XB-58 Pods

 aircraft, history, nukes, projects, weapons  No Responses »
Mar 062021
 

From well before the B-58 program began, the Convair designers intended for their four-engined supersonic bomber to have a relatively gigantic pod underneath containing fuel and a nuke. The illustration below shows an early B-58 concept with the outboard engine nacelles located above the wing, together with a collection of potential bomb/fuel pods. “Freefall” contains an H-bomb; “Ferret” is electronic intelligence gathering; photo recon is obvious; and PPB is… hmmm. Note that none of these seem to have rockets in the tail, the ferret and photo recon pods doubtless were intended to return with the aircraft rather than be dropped.

 

 Posted by at 8:03 pm

Boost-phase interceptor

 art, awesomeness, history, nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft, weapons  No Responses »
Mar 052021
 

An Aerojet concept for a boost-phase ICBM interceptor.

This would be a space-based anti-missile system composed of two high thrust solid rocket motors and a kill vehicle composed of a substantial set of optics, some impressive late 1980’s computers and most likely a hydrazine monoprop divert system. The missile would be meant to physically impact an ICBM while still being lofted by the first stage; this is an bigger, slower and brighter target than the later, faster, smaller stages and warheads, but you have to be *fast* to reach out and tag a missile in the first moments of flight.

 

 Posted by at 5:36 pm

Fleet Ballistic Missiles

 drawings, nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Mar 012021
 

From Polaris through Poseidon to Trident D-5:

Every one of those was proposed for alternate roles, from truck-towed and truck-launched land based strike missiles to air-launched and ground-launched satellite boosting systems. And they very likely *could* have done that. But they are just not really well suited for any role but sea launched ballistic missile due to the somewhat tricky propellants they use… high energy propellants so they can function adequately while still being able to fit in a small submarine. But for above-ground systems, they’d be somewhat dubious. The environment within a submarine is pretty consistent. For a missile stored in a warehouse and then hauled aloft by an airplane? The thermal and vibration environments will be highly variable.

 Posted by at 4:31 pm

Perseverance vids and images

 awesomeness, history, news, nukes, rockets, science, spacecraft, youtube  No Responses »
Feb 222021
 

A NASA press conference livestream with some interesting vids. At 11:58 to about 15:00  you can see multiple camera angles of the actual landing… on the skycrane looking down at the suspended rover, on the rover looking up at the skycrane, on the rover looking down at the surface. Various still images start at about 28:44. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was able to image the rover, the skycrane, the heat shield and the parachute scattered on the surface at 37:25… but more interestingly, a still image of the actual landing in process at 38:07, where you can see the parachutes fluttering away and the rocket exhaust scattering dust on the surface. The first audio recording from Mars is at 41:21, with a cleaned-up audio at 42:26 giving the sounds of winds on Mars. It’s not spectacular audio, but it’s better than anything produced by astrologers, gender studies majors or critical race theorists. Engineering rigor for the win. AGAIN.

Nuclear powered cars, baby!

 Posted by at 3:31 pm

Nuclear Princess Model

 aircraft, drawings, drawings&documents, history, models, nukes, projects  No Responses »
Feb 192021
 

Recently for sale on ebay was a display model of the Saro “Princess” turboprop flying boat, as Convair planned to modify it into a nuclear-powered research prototype. This late 50’s design was ballsy if nothing else: a nuclear reactor would be installed within the fuselage, providing superheated air from the reactor to the inboard above-wing modified turboprops. Unlike the NB-36H, this aircraft would have been actually powered by the reactor.

A description of the concept was written up HERE. A set of detailed diagrams are available as Air Drawing 8.

 Posted by at 8:52 pm

Perseverance almost to Mars

 Hmm..., news, nukes, rockets, science, spacecraft, youtube  No Responses »
Feb 182021
 

It will hit the Martian atmosphere at 3:55 PM eastern coastal elite/12:55 left coast time (2:55 central/1:55 mountain flyover country time). With any luck, about seven minutes later it will hit the Martian surface at a speed that doesn’t turn the rover and it’s helicopter payload into scrap.

Here’s a chatty NASA live stream:

Animation of the landing process:

 Posted by at 12:26 pm

CL-1201

 AARRRGH, aircraft, APR, drawings, Gah., history, Meh., nukes, projects, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jan 202021
 

As is known far and wide, I’m not well known. What little fame I have is largely bound up is the aerospace history research and illustration I’ve done; I’m *hoping* that when the two books I’m working on now get published things will change a bit (well, I hope my *work* gains a bit of fame; I’ve little use for *me* becoming famous). Still: while I toil in obscurity, I find that the products of my labor do have a tendency to pop up here and there. Usually when the diagrams I’ve created are used by someone else there’s some sort of attribution… but not always. There’s little to nothing that can be done about that, of course. Just sorta grit my teeth and move on.

So I watched this video, gritted my teeth and will, I suppose, move on. Note that it uses diagrams I created for Aerospace Projects Review issue V1N3 and US Transport Projects #07. What I suppose was funny was that when I started watching the video I largely *expected* to see my diagrams to show up in it… and, yup, there they are. As of this writing, the video has had about half a million views, not a one of which read where the diagrams came from.

UPDATE: After comms with the video maker: it seems he received the diagrams from someone else claiming them as their own. There have been revisions to the description including proper attribution. If this all pans out, there may be collaborations in the future.

 Posted by at 9:04 am

December 2020 APR Rewards

 aircraft, APR, history, Monthly Historical Documents Program, nukes, Patreon, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Dec 312020
 

Just released, the December 2020 rewards for APR Patrons and Subscribers. Included this month:

Diagram: a large format diagram of a Lockheed cruise missile. The designation of the missile is not given, but this looks like a SCAD design.

Document 1: Consolidated Class VB Carrier Based Bomber, from 1946

Document2: “Economic Aspects of a Reusable Single Stage To Orbit Vehicle,” a paper by Phil Bono on the ROOST launch vehicle from 1963

Document 3: “Shuttle Derived Vehicles,” a NASA-MSFC briefing to General Abrahamson from 1984

CAD Diagram: XSM-64A Navaho, the configuration that would have been built as an operational vehicle had the program gone forward

If this sort of thing is of interest, sign up either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.



 Posted by at 1:30 pm
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