The Moon

Pat Flannery wrote:
Paul A. Suhler wrote:
During the summer of 1958, as part of Project GUSTO, the effort
to invent a successor to the U-2, the Navy proposed a ramjet
powered aircraft with an inflatable wing. It was going to be
a huge thing, with a 180" dia. ramjet (15 ft.!), with the pilot
sitting in the centerbody of the inlet.

Lockheed did an analysis and found that it would weigh 20% more
than a similar aircraft with metal wings.


They also supposidly found that the balloon that the thing was supposed
to ride up to operating altitude on was going to be far bigger than the
Hindenburg.
Has anyone seen drawings of this proposal? I always wondered what it was
supposed to look like.

One design was laid out much like the D-21, but much larger, of
course. Another was similar, but with vertical stabilizers on
the wingtips, like big winglets. In his notebook, Kelly
Johnson also sketched a continuous wing with a single vertical
stabilizer, but with shorter ramjet body suspended under it.

No drawings yet of the balloon. CLJ felt that the only practical
way to launch it would have been with a tow aircraft and rocket
boosters.