The actors *really* capture smugness turned up to 11.
Jul 042017
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Jul 042017
Around 1960, the USAF had high hopes for the development of ASP: “AeroSpace Plane.” ASP was a program to develop an airbreather one- or two-stage-to-orbit spaceplane. The first stage would use some form of Liquid Air Cycle Engine; the inlet would be actively cooled by the liquid hydrogen fuel so that the incoming air would be condensed to liquid, which would allow the liquified air to be stored and fed into high chamber pressure rocket engines. ASP was extremely ambitious, and obviously – since no airbreathing system has made it to orbit (not counting simple turbojet-powered aircraft carrying otherwise conventional rockets such as Pegasus) – it did not work. A fair chunk of change was spent on the concept, but it faded away after a few years. The basic idea of ASP would arise a quarter century later with NASP, to similar levels of success.
A good, well-illustrated article on ASP was published some time back in issue v2N5 of Aerospace Projects Review.
Most of the known ASP designs were produced by Convair. It seems that Convair jumped into the program with both feet, producing not only detailed diagrams of a whole range of vehicles but also artwork and display models. And the latter category included some beautiful see-through models made from Plexiglas. It shows some interior details such as the complex plumbing of the Liquid Air Cycle Engines, as well as the winged second stage tucked into the lower fuselage of the very large hypersonic first stage. In an era long before computer animation, models such a this would be very useful in illustrating complex concepts to customers and bosses.
I have uploaded the full-rez version of this photo to the 2017-07 APR Extras Dropbox folder, available to all APR Patrons at the $4 level and above. If you are interested in accessing these and other aerospace historical goodies, consider signing up for the APR Patreon.
Jul 042017
Sometimes it’s really, really hard to tell the difference between over-the-top satire and what left wing extremists actually believe.
Beyond Pro-Choice: The Solution to White Supremacy is White Abortion
White women: it is time to do your part! Your white children reinforce the white supremacist society that benefits you. If you claim to be progressive, and yet willingly birth white children by your own choice, you are a hypocrite. White women should be encouraged to abort their white children, and to use their freed-up time and resources to assist women of color who have no other choice but to raise their children.
If you take a look at some of the other articles there, it’s almost certain that the site is a hoax/troll site, written by anti-SJW’s from the point of view of SJW extremists (a point of view that seems to be backed up by the advertisements that litter the website, ads that SJW’s would pop a gasket at). If you search for references to this specific article on Google, though, you’ll see a *lot* of people enraged by it. So I guess it worked; if the site makes its money from the ads, then this article is going to make them a mint.
But the thing is, as whackadoodle as the article is, it’s not really something that you can’t see SJWs actually advocating.
Jul 032017
You might not think that dropping a bomb from underneath an airplane would be that big a deal… just release the thing and down it goes. Guess what: at 500miles an hour, wind blows *hard.* And it can blow in unexpected directions when it’s bending around complex contours.
Jul 032017
Probably the spiffiest video of rockets landing you’ll see today:
Jul 032017
This has been discussed for a while:
US planning to create ‘Space Corps’ as sixth branch of armed forces
Basically, the current space-warfare functions of the USAF would be split off onto their own, in kind of the same way that the USAF was split off from the US Army shortly after WWII (though it seems the USSC would still be a part of the USAF). The reason for this would be to cement space warfare capabilities and funding; right now the Air Force could in principle take all the money needed for Space Project XYZ and divert it into a trillion-dollar effort to replace the F-35’s cup holders. If the USSC actually came about – and there’s every reason to doubt that it’ll actually happen, what with the whole idea being to kick over some current political fiefdoms – then it would have its own budget that couldn’t be raided for fighters or bombers or the like.
While I’d love to see the USSC come about and promptly start patrolling the spaceplanes with Enterprise-class 4,000 ton Orion battlecruisers, the reality is that the USSC would largely spend most of its time futzing around with satellites and whatnot. However, if the USSC comes along, has assured political independence and a good budget… perhaps the US military might finally start doing what it should have been doing since the 1960’s: setting up bases on the moon, sending military recon missions to Mars, weaponizing asteroids, that sort of thing. We shall see.
Jul 022017
Currently available on ebay is a 1955-vintage Jeep complete with a Davy Crockett 120mm recoiless gun. It’s a little unclear whether the weapon system is entirely authentic or if some (or all) of it was built from scratch for the restoration. The M388 warhead is clearly a reproduction.
Original Military Jeep M38A1D, Atomic Cannon, Davey Crocket 120 mm Gun
Jul 012017
A USAF film from the early 60’s showing some of the things the Air Force was doing to prepare for spaceflight. Parachute tests, ejection seats, various acceleration tests are shown. At about 3:30 several cats are shown in an aircraft doing zero-g maneuvers. The cats are obviously not happy about this. In general, taking cats along on a zero-g flight is something I’m not opposed to… humans living in space are undoubtedly going to take pets with them, and it’d be good to figure out what species can handle what. But the cats obviously are confused, having no idea whatsoever what’s going on… and the humans are having too much fun screwing with them.
Jul 012017
Multnomah County Republicans Formally Allow Militia Groups to Run Security
The GOP in Multnomah county, Oregon, have decided to let volunteers from the “Three Percenters” and “Oath Keepers” groups provide security (*not*, as the headline suggests, “run” security).
Even if the security operations run completely professionally, smoothly and without incident, expect this sort of news to drive lefties bonkers. However, I won’t be the least bit surprised if there are some interesting incidents here. Multnomah county includes Portland, Oregon, a current hotbed of left-wing radicalism and violence, such as the thuggish fascists of the Antifa movement.
Jul 012017
Where we learn the importance of proper signage.