Aug 312008
 

Photos of a diagram from 1967, showing a proposed variant of the C-119, a “gunboat.” While heavily armed C-119 gunships were built and flew missions in Viet Nam, this gunboat differed in being rather more heavily armed than normal. Three 20mm M61A1 Gatling guns and three 7.62mm MXU-470/A Gatling guns projected from the port side, and one of each projected from the starboard. The reason for that is murky, to say the least… beacuse if the plane was banked so that the port guns could lay fire on a ground target, the starboard guns would be pointed up into the sky.

The plane was also heavily armored and equipped with flares.

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Click the title below for larger-format version.

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 Posted by at 4:31 pm
Aug 312008
 

When North American Aviation got hold of some of the swag the US Army got from wartime Germany, one of the first things they proposed doign with it was taking the V-2 rocket, adding wings and ramjets, and making a cruise missile out of it. This eventually turned into the Navaho; but early on it really did look like a V2 (or the V-2’s smaller cousin, the Wasserfall) with ramjets nailed to it. This is a cutaway of one such early concept…

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 Posted by at 2:20 pm
Aug 262008
 

Still stuck in crappy, distant, mosquito-infested WiFi mode. However, I called ComCast (they seem to have a monopoly here) to get me hooked up with high speed net access. I called about 3 hours ago. Was told they’d call back within an hour to schedule a day and time to hook up whatever the hell it is they need to hook up.  As I said… three hours ago. Still waiting. From everything I’ve read, this is pretty par for the course with ComCast, the company that just doesn’t care.

http://cache.consumerist.com/assets/resources/whatdoescqereallymean.pps 

 Posted by at 7:59 pm
Aug 232008
 

I’ve moved in to my “permant” apartment out here. Sadly, WiFi connection is spotty at best, so updates and such my be fewer and further between.

 Posted by at 7:07 pm
Aug 212008
 

I’ve gotten a photo of a print run of the Space Park model in 1/9700. One part was broken off the sprue, so they’re going to run it again. From what I can see, it’s certainly accurate to the CAD model (visible here), and quality looks pretty good… though the photo is blurry. I will report further when I get the final working version, which I will clean up and tinker with slightly.

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 Posted by at 10:20 pm
Aug 202008
 

About 1989, my father and I went to the Dayton Air Show. While there I took some crappy photos of the “V333 SkyCat,” a mockup of a tiltrotor aircraft. More on the aircraft (though not a lot more) can be found here, and a recent photo is available here. The vehicle never flew, though it did look pretty good.

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 Posted by at 11:25 pm
Aug 182008
 

This was the view from, of all places, a rest stop. The wind was blowing like mad, which seems to be the norm in Wyoming. That was the sort of place that makes me wish I was flying again, so I could see the place from above (but not too high above… the best flying is the kind where you have to keep an eye out for trees and such). Well, perhaps in a month or so…

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 Posted by at 9:53 pm