six C-123B Providers for “unconventional warfare” under Project Duck…
The Lun-class ekranoplan (NATO reporting name Duck) was a ground effect aircraft designed by Rostislav Evgenievich Alexeev and used by the Soviet and Russian navies from 1987 to sometime in the late 1990s. It flew using the extra lift generated by the effect of its large wings when close to the surface of the water – about four metres or less. Lun was one of the largest seaplanes ever built, with a length of 73 m (240 ft), rivalling the Hughes H-4 Hercules (“The Spruce Goose”) and many jumbo jets. The name Lun comes from the Russian for harrier. (Source:…