Comments on: Amazing Turbine-Rocket to Explore Outer Space (Dec, 1931)

By: Randy Campbell

Randy Campbell — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 19:56:44 +0000

jayessell wrote:
“And putting turbines behind a rocket motor would be a HUGE waste of energy, a major increase in mass and absolutely useless in space.”

Note the point was not to use the turbine/propellers in SPACE but to use them low in the atmosphere where they WOULD be more efficent than the rocket motor itself.

It’s not a bad idea at all though we’d use the turbine to turn a compressor fan for a jet-type engine rather than propellers. The idea is in fact named an “Air-Turbo-Rocket” several types of which have been used in missile and test aircraft propulsion systems.

Randy

By: Jaxman

Jaxman — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 16:02:17 +0000

Lol.. still its a cool concept for a hybrid ship;looks funny and is out there but hey the stuff of steampunk is wrought.

By: jayessell

jayessell — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 13:56:38 +0000

To us in the 21st century, the omission of radio relays in the ‘meteor islands’ is incomprehensible.

65 mile high orbits?
Did scientists belive the atmospheric pressure dropped lineerally rather than logarithicmicly?
(Am I correct?)

Ha! Mechanical television! Paging Mr. Farnsworth!
What? No clouds on earth?

By: Stannous

Stannous — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 05:28:06 +0000

A few mistakes-
At 3,000 mph you’d never break free of the earth to get to the moon.
Werner von Braun’s idea of multi-stage rockets cut back greatly on the necessary fuel.
The elimination of night would play havoc with plant and animal life.
And putting turbines behind a rocket motor would be a HUGE waste of energy, a major increase in mass and absolutely useless in space.
But the Soviet idea of a TV in space would rock the world when finally made real.