Giant transport project from 1950's

Originally posted by waynos
Orionblamblam -the source of the original pictures I used was the Book 'Stuck on the Drawing Board'

Ah, goody. Thanks; order now placed.

Originally posted by waynos
Could you post some information on the two pictures you posted? For example the first one looks very much like a Boeing but when does it date from and what is the story behind it?

The prop-plane was the Seversky Super Clipper, designed to meet a (basically fraudulent) 1937 Pan Am requirement. The interior, to judge from the numerous artists impressions, was to have been quite spectacular. This competed against, among others, the Boeing Model 326 Super Clipper, of much more conventional flying boat layout.

The other design is the *other* Boeing Super Clipper, dating from the mid-1990's, prior to Boeing buying out McDonnell-Douglas. McD came with the Blended Wing Body concept; but prior to that, Boeing was studyign the "C-Wing" concept. The largest expression of that was the monster design shown which used 747 fuselages as the smaller sponsons.

Really quite interesting designs, the lot of 'em.

other big ideas, this time from Russia...
Beriev Be5000


Beriev Be2500


Beriev ll-600

Don't forget the old Russian WIG, "Caspian Sea Monster"

Oh they're mightily impressive and I do like them but they're not the same.

The Saro project I started this thread with was supposed to cruise with 1,000 passengers at 40,000ft, not skim over the waves (even though that might well have proved to be all it was capable of! )

Whilst I am reviewing some of my older threads I thought some of our more recent members might be interested in viewing this one, esp after emile posted his thread about that russian large transport (which I love by the way!)

Originally posted by waynos
Yes , I'm just about to amend the specs with some further figures I have discovered

Damn, I can't. I'll just have to add them here;

[edit on 13-3-2006 by waynos]

If you want specs or something fixed and its your original post on your thread I have every once in a while tried talking to a mod to update the first post as the edit function is only allowed on your latest posting.

Its a pretty radical concept! Personally though safety is a huge issue for myself as wouldn't there be times that a water takeoff is much more dangerous then a solid runway? And the Russian designs that are sea skimmers of sort or hydrofoil worry be cause you woun't want to get high by a tall wave thats for sure. How effective is the ground effect/water effect, as in how high can you get above the surface in a giant like that!

Very interesting post and discussions!

Speaking of large (giant) transports, I acquired some photos after the death of a great-uncle of mine who served in North Africa during WW2. He took some not-so great pics at an unknown axis airfield that shows various ac including a wrecked Me-363 "Gigant" transport. Also some Italian bombers and an intact Fw-190A. I've wanted to post these pics but have not due to time and lack of how-to .

I've have thought the Gigant was an interesting plane and still somewhat impressive even today IMHO.

Yes it was impressive. Even more so that it was originally a glider (Me 321), the engines were added later (Me 323).

Somewhat less impressive however was the time a Tiger drove up the ramp and then crashed through the wooden floor to find itself back on the ground again leaving the injured Gigant rendered immoveable.