Interesting Skylab restoration find

[Pat Flannery]

The guys restoring the Skylab replica came across two trailers of gear
that were used by Space Camp; besides lots of instrument panels that
will be reinstalled in the Skylab replica, they've found an adapter
section used to attach a Blue Gemini to the MOL. Here's a photo of one
of these from 1968, showing the six retro motors and the crew access
tunnel that would attach to the hatch in the heat shield:
http://www.usspacenews.com/sitebuilder/images/tom3333-366x336.png
The story is over on U.S. Space News: http://www.usspacenews.com/

Pat

[Rusty]

Pat Flannery wrote:
> The guys restoring the Skylab replica came across two trailers of gear
> that were used by Space Camp; besides lots of instrument panels that
> will be reinstalled in the Skylab replica, they've found an adapter
> section used to attach a Blue Gemini to the MOL. Here's a photo of one
> of these from 1968, showing the six retro motors and the crew access
> tunnel that would attach to the hatch in the heat shield:
> http://www.usspacenews.com/sitebuilder/images/tom3333-366x336.png
> The story is over on U.S. Space News: http://www.usspacenews.com/
>
> Pat


Why did the Blue Gemini require six retro motors? Smaller retros?
Higher orbit? Greater reentry module/retro module mass?

Rusty

[Pat Flannery]

Rusty wrote:

>
>Why did the Blue Gemini require six retro motors? Smaller retros?
>Higher orbit? Greater reentry module/retro module mass?
>
>
I assume the latter, but maybe it's to give some redundancy in case of a
failure of one of the motors.
That tunnel looks mighty small to crawl through.

Pat

[surfduke2001@yahoo.com]

Thanks for the find Pat! Nixon should have been taken to the Wood Shed
for the cancel of Skylab follow on. The Blue Gemini Program and Dyna
Soar are subjects that I love to get info on. I have Card Stock models
of all the hardware I can find from those programs, (and always looking
for new subject matter to model).

Thanks Again,

Carl

[surfduke2001@yahoo.com]

I just I.D.'d the MOL Hardware.

It was the prop. Mod. for winged Gemini config..

I knew I had seen it before somewhere.

Carl

[Pat Flannery]

wrote:

>Thanks for the find Pat! Nixon should have been taken to the Wood Shed
>for the cancel of Skylab follow on. The Blue Gemini Program and Dyna
>Soar are subjects that I love to get info on. I have Card Stock models
>of all the hardware I can find from those programs, (and always looking
>for new subject matter to model).
>
>Thanks Again,
>
>

Now you see, Carl here realizes all the hard work I go through to find
you guys stuff like this.
Do you have any idea how difficult it is for me to read a space news
website, and then link you guys to it?
No, of course not...
It can take nearly a minute sometimes.
Yes, nearly a minute.
And that's how I spent the best minutes of my life... slaving over a
hot keyboard for your guys sake, with little thought of thanks for my
labors. :-)
Anyway, I'd sending you a JPEG of my 1/48th scale MOL.
How accurate is it? Who knows? I've never seen two drawings of the MOL
that more than passingly agree with each other, and took a "best guess"
stab at it for fun.

Pat

[Pat Flannery]

wrote:

>
>It was the prop. Mod. for winged Gemini config..
>
>
>

The one with the paraglider or this thing?
:http://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/models/gemini/winggemini.html

Pat

[surfduke2001@yahoo.com]

See this link:

http://www.astronautix.com/craft/winemini.htm

Then go to the Photo Gallery, (Then scan down).

Have a good evening,

Carl

[Scott Hedrick]

"Pat Flannery" > wrote in message
...
> Now you see, Carl here realizes all the hard work I go through to find you
> guys stuff like this.
> Do you have any idea how difficult it is for me to read a space news
> website, and then link you guys to it?
> No, of course not...
> It can take nearly a minute sometimes.

Pat, you may be rusty, but you're no Rusty.

