Battleglider

 aircraft, art, Hmm..., projects  No Responses »
Sep 052021
 

A 1942 US Army Air Force artists concept of a “battleglider” depicts a troop transport glider with an unusual means for propulsion. Rather than being towed into the air, this aircraft relied on the powerplants of two bell P-39’s attached to substantial under-wing pylons. The pylons encompassed the cockpits of the fighters, necessitating large windows in the pylons for the pilots to see through.

I am *made* of questions when I look at this. During powered flight… who’s the pilot? I would assume the pilot of the glider, somehow having access to the controls of the fighters… at least the fighters engines. Do the pylons drop off after the fighter separate? Does landing gear deploy down through the pylons? You’re certainly not going to land safely with those pylons hanging down there. Who does the fighter-jettison? Again, presumably the glider pilot has control, but do the fighters have independent control? Are their aerosurfaces locked during attached flight? Can the fighter pilots force the glider to maneuver? The glider fuselage actually looks a little small; what’s the troop/cargo complement? Do the fighters promptly return to base after releasing the glider, or do they continue to provide cover and perhaps serve in the ground attack role?

 Posted by at 6:12 pm

DC-X-200

 aircraft, art, history, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, projects  No Responses »
Sep 012021
 

The 1970’s saw a lot of airlines and airline manufacturers going to great lengths to economize, thanks in no small part to the spike in fuel prices and general economic downturn caused by the OPEC oil embargo. Some of this economizing came in the form of new “air bus” concepts to jam as many people as possible into mid-sized jetliners. Wide-bodied configurations were popular for that. McDonnell-Douglas proposed a new airliner in the mid-70’s that was derived from their long-range high capacity DC-10. The fuselage was cut short and stubby; the third turbofan at the base of the vertical tail was deleted. The wings and tail surfaces were all-new. This made it slightly more economical on a passenger-mile basis than the trijet, but also made it inappropriate for trans-oceanic flight since airlines were not yet ready to accept twin-jets for such routes. Intercontinental flight in twinjets would have to wait for the 777. McDonnell-Douglas figured that up to 278 passengers could be wedged into the available space… and that even more seats could be installed in the below-deck cargo bay.

 

 

 

The full rez scan of the two-page article about this design has been made available at 300 DPI to all $4/month patrons/subscribers in the 2021-09 APR Extras folder at Dropbox. 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.



 Posted by at 7:03 pm

SR-71: Signed copies

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, blather, books, drawings, history, Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Origins and Evolution, projects, sales & specials, SR-71 Origins and Evolution  No Responses »
Sep 012021
 

I have fifteen five three zero remaining copies from the original fifty. They are all signed and dated and numbered, and come with two 18X24 poster-sized prints.  Yours for a flat $25, shipped via Media Mail within the US. If you are non-US, the price is sadly rather a lot higher… an extra $20, even if you are just a few feet across the Canadian border because the price of international postage really is that high these days.

When they’re gone, they’re gone.

Update: they’re gone.

This is of course still available on Amazon. Currently nine reviews, all five-star!

 

 Posted by at 10:30 am

Five-star, so far

 aircraft, awesomeness, blather, books, drawings, Hmm..., Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Origins and Evolution, projects, SR-71 Origins and Evolution  No Responses »
Aug 292021
 

Because why not: my SR-71 book currently has seven reviews on Amazon, all of which are five-star. So… huzzah! Now… to sell a million copies. For starters. If people will buy books about sparkly mopey vampires, why shouldn’t books about the evolution of the SR-71 sell like hotcakes? Anyway, Christmas is coming up. Make sure to stock up on copies of the book before the forthcoming collapse in the world transportation infrastructure leaves you flatfooted. “Sorry, little Timmy, but the PlayBoxStation 12 is still stuck in China. But here’s the best book ever written!”

Also: if you click on the Amazon link below (or use the Amazon search box up and to the right) and then continue on to search for and buy other stuff, I get a pittance. Woo.

 

If you’ve purchased a copy through Amazon, feel free to leave a review for the book there. The more reviews, the more it’ll likely be seen, and the more it’ll likely sell… and the greater likelihood of more books like this down the line. Maybe even a greatly expanded second edition.

 Posted by at 11:30 pm

Boeing: oy.

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Gah., news, projects, rockets, spacecraft, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Aug 152021
 

Remember when Boeing was a company of engineers, a company that could get the job done?

Sigh.

 

As should be well known hereabouts, I have great hopes for SpaceX. That’s both for their ability to get craft such as Starship working, *and* to make spaceflight far cheaper. But in order for them to truly succeed at the latter goal, they will need to be challenged by a realistic competitor. I would rather by far that SpaceX’s greatest competitor be another American company. Boeing, historically *should* have been one of those competitors.

They are not.

 

 

 

 

 Posted by at 12:46 am

Now that’s *stylish*

 art, history, projects, science, spacecraft  No Responses »
Aug 082021
 

A 1963 USAF report describes work on an emergency “space suit.” It’s meant to be something that can be worn as a normal outfit and then zipped up at a moments notice in the event of a pressure drop. This includes a flexible helmet with a flexible “faceplate.” the end result looks like something out of a bad 1970’s pre-Star Wars disco-era sci-fi flick. Note, though that the actual test item is substantially less Giant Polyester Leisure Suit Lapels and more Cheap Plastic Poncho.

Report Number: AMRL TDR 63-82
Author: Seeler, Henry W.
Corporate Author: Aerospace Medical Research Labs Wright-Patterson AFB Ohio
Laboratory: Biomedical Laboratory
Date of Publication: 1963-09
Pages: 13
 Posted by at 12:35 pm

Grumman ATF artists concept

 aircraft, art, history, projects  No Responses »
Aug 022021
 

A Grumman design from the 80’s (looks like 1980) for an advanced fighter. This was clearly from the era where fighters did not need to prioritize stealth over all else, though also clearly stealth aspects are included. The aircraft had missiles integrated onto the back surface, an unusual location; it appears that these are unpowered bombs, using wings to generate lift to fling themselves upwards. It’s not immediately clear what the purpose here is; chances are that these might be nukes, so flinging the bombs upwards would give the jet a few moments to gain some distance before the bombs glide down to the ground. Or it might be a low-observability feature… launching from the top would allow the aircraft to fly at a stupid-low altitude to avoid anti-aircraft systems.

UPDATE: Check comments… this is probably a Rockwell artwork, not Grumman.

 Posted by at 8:43 pm

Books!

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, Book X, books, drawings, history, Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Origins and Evolution, news, projects, rockets, spacecraft, SR-71 Origins and Evolution  No Responses »
Jul 232021
 

Two boxes with fifty copies of “SR-71” showed up yesterday. Woo! These will be signed and with any luck at all sold.

 

As previously mentioned, I’m working on a pair of 18X24 prints to go with the signed copies. if you’re on the mailing list, you should have recently received a message (or three… email continues to be problematic) about this.

Here’s a glimpse of the work in progress.

 Posted by at 5:19 pm
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