Natter Posted December 10, 2020 Share Posted December 10, 2020 You have to be a certain age to remember Fireball XL5, but Elon Musk's Starship XN8 looks awfully similar. Or is it just me? Sorry, I am not sure how to post pictures from links, but this is the Starship XN8 (or is it Fireball XL5?): https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-starship-high-altitude-launch-debut-date/ 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndon Posted December 10, 2020 Share Posted December 10, 2020 I see Elon Musk described yesterdays landing as a 'rapid unscheduled disassembly' 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Britman Posted December 10, 2020 Share Posted December 10, 2020 More drama in six minutes than a whole year of EastEnders! Musk did foresee that something dramatic would result from this test flight. Roll out SN9... KEITH 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Mc Posted December 12, 2020 Share Posted December 12, 2020 I've always thought that the manned version of the Dragon capsule also has an XL5 look about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatalbert Posted December 12, 2020 Share Posted December 12, 2020 Always reminds me of the ships from Dan Dare. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard E Posted December 12, 2020 Share Posted December 12, 2020 On 12/10/2020 at 9:35 AM, Britman said: More drama in six minutes than a whole year of EastEnders! Musk did foresee that something dramatic would result from this test flight. Roll out SN9... SN9 might need some Gaffer Tape and some gentle buffing before it's flight ready I must admit I've always thought that the inspiraition for Elon's latest project was Flash Gordon's Rocket Ship Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tankmass Posted December 13, 2020 Share Posted December 13, 2020 It is amazing how close those old Sci Fi book covers turned out to be. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted December 14, 2020 Share Posted December 14, 2020 Interesting ... The original poster’s link wouldn't do anything but go to a blank page. So I copy & pasted the link and when I opened it my phone locked up. When I was able to get it back up and running there was zero trace of the link or my visit to the page ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted December 14, 2020 Share Posted December 14, 2020 Gidday, I'm not much into Sci-fi and rockets and such but I do remember Fireball XL-5. As a kid I loved it, now over half a century ago. (I wish I didn't put it quite like that. 😁) I remember how the spacecraft took off and landed. It took off horizontally, mounted on a trolley on a gantry of sorts, hurtling down the gantry to gain speed. The gantry was horizontal until the end, where it was built up a small hill, allowing the spaceship to become airborne and climb. It would land vertically but in a horizontal aspect, back onto the trolley that had been returned to the start position, ready for the next launch. RN ship buffs might relate to this. During the Falklands war in 1982 how did the Harriers take off from the RN carriers? Almost exactly the same way. I've often wondered if whoever thought of the ski-ramp (a RN captain?) used to watch this show as a kid. And from what I've seen above are you thinking of Fireball XL-5 or some other show, such as Thunderbirds? Just thought I'd ask. Regards, Jeff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Morris Posted December 15, 2020 Share Posted December 15, 2020 My heart would be a Fire ball do do do-do, a Fire ball do do do-do .......... 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Mc Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 On 14/12/2020 at 05:54, ArnoldAmbrose said: Gidday, I'm not much into Sci-fi and rockets and such but I do remember Fireball XL-5. As a kid I loved it, now over half a century ago. (I wish I didn't put it quite like that. 😁) I remember how the spacecraft took off and landed. It took off horizontally, mounted on a trolley on a gantry of sorts, hurtling down the gantry to gain speed. The gantry was horizontal until the end, where it was built up a small hill, allowing the spaceship to become airborne and climb. It would land vertically but in a horizontal aspect, back onto the trolley that had been returned to the start position, ready for the next launch. RN ship buffs might relate to this. During the Falklands war in 1982 how did the Harriers take off from the RN carriers? Almost exactly the same way. I've often wondered if whoever thought of the ski-ramp (a RN captain?) used to watch this show as a kid. And from what I've seen above are you thinking of Fireball XL-5 or some other show, such as Thunderbirds? Just thought I'd ask. Regards, Jeff. The technique of using a horizontal rail for the initial phase of a rocket launch was first put forward in the late 1930s by Eugene Sanger and Irene Bredt with their proposed Sanger-Bredt spaceplane. Although it was a madly ambitious proposal for the time, being in Nazi Germany, they did actually get funding to look into the proposal. The project went so far as having models made for supersonic wind tunnel testing. The justification for the project was that they claimed it could be used to skip glide its way across the Atlantic, with most of the flight outside the atmosphere, and, when it made it to New York, drop a bomb, and then skip glide its way around the rest of the world until it re-entered the atmosphere and landed in friendly territory - possibly Japan or occupied Russia. It was a mad idea and was eventually cancelled. There were lots of aspects of the Sanger-Bredt spaceplane that were highly dubious. For a start, in the early 1940s, the effects of atmospheric heating on a body were not well understood so I expect that this object would have burned up as it hopped its way around the world, dipping in and out of the atmosphere at over 12,000 mph. The rocket rail launch was also dubious. I've never read anything about the types of speeds that would be achieved by the time the craft left the rail. I would expect it should have been around 1,000 mph at least. I think keeping it on the rail at that sped would have been rather dodgy. Like a lot of German rocket engineers, Bredt and Sanger ended up in the USA after the war where they worked on spaceplane projects for Bell Aircraft. Although the rocket rail idea was not pursued, other aspects of their work was incorporated into the Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar project and, indirectly, into the later Space Shuttle. Hollywood and TV liked the idea of a rocket rail launch as it looks dramatic. A rocket rail system was used by the spacecraft in the movie "When Worlds Collide" and, of course, in "Fireball XL5". 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 Gidday Eric, I never knew all that, thanks for the info. Regards, Jeff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Britman Posted August 9, 2021 Share Posted August 9, 2021 Does anybody know of a Starship kit? I am well aware that it is changing almost by the week, but a baseline model could be useful. Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Lambess Posted August 10, 2021 Share Posted August 10, 2021 There are 3 d printed ones on the bay of e 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SallysDad Posted January 7, 2022 Share Posted January 7, 2022 I would love to see a Fireball XL-5 model made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bentwaters81tfw Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 On 07/01/2022 at 01:49, SallysDad said: I would love to see a Fireball XL-5 model made. Your wish is my command. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkSH Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 I've just started modelling my own take on XL5 for a 3d print: 8 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junglierating Posted January 21, 2022 Share Posted January 21, 2022 On 1/7/2022 at 2:16 PM, Beermonster1958 said: It does look a bit like a very fat Fireball XL5! For those of you unfamiliar with said spacecraft, here's a little reminder of a true classic. Wonder what happened to all those rocket sleds though!! Must be hundreds of them lying at the foot of that cliff! 😉😂 Blinking sight better than whatever Mr Musk is up to....dont trust him an inch ....especially after the way he conducted himself during that cave rescue.....not that clever.I shut up now before I get a good talking to. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maginot Posted February 15, 2022 Share Posted February 15, 2022 Quote You have to be a certain age to remember Fireball XL5, but Elon Musk's Starship XN8 looks awfully similar. Or is it just me? I can see the resemblance. It kinda looks like a toy to my eye. Well I'm of that age. Fireball XL5 was probably my favourite Anderson series as it came along at just the right developmental stage; I was seven. I had a sixth-grade teacher who was the spitting image of Professor Matthew Mattic. He even laughed like a puppet (with his lower mandible), though that was a rare event. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SallysDad Posted March 8, 2023 Share Posted March 8, 2023 On 1/11/2022 at 12:33 PM, MarkSH said: I've just started modelling my own take on XL5 for a 3d print: How is this model coming along? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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