The future of aviation: lighter than air airships. Uh-huh, yep, this time for sure.
Mar 222022
Mar 062022
A few more items I’ve recently paid for that will appear on the APR Patreon/Monthly Historical Documents Program catalog:
1) General Dynamics report “Technical Proposal for Advanced Exhaust Nozzle System Concepts,” 1977 designs for advanced fighters
2) “NASA Aeronautics,” 1974
3) NASA Facts – “The Jupiter Pioneers”
4) “Cessna EV-37E STOL” report, 1964
5) Cessna 407A: report on the proposed but unbuilt 407A transport derivative of the T-37
6) Cessna AT-37E STOL: report on attack variant
7) Cessna YAT-37D counter-insurgency airplane report
Also purchased were a large number of vintage “Space World,” “Aviation News” and “Interavia” magazines for research and “Extras” purposes.
If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, along with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program. Back issues are available for purchase by patrons and subscribers.
Mar 052022
Yeesh, I am *terrible* at advertising. Just realized I missed reporting on *several* months worth of rewards packages for APR patrons and Monthly Historical Documents program subscribers.
December 2021 rewards:
Document: “B-52G Advanced Configuration Mockup inspection,” Boeing presentation on the design of the then-new B-52G configuration
Document: “Performance Potential Hydrogen Fueled, Airbreathing Cruise Aircraft, Final report, Volume I, Summary” 1966 Convair report on hydrogen fueled hypersonic jetliners
Document: “Integral Launch and Reentry Logistics System” late-60’s Space Division of North American Rockwell presentation on very early Space Shuttle-type systems
Art: Large format McDonnell Douglas DC-10 cutaway
CAD Diagram: Convair MA-1 pod for B-58
January 2022 rewards:
Document: “The Configuration of the European Spaceplane Hermes,” 1990 conference paper on the unbuilt French spaceplane
Document: “Space Rescue Charts,” 1965 USAF presentation charts describing space “life rafts” and shelters
Document: Two nuclear-powered car brochures… Ford “Gyron” and Ford “Seattle-ite XXI”
Diagram: “AGM28 Hound Dog Missile,” North American Aviation informational graphic
CAD Diagram: Boeing MX-1965 missile
February 2022 Rewards:
Diagram: Boeing 720-022 model diagram, United Airlines configuration
Document: Aerojet Ordnance Company brochure, describes aircraft ammo
Document: “The Nova (Liquid) Vehicle a Preliminary Project Development Plan,” October 1961 NASA-MSFC report on facilities planning for the “Saturn C-8” configuration of the Nova vehicle
Document: “Ground Handling Equipment and Procedures for a X-15 Research Aircraft Project 1226,” 1955 North American Aviation report on the early B-36-launched design for the X-15
CAD Diagram: F-111 Escape capsule
If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, along with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program. Back issues are available for purchase by patrons and subscribers.
Mar 042022
An advantage of being an APR patron or Monthly Historical Documents Program subscriber is that I give subscribers/patrons the opportunity to help out with various crowdfunding opportunities. As probably surprises nobody, I buy a *lot* of aerospace documentation off of eBay. Most of the time, it comes straight out of my pocket… but sometimes, I call for assistance. Some items start off terribly expensive; some items start off inexpensive, but you can tell right off that they are going to explode in price in the end. Such was the case with a recent item, a vintage 1961 North American Aviation report on development plans for the supersonic transport. It was described as being 97 pages in length, was shown to include diagrams showing conversion of the B-70 into an SST testbed, and *could* be filled with all kinds of good stuff. The initial bid was *cheap.* But I knew it would go for much more, so I contacted my patrons/subscribers and brought on board enough pledges to make a last minute kinda-nutty bid. A bid that won, but not by a whole lot. But won it did, so not all of those funders will receive a complete set of high-rez scans. Some pledged to contribute more than the price I’d asked for, which turned out to be very helpful in getting that successful last-minute bid. Those higher-level funders will get some extra rewards.
If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, along with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.
Mar 022022
Finally, we know production costs for SLS and Orion, and they’re wild
…the operational costs alone for a single Artemis launch—for just the rocket, Orion spacecraft, and ground systems—will total $4.1 billion.
…$2.2 billion to build a single SLS rocket, $568 million for ground systems, $1 billion for an Orion spacecraft, and $300 million to the European Space Agency for Orion’s Service Module.
…NASA will spend $93 billion from 2012 to 2025 on the Artemis program.
Gosh, If Only there was some alternative launch vehicle program that we could turn to that could potentially launch at a rate higher than once a year and at vastly lower cost…
Feb 272022
An early/mid 1960’s NASA film about the design of the Apollo hardware. Includes simple schematics of both Direct mission hardware as well as Lunar Orbit Rendezvous hardware; also visible are more detailed diagrams of Apollo and Apollo-derived designs.
Feb 222022
A Douglas concept from 1963 for a large space booster that was to use both chemical and nuclear engines. The first stage was to have chemical engines; when the booster reached sufficient altitude, it would stage off and a purely nuclear stage would deliver a one million pound payload to low Earth orbit (in this case, a million pounds of liquid hydrogen for a large interplanetary spacecraft). both stages would be recovered for re-use.
*Somewhere* I have a paper that describes this at least a little bit, with a minimal diagram…
Feb 212022
I see your “modern art” and raise you…
New album just dropped at Starbase pic.twitter.com/3GACK66k9f
— Cosmic Perspective (@considercosmos) February 20, 2022
Family pic 👨👩👦👦 pic.twitter.com/qK5UTLiKt2
— Cosmic Perspective (@considercosmos) February 20, 2022
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Feb 182022
Circa 1967, bell Aircraft produced a design for a tiltrotor VTOL aircraft that would be quite similar to the V-22 Osprey of 20 years later. the Model 266 had two T64 turboshaft engines, one at each wingtip. Each engine drove a three-bladed prop/rotor that could be tilted to provide vertical or horizontal thrust, with cross-shafts making it so that the aircraft could power both props in the event that an engine were to go out. The overall configuration was much like that of a spindlier V-22 with a conventional tail. The basic role was as a troop transport for the US Army.
The full-rez scan of the art has been uploaded to the 2022-02 APR Extras folder on Dropbox. This is available to all $4 and up Patrons and Subscribers. If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, along with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.
Feb 122022
Elon Musk gives an hour-twenty update on Starship. Claims confidence of an orbital launch sometime in 2022.