U.S. Air Force Reusable Space Shuttle: The Triamese by Convair

Triamese reusable space transportation system has attractive operational capability and significantly reduced operational cost, The concept has been named Triamese, since it uses three virtually identical elements to deliver its payload to orbit, Each element is a rocket powered, vertical takeoff, horizontal landing, reusable vehicle. Good subsonic performance, attained by variable geometry wings, coupled with the use of turbofan engines provides a cruise capability which enhances both operational and logistics activities. Two of the vehicle elements operate as boosters from liftoff to a staging velocity of about 8,000 - fps, after which they decelerate and fly subsonically to a suitable landing site. The orbital elements, complete with payload, then accelerates to low earth orbit. Prior to staging, the rocket engines of all three elements are operating with propellants from
the booster elements.

[Boeing-I-hsgj]

Well I'm amazed to finally see the Triamese getting its own CGI animation to Space and back.

[Zerepzerreitug]

Loved the time lapse sequence with the crawler at the beginning. Makes it feel much more real and grounded (no pun intended).

[Cruiserfrank]

Many of the models of Convair's space project proposals (from the Atlas space station to this) ended up on display at the San Diego Aerospace Museum in Balboa Park. Sadly, most of it was lost when an arsonist burned the museum to the ground in 1978.

[Skoran]

Never heard of this concept, such a cool design. Amazing video as always.

[datathunderstorm]

You’ve done it again Hazegrayart 😊. Another amazing concept brought to life - so realistic, you’d think this actually happened! They look like oversized X-37 Shuttles. Loved the wing deployments AFTER reentry 🤓👍🏾

[Seminal_Ideas]

Really enjoyed this one. I particularly liked the crowd's reaction when the two boosters separated. Well done in making these truly fascinating glimpses into an alternative space program.

[tsr]

Excellent video concept - as others have mentioned the MUSTARD concept in 1960s by BAC followed the same principles !

[lewismassie]

Fun thing about this design, NASA knew the optimal staging velocity for a reusable design was 10, 000 feet per second (~3km/s) however this design staged at 8, 000 ft/s (~2.4km/s) which shows you how using a common airframe design made the two booster designs somewhat undersized, even when putting fuel into the payload section and using crossfeed.

So why was this persued? Well the 10k ft/s is for optimising the size of your hardware, assuming that you're building different craft. The commonality leads to a huge saving here so it's not so bad

[stuartyoung]

This may be Hazegrayart's best video yet!
I always thought that this was a practical design for the Shuttle: almost identical form-factors for side boosters and orbiter - a flat belly would have made the job of heat tile replacement MUCH quicker - and swing-wings and jet engines for less drama when landing.
The USAF would NEVER have approved it, though: not enough cross-range for the proposed missions out of Vandenberg AFB (now SFB).

[mattbrewster]

Beautiful! Now, try depicting the British HOTOL cobcept- in which both a manned booster and orbiter are launched HORIZONTALLY!

[vf-tomcatters]

space planes are one of the weirdest but one of the best parts if aerospace

[Humuku]

Nice ambient sound and marks of reuse. 👍🏻 As always must have been an insane amount of work,

[CalvinMaclure]

Can you even imagine what this would have looked like irl?? Bonkers!

[macsteed]

Animation is great. Working prototype is a dream

[michaelgautreaux]

Neat enough. Spotted 5 issues that need attention but neat enough. 👍👍 Many thanx.

[UDJ]

The timing of the audio with the booster sep was a great touch.

[AndrewDasilvaPLT]

Haze, you're getting so good at this! I'm proud of you!

[wm]

I never heard of this concept. Thank you very well done!

[enzofitzhume]

"We need that shuttle mighty bad!'

[АндрейБытин-чш]

Не плохая конфигурация, имеет право на жизнь .