[Rusty]

Pat Flannery wrote:
> wrote:
>
> >Thanks for the find Pat! Nixon should have been taken to the Wood Shed
> >for the cancel of Skylab follow on. The Blue Gemini Program and Dyna
> >Soar are subjects that I love to get info on. I have Card Stock models
> >of all the hardware I can find from those programs, (and always looking
> >for new subject matter to model).
> >
> >Thanks Again,
> >
> >
>
> Now you see, Carl here realizes all the hard work I go through to find
> you guys stuff like this.
> Do you have any idea how difficult it is for me to read a space news
> website, and then link you guys to it?
> No, of course not...
> It can take nearly a minute sometimes.
> Yes, nearly a minute.
> And that's how I spent the best minutes of my life... slaving over a
> hot keyboard for your guys sake, with little thought of thanks for my
> labors. :-)
> Anyway, I'd sending you a JPEG of my 1/48th scale MOL.
> How accurate is it? Who knows? I've never seen two drawings of the MOL
> that more than passingly agree with each other, and took a "best guess"
> stab at it for fun.
>
> Pat


Into The Unknown Together,
The DOD, NASA and Early Spaceflight
(Mercury, Dyna Soar, Gemini, MOL, Apollo, AAP)

by Mark Erickson LT. Colonel UsAF
Air University Press
Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama

Sept 2005 - 668 pages

http://aupress.au.af.mil/Books/Erickson/erickson.pdf



-Rusty

[Pat Flannery]

wrote:

>See this link:
>
>http://www.astronautix.com/craft/winemini.htm
>
>Then go to the Photo Gallery, (Then scan down).
>
>
>
>
Stall speed looks a bit high.
"Those aren't wings... those are running boards! I forbid you to fly it
again!"
(Response of the Luftwaffe examiner Ernst Udet on getting his first look
at the HE-176 rocket fighter after its demonstration flight).

Pat

[Jeff Findley]

"Pat Flannery" > wrote in message
...
> The guys restoring the Skylab replica came across two trailers of gear
> that were used by Space Camp; besides lots of instrument panels that will
> be reinstalled in the Skylab replica, they've found an adapter section
> used to attach a Blue Gemini to the MOL. Here's a photo of one of these
> from 1968, showing the six retro motors and the crew access tunnel that
> would attach to the hatch in the heat shield:
> http://www.usspacenews.com/sitebuilder/images/tom3333-366x336.png
> The story is over on U.S. Space News: http://www.usspacenews.com/

I saw this story and became very excited. I hope this ends up at the USAF
Museum in Dayton, Ohio, where it can be displayed with the unflown Gemini
B/MOL that's currently missing its adapter section.

This picture is of a Gemini B (not sure which one)

http://www.usspacenews.com/sitebuilder/images/tom4444-530x400.png

The arrow points to the adapter section which was recently found, while the
portion that's in Dayton is the front, darker section that's the actual
re-entry capsule. It's currently displayed in the cold war missile gallery
such that you can see inside the cabin and you can clearly see the (closed)
hatches in the heat shield and the pressure vessel. You see the inside of
the pressure vessel hatch and the outside of the heat shield hatch.

Jeff
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety"
- B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919)

[Jeff Findley]

> wrote in message
ups.com...
>I just I.D.'d the MOL Hardware.
>
> It was the prop. Mod. for winged Gemini config..
>
> I knew I had seen it before somewhere.

So this was an adapter section for a winged Gemini, with five retro motors?
If so, it wouldn't match the pictures posted to US Space News, which had six
retro motors and the tunnel for MOL.

I'm confused now. Where are pictures of the actual hardware you found? ;-)

Jeff
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety"
- B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919)

[Jeff Findley]

"Rusty" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> Into The Unknown Together,
> The DOD, NASA and Early Spaceflight
> (Mercury, Dyna Soar, Gemini, MOL, Apollo, AAP)
>
> by Mark Erickson LT. Colonel UsAF
> Air University Press
> Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama
>
> Sept 2005 - 668 pages
>
> http://aupress.au.af.mil/Books/Erickson/erickson.pdf

Curse you Rusty, these PDF's are eating up all of my reading time. ;-)

Jeff
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety"
- B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919)

[Pat Flannery]

Pat Flannery wrote:

> Stall speed looks a bit high.
> "Those aren't wings... those are running boards! I forbid you to fly
> it again!"
> (Response of the Luftwaffe examiner Ernst Udet on getting his first
> look at the HE-176 rocket fighter after its demonstration flight).


Actually it was more of a test aircraft than a fighter prototype, but
I'm fairly sure they would have gotten around to sticking a machine gun
or two on it sooner or later in the improved version.
BTW- just recently a photo of the aircraft has surfaced, which shows
that it was quite different from the artists conceptions of it that you
may have seen: http://www.luft46.com/prototyp/he176.html
It was more sophisticated in design than once thought.

Pat