Shuttle unit cost

(Peter Stickney) wrote:

Thunderball's B-17 was Fulton's prototype, which had an interesting
habit of showing up in places like Laos or the Congo, or Thule before
the HC-130Hs appeared in late 1966.

I'd have to go look again, but I thought it was one of the B-17H
'Dumbos', (B-17's modified for air rescue). You can plainly see IIRC
the lifeboat hanging under the bomb bay.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

Peter Stickney wrote:

Thunderball had all sorts of neat stuff


And speaking of things that look like something Bond would have, how
about a car/boat/HYDROFOIL?!:
http://www.gizmo.com.au/public/News/...articleid=2606

In message , Dale
writes
On Sun, 7 Mar 2004 19:47:04 +0000, Jonathan Silverlight
wrote:

In message , Mary Shafer
writes

I think there might have been some footage of a satellite-package
catcher in "Ice Station Zebra", with it missing or dropping the
package or something. I know I've seen it in some movie or another
and it fits the plot of that one.

There's a scene near the end when they raise the package on a balloon
for the Russian plane to catch.
But isn't the plan to use this when the Stardust comet probe returns to
Earth? Presumably that involves less of a jolt than a parachute landing.

IIRC, the animation shown on NASA TV just has it parachuting
to the ground, with a helicopter coming along to retrieve it.

Given a choice of two, I chose the wrong sample-return mission :-)
It's the Genesis capsule that is to be grabbed in mid-air by a
helicopter.
--
Save the Hubble Space Telescope!
Remove spam and invalid from address to reply.

Jonathan Silverlight wrote:
In message , Dale
writes
On Sun, 7 Mar 2004 19:47:04 +0000, Jonathan Silverlight
wrote:

In message , Mary Shafer
writes

I think there might have been some footage of a satellite-package
catcher in "Ice Station Zebra", with it missing or dropping the
package or something. I know I've seen it in some movie or another
and it fits the plot of that one.

There's a scene near the end when they raise the package on a balloon
for the Russian plane to catch.
But isn't the plan to use this when the Stardust comet probe returns to
Earth? Presumably that involves less of a jolt than a parachute landing.

IIRC, the animation shown on NASA TV just has it parachuting
to the ground, with a helicopter coming along to retrieve it.

Given a choice of two, I chose the wrong sample-return mission :-)
It's the Genesis capsule that is to be grabbed in mid-air by a
helicopter.

Surely a helicopter has a glaring flaw when it comes to grabbing falling
stuff in mid-air...

Ian Stirling wrote:


Surely a helicopter has a glaring flaw when it comes to grabbing falling
stuff in mid-air...

_Long_ distance between pick-up gear and rotor, plus fairly high
forward speed; they use helicopters to pick up recon and target drones.
You fly over it as it descends, and hook the chute.

Pat

On Tue, 09 Mar 2004 18:49:18 GMT, Ian Stirling
wrote:

Jonathan Silverlight wrote:

Given a choice of two, I chose the wrong sample-return mission :-)
It's the Genesis capsule that is to be grabbed in mid-air by a
helicopter.

Surely a helicopter has a glaring flaw when it comes to grabbing falling
stuff in mid-air...

You mean like catching it with the external fuel tank instead of the
MARS, Mid-Air Recovery System? That happened with the SRV, Spin
Research Vehicle, once, but the tank held and all went well.

Mary

--
Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer