Russian Space Shuttles

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It should perhaps be remembered that the international space station continues to be crew-supplied by Russian rocket technology. Namely the Soyuz M-04 atop the Soyuz FG Launch Vehicle --- itself a living descendant of the cold war R-7 series
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-7_(rocket_family)
800px-Soyuz_TMA-3_launch.jpg


and the famous Korolev Cross after the famous Russian Rocket pioneer

https://youtu.be/Uf1Wu1BT5jo
[YOUTUBE HD]Uf1Wu1BT5jo[/YOUTUBE HD]
 
Interesting. The Russians did not normally copy the American designs when it came to aerospace, but it seems they did on this occasion. It looks identical to the NASA shuttle.
 
Trump leaked the designs to them MJ.

Or, maybe they had the same financier who didn't want to take a the risk inherent in two separate designs - Rothschild.
 
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Interesting. The Russians did not normally copy the American designs when it came to aerospace,

Maybe they didn't do it as obviously after the embarrassingly familiar Tu-4.


but it seems they did on this occasion. It looks identical to the NASA shuttle.

I think to be fair that the shuttle design is so driven by the difficulties of energy management, materials, and its operating environment(s) that somebody starting a clean sheet design today would likely end up with something that looked remarkably familiar.
 
It should perhaps be remembered that the international space station continues to be crew-supplied by Russian rocket technology.

If I am not mistaken, the American space rockets (apart from Elon Musk's SpaceX) use Russian-built engines too.
 
Maybe they didn't do it as obviously after the embarrassingly familiar Tu-4.




I think to be fair that the shuttle design is so driven by the difficulties of energy management, materials, and its operating environment(s) that somebody starting a clean sheet design today would likely end up with something that looked remarkably familiar.

More like Branson's machine to be honest, this is a clear case of Trump at work.
 
Some more info on them here...
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'Conkordski' was another one I believe, crashed and burned long before the original one did. Twice.

The basic aerodynamics were driven by the aerodynamics and engineering of the time.

However looking at the two programmes - Concorde was developed as an actual functioning airliner with ambition to be used commercially - and addressed a lot of the detailed problems -even if it failed commercially. The TU-144 was a rather less developed beast and never really a commercial proposition. However at the time the TU-144 was effectively being promoted as a faster and superior competitor.

NASA hired a TU-144 for research 20 years ago as a flying laboratory for supersonic research. It was still a unique aircraft - capable of sustained supersonic cruise - with room for passengers and instrumentation.
 
Maybe they didn't do it as obviously after the embarrassingly familiar Tu-4.

There have certainly been some that appear to be 'inspired by' certain Western aircraft (or at least their main design features), but the Tu-4 is the only direct copy I can think of. There have been a few licensed ones though e.g. the Li-2, which was essentially a DC-3.
 
Mostly innovation came from the West while imitation came from the East, but there were expensions:

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Mostly innovation came from the West while imitation came from the East, but there were expensions:

The carrier Kiev was the first VSTOL carrier. Predates the British developments.

The 'Alfa' class submarines were a huge effort in terms of titanium hull construction, reactor technology, and automation.

I think what they were missing was the commercial base economy to feed the military part. If you were a UK civilian or military designer in the 70s and 80s you had a huge pool of off-the-shelf components and technologies to choose from. You could import stuff from other western countries easily. During that period the UK and US also had militarised computers but the specialist processors and technologies were often superceded by commercial based alternatives by the 90s..

I think that meant for the Soviet economy to make anything new or novel they had a smaller base of off-the-shelf stuff to get them started.
 
Interestingly, the "side-effect" of the Buran programme - then (still?) the largest cargo plane in the world - Mriya An-225 - designed to carry their shuttle, is still going:

800px-Antonov_An-225_with_Buran_at_Le_Bourget_1989_Manteufel.jpg
 
Fascinating subject.
Saw a great documentary not that long ago about the Russian space programme It included the Buran.
Nuts that they are just sat gathering dust in that hanger in the middle of nowhere.
 

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