Aug 082012
 

A 1963-vintage NASA illustration of the NERVA nuclear rocket engine. This is schematic only, depicting the main components of the nuclear engine. Not labeled are the two vernier thrusters; these take the otherwise wasted hydrogen exhaust from the turbopump and direct it more or less aft for some additional thrust. Further, they could, unlike the main engine, gimbal; this would provide a measure of thrust vectoring.

 

 Posted by at 4:57 pm
Aug 062012
 

NOW AVAILABLE: PACKFILE NO.2 “GERMAN ROCKET PLANES”
the latest from Justo Miranda, 180 pages including three-view 1/72 scale drawings of 98 airplanes together with a brief history and technical data (English text).

Arado Ar 234 R(a)
Arado Ar 234 R(b)
Arado E 381/I
Arado E 381/II
Arado E 381/III
Arado TEW 16/43-13
Arado TEW 16/43-15
Bachem Ba 349 A “Natter”
Bachem Ba 349 A-1 “Natter”
Bachem Ba 349 B “Natter
Blohm und Voss BV 40
Blohm und Voss BV P.178
Von Braun Interceptor (Stage I)
Von Braun Interceptor (Stage II)
DFS 194
DFS 228
DFS 230
DFS 332
DFS 346
DFS “Rammer”
EMW/A4b
EMW A9/A10
EMW A6
Espenlaub/Valier “Rak 3”
Espenlaub EA-1
Espenlaub E-15
Fieseler Fi 166 “Höhenjäger I”
Fieseler Fi 166 “Höhenjäger II”
Focke Wulf  P.011.001 (PV)
Focke Wulf  Ta 183 Ra-1
Focke Wulf P IV
Focke Wulf P VII “Flitzer”
Focke Wulf Ta 283
Focke Wulf Fw 250 “Super Lorin”
Focke Wulf “Triebflügel”
Focke Wulf “Volksjäger”
Focke Wulf “Rammjäger”
“Frau im Mond” Lunar Rocket
Gotha Go 345
Gotha “Rammer”
Heinkel He 112 V3
Heinkel He 176 V1
Heinkel He 176 V2
Heinkel He P.1077 “Julia I”
Heinkel He P.1077 “Julia II”
Horten HoXIIIB
Junkers EF-127 “Dolly”
Junkers EF.127 A “Wally”
Lippisch “Ente”
Lippisch/Fritz von Opel Rak 1929
Lippisch P01-113
Lippisch P01-114
Lippisch P01-115
Lippisch P01-116
Lippisch P01-117
Lippisch P01-118
Lippisch P01-119
Lippisch P05 (August 1941)
Lippisch P09 (May 1942)
Lippisch P11 (September 1942)
Lippisch P11 (December 1942)
Lippisch DM-1
Lippisch DM-1 (NACA #8)
Lippisch DM-2
Lippisch DM-3
Lippisch P.13a Entwurf I
Lippisch P.13a Entwurf II
Lippisch P.13a Entwurf III
Messerschmitt Me 163 A
Messerschmitt Me 163 B-1
Messerschmitt Me 163 C
Messerschmitt Me 263/Ju 248
Messerschmitt Me 262 C-1a “Heimatschützer I”
Messerschmitt Me 262 C-1b “Heimatschützer II”
Messerschmitt Me 262 C-3a “Heimatschützer III”
Messerschmitt Me 262 “Interceptor”
Messerschmitt Me 262 HG III Entwurf III
Messerschmitt Me P1092B
Messerschmitt Me P1103 (6 July 1944)
Messerschmitt Me P1103 (6 July 1944)
Messerschmitt Me P1103 (12 Setp 1944)
Messerschmitt Me P1104 (10 Aug 1944)
Messerschmitt Me P1104 (22 Sept 1944)
Messerschmitt Me P1103 B
Messerschmitt Me P1106 R
Opel-Saunders/Hatry “Rak-1”
Sänger Rocket Plane 1931
Sänger Bredt Rocket Bomber 1943
Siebel Mistel Projekt Entwurf I
Siebel Mistel Projekt Entwurf II
Sombold So.344
Valier Rocket Airplane Type 1
Valier Rocket Airplane Type 2
Valier Rocket Airplane Type 3
Valier Rocket Airplane Type 4
Valier RF-1
Zeppelin “Fliegende Panzerfaust”
Zeppelin “Rammer”


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Packfile #2 can be purchased as a downloadable 100 megabyte PDF for $24.

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Be sure to check out the rest of Justo Mirandas publications HERE.

