“This is [a] drawing showing a large troop carrying Ithacus rocket being launched from the aft deck of a nuclear-powered carrier of the Enterprise class. Ithacus is a Douglas Aircraft Company concept of a rocket which could transport 1,200 troops or 132 tons of cargo at 17,000 mph to any point on earth. Another Ithacus is poised on the fore deck in this illustration. The carrier deck provides a floating launch pad.”
More specifically/accurately, per the always informative Astronautix website:
“The smaller "Ithacus Jr." version would have had an intercontinental cargo capability of 33.5t or 260 soldiers. Douglas proposed to launch two Ithacus Jr. vehicles from an Enterprise-class nuclear aircraft carrier, which also would have produced liquid oxygen and hydrogen propellant from seawater. Power for the electrolysis process would have been taken from the carrier's nuclear reactor: 112MW would have been required to produce 1150t of oxygen and 164t of hydrogen from 1470t of water. The rocketships would be stored inside hangars. One Ithacus Jr. would serve as a troop carrier while the other would deploy unmanned cargo to the same military site. The Ithacus Jr. vehicles would land 600 meters apart to deploy a fully armed group of 260 soldiers.”
At:
www.astronautix.com/i/ithacus.html
Even better, and it puts Mr. Bono’s concepts into orderly context. If anywhere near accurate, this is superlative actually:
“ROMBUS (Reusable Orbital Module-Booster & Utility Shuttle) was a reusable single-stage-to-orbit Vertical Take-Off Vertical Landing (VTOVL) launch vehicle proposed by Phil Bono of Douglas Aircraft Company in 1964.
Phil Bono’s ROMBUS is the basis for an entire family of aerospacecraft, including a single-stage inter-continental ballistic troop transport concept that could deliver 1,200 combat-ready men or 132 tons of equipment anywhere on Earth within 45 minutes.
Military versions of the aerospacecraft were dubbed ICARUS (Inter-Continental Aerospacecraft-Range-Unlimited-System) and subclasses of this design were Ithacus, a troop carrier, and Ithacus Jr., a military cargo and equipment transporter, which will be featured in an upcoming post.
The civilian aerospacecraft was Pegasus, a Saturn V-class intercontinental rocket capable of transporting 170-260 passengers and 13-33.5 tons of cargo at 25,000km/h, or 90 tons to a 560km Low Earth Orbit, or, alternately, transport 172 passengers and their luggage the 12,000 km from Vandenberg to Singapore in 39 minutes.”
At:
www.deviantart.com/william-black/art/Douglas-ROMBUS-47097...
Credit: William-Black/Deviant Art website
Gorgeous work by Ted Brown, a supremely talented, unheralded (as were most contractor artists of the time), and sadly/most likely, marginalized yet further.
Unfortunately, a huge LOSS this time. A wonderful tribute by Angela Carole Brown, Mr. Brown’s daughter, is no longer at the following website, which I’ve linked to in the past.
However, I believe/am hoping the current owner of the website is one in the same, as she mentions her father being an artist. Although there's no additional information provided regarding him or his contributions.
This one hurts, the wonderfully composed ‘obituary’ had additional photos, to include of the artist, and captured what the man was made of…basically, his legacy. AARGH:
www.angelacarolebrown.com/images/TedBrownObituary.pdf
See also, although not even the cS gurus knew who it was by, despite being prominently displayed - in the LCC at KSC - at least not as of 2012! It's probably no longer there, and I have a sinking feeling I won't like knowing where it now is. That is, if anyone even knows:
www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum9/HTML/002211.html
Credit: collectSPACE website
thedisneyblog.com/2012/06/21/ksc-tour-now-has-rare-access...
Credit: The Disney Blog website
With sincerest gratitude Mr. Brown. Rest In Peace. I’m sorry.
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