We’ve made a habit a while now of tracking the exploits of an animation specialist called Hazegrayart. That’s because thanks to their efforts, we get to experience, at least visually, rockets and kinds of spacecraft that for one reason or another never got to be made in the real world.
Hazegrayart usually deals with civilian space vehicle concepts, meaning the ones meant to take humanity beyond the natural borders of their planet. Occasionally, we also get to experience never-made airplanes, most of them also meant for civilians. But this time, we’re faced with something a lot more destructive.
Enter the Lenticular Reentry Vehicle (LRV), allegedly a 1960s concept designed by North American Aviation (famous makers of military icons like the P-51 Mustang, F-86 Sabre, and B-1 Lancer) with a single goal in mind: deliver nuclear warheads.
Described in the official documentation as an offensive weapons system, the thing was supposed to be a flying-disc contraption that could be transported to low-Earth orbit by means of a rocket. Once it orbit, the UFO-like machine would release its deadly cargo of nuclear warheads upon the heads of unsuspecting enemies.
As per the specs of the LRV, as revealed by Popular Mechanics after a Freedom of Information Act request, the thing was supposed to be 40-feet (12 meters) in diameter, and shaped like half a saucer, with a flat rear where the engines would be located. Six people would have been capable to fly in the LRV, raining death from above before heading back to Earth once more.
At the time of writing, it’s not clear how far along in developing such a nuclear warhead delivery system the company got. Officially, it never came to be, and to a greater extent (and also officially) no nation on this Earth has the ability to transport nukes to space and drop them from there.
Enter the Lenticular Reentry Vehicle (LRV), allegedly a 1960s concept designed by North American Aviation (famous makers of military icons like the P-51 Mustang, F-86 Sabre, and B-1 Lancer) with a single goal in mind: deliver nuclear warheads.
Described in the official documentation as an offensive weapons system, the thing was supposed to be a flying-disc contraption that could be transported to low-Earth orbit by means of a rocket. Once it orbit, the UFO-like machine would release its deadly cargo of nuclear warheads upon the heads of unsuspecting enemies.
As per the specs of the LRV, as revealed by Popular Mechanics after a Freedom of Information Act request, the thing was supposed to be 40-feet (12 meters) in diameter, and shaped like half a saucer, with a flat rear where the engines would be located. Six people would have been capable to fly in the LRV, raining death from above before heading back to Earth once more.
At the time of writing, it’s not clear how far along in developing such a nuclear warhead delivery system the company got. Officially, it never came to be, and to a greater extent (and also officially) no nation on this Earth has the ability to transport nukes to space and drop them from there.