 Posted by at 8:52 pm
Aug 052012
 

An artists impression of one of the fairly vast number of SST designs put forward by Boeing under the designation “733,” which predated the “2707″ designation. This one features angular delta wings and delta canards… and apparently no passenger windows. Dates from the early 1960′s.

A higher rez of this is available HERE.

 Posted by at 10:13 pm
Aug 022012
 

A reproduction of admittedly dismal quality of a Martin Co. painting of their December 1958 Dyna Soar configuration at launch. This configuration, the product of a team-up of Martin and Bell, competed against Boeing (and other companies) and lost; what must have been grating for the Martin-Bell folks was that the Boeing design that won looked nothing like the final Dyna Soar design… which actually looked a whole lot like this vehicle.

The Dyna Soar is here being shown launched by a modified Titan I ICBM. This booster would have fallen far short of orbiting the Dyna Soar; instead it would have simply tossed it on a long hypersonic suborbital trajectory. This would have been a purely experimental aircraft, the natural follow-on to the X-15.

 Posted by at 5:01 pm
Jul 302012
 

Two very large format (one was 36X120 inches) blueprints of the Boeing 2707-300 SST were up on eBay. I bid, and lost badly. So, I won’t be scanning them and making them available, sadly.

So, in lieu of high rez scans, here’s what you get: a coupla photos.

See, this is what happens when you don’t tithe a donation to me on a  regular basis: I don’t have the funds to go nuts on the buying of neato aerospace stuff. So my assumption here is that these blueprints have been sold back to Boeing, who will store them in a deep dark place never to see the light of day again until they are fed into a shredder.

Sadly, I’m only kinda kidding.

 Posted by at 11:15 pm
Jul 302012
 

A three-view of the April 1962 configuration of General Dynamics’ TFX entry. This is very clearly the F-111, but with a few minor differences. The most obvious are the different inlets and the tail “cone.” Here, it appears that at least for the USAF version, the tail cone was meant to angle downwards… presumably forming a ventral fin to aid in stability (or perhaps aid in maneuverability).

Other design features that would change include the profiles of the dorsal and horizontal stabilizers.

 Posted by at 1:22 am
Jul 282012
 

I recently received some more cyanotyping fluid, and have been busy cranking out prints to fill a few straggling orders, and doing test runs of prints for my next set of releases. Several from the first run have sold zero; a few sold as many as four (Oh yeah, ladies, I’m all that). So for the next set, I’d like to get an idea in advance what will be more popular, so I can make more of those.  If you see something here that really appeals to you, comment and let me know.

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A set of three NASA diagrams of the Space Shuttle showing heat shielding. This will be sold *only* as a full set of three, for $25. If this isn’t popular, then I’ll be really confused.

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Here are:

Nuclear Turbojet, XMA-1A, exploded view. Kind of a pain to produce, so this will be $12.50.

Dyna Soar Characteristics Summary. I did this one just as a test to see if it looked at all good, and I think it does. I have a whole bunch of Standard Aircraft Characteristics sheets that I think would look good… if the idea appeals, set three may have a bunch. $10.

F-82 cutaway artwork. I think it looks *fantastic.* $10.

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Ganswindt’s Weltenfahrzeug from the turn of the last century. Sort of a dynamite-powered Orion. $10.

NEXUS with gas-core nuclear upper stage engines. $10

Super-NEXUS with gas-core nuclear engines and a million pounds of *lunar* payload. $10. I have several more NEXUS-derived designs if these are popular.

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Early Dyna Soar atop clustered Minuteman booster artwork. $10.

XMA-1A nuclear turbojet illustration. $10.

Model 54 CAMAL nuclear-powered missile carrier three-view. $10.

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Bell SR-126 “bomber missile” illustrations. $10 each or $17.50 for the set.

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ICARUS illustrations. $10 each or $17.50 for the pair.

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If any of these are of interest, let me know.

 Posted by at 12:34 am
Jul 272012
 

While the December 1961 configuration of General Dynamics’ TFX proposal was quite different from what was actually built as the F-111, the April 1962 configuration was quite close, though still not final. This diagram shows both designs. The most obvious changes are for positioning of the wings further forward, and the substantial increase in size of the horizontal stabilizers.

 Posted by at 11:48 pm
Jul 252012
 

The F-111 was one of those aircraft for which a *vast* number of designs were put forth. While General Dynamics won the contract, they went through a long design development for their final design. As of December 1961, the design was clearly *almost* the F-111 as it would eventually be built, but not quite:

 Posted by at 9:35 pm