The Ford Nucleon was ridiculously *small*

 AARRRGH, art, awesomeness, blather, Crazy, drawings, Gah., history, Hmm..., nukes, projects, science, science fiction, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jul 102021
 

One of the more imaginative and incredibly unlikely concept cars was the Ford Nucleon, a 1950’s idea for a nuclear powered car. Apparently this was pretty much a complete art and sales project, without much actual engineering; it was based on the notion that not only could nuclear reactors be scaled down small enough to fit in a car, they could be made not only wreck-tolerant, but that lightweight and virtually magical radiation shielding would be invented that would allow said reactor to hum away at full power mere feet from paying customers without roasting them or giving them explosive ass cancer. It was, let’s face it, wholly ridiculous… and entirely awesome.

Photos of models of the Nucleon have been available since the 1950’s, but diagrams have been lacking. An article posted online a few days ago included a few specifications for the proposed vehicle, finally nailing down some of the dimensions. And for reasons that seemed good to me (and which are probably obvious), I slapped together a quick side view. I think my side view is *reasonably* accurate based on numerous photos of the scale model Ford built and the dimensions given. What I’m not certain about is whether *Ford* truly understood their vehicle.

Here’s the side view using the 200-inch (16.7 ft) length specified by Ford, accompanied by two normal-sized humans:

The driver doesn’t even come *close* to fitting. So I scaled the Nucleon up until it seemed to look right, with the end result being that the car is now about 26 feet long:

That’s by no means a small vehicle… but then, it’s nuclear. Scaling it up by a factor of about 1.55 makes the cab big enough to fit actual full-size humans. But scaling it up that much makes the 77.4″ width (6.45 ft) into 120 inches, or ten feet. Good luck squeezing *that* onto the road; the Hummer H1, known as an uncomfortably wide vehicle, is a mere 87 inches wide.

Does anyone have any information to contradict and correct the Ford specifications? Or is it just another case of the art department kinda ignoring reality?

 Posted by at 4:28 pm

SR-71 signed copies: bonus round

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, books, cats, drawings, history, Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Origins and Evolution, news, projects  No Responses »
Jul 062021
 

I’ve contacted the publisher and will get a supply of bookazines to be signed. However, since they’re being shipped from Europe, the costs are a bit high so I’ll have to charge a few bucks more than the basic cover price for them. In order to make it worthwhile for those who get them, I plan on including an extra or two. Currently planning on something like an 18X24 print or two of diagrams from the book, scaled up and tinkered with, also numbered and signed. It will be a while before the books get here, so I’ve some time to get the prints just right. And given that a box of books could get wedged into the Suez Canal or redirected into the Bermuda Triangle or impaled on some rebar, I won’t take orders until they are on hand.

I had a local print shop print up nine separate sheets… 2 SR-71A, 1 YF-12A, 1 M21/D21, 1 XF-103, 2 XF-108, 1 A-12, 1 CL-400 Suntan. I also printed up a test sheet with four copies of the same bit of an SR-71, but with the line weights and colors adjusted (I should’ve done that first. Ooops.). Along with adjusting the weights/colors, there will be improvements to the diagrams themselves, additional details and information added. The blue in the windows will be dispensed with… that tiny bit of color triples the cost. Most likely the “bonus” will be one or two sheets of the SR-71A, but if there is enough interest in the others, I’ll figure it out. The prints will also be numbered and signed, and will only be available along with the signed books. They will also be shipped fabulously folded into quarters (as seen in the “lineweight test print” in the photos below) in order to ship with the books.

Please note industry standard feline scale reference.

If you want on the list of people interested in ordering a signed copy when the time comes, send me an email:

It is available directly through the publisher for £8.99 (Approx $12.41 or €10.34). It is also available through Amazon for pre-order for $12.99. Or it will be available through me for a little more, in a little while.

 Posted by at 9:49 pm

Signed copies of “SR-71?”

 aircraft, art, Book X, books, Hmm..., Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Origins and Evolution, projects  No Responses »
Jul 012021
 

The idea has been floated of selling signed copies of “SR-71.” I’m currently checking into what I could get a box of issues for to see if it would make sense to try to sell a few copies my own self. Given that they’re coming from Europe, postage might be a concept-killer for this. If it’s close, what I might do is charge a bit more… and add a bit more. 11X17 or 18X24 prints of a few of the snazzier diagrams, perhaps.

Who would be interested? I’m not taking orders, just trying to judge interest. If interested at (handwave) $13-$15 plus postage, send me an email:

 

By the way: Amazon now says that this will be released on July 28, moved up substantially from September.

 

 Posted by at 3:51 am

“Large Amphibian”

 aircraft, art, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, projects, science fiction  No Responses »
Jun 302021
 

A 1980’s Boeing concept art depicting a passenger transport of 100 or so years in the future. It has a number of… interesting features including a front that opens up like an Arakeen Sandworm. The cockpit and a fair amount of space behind it hinge upwards to provide access to the sizable interior of the aircraft. The gigantic transparent canopies are certainly a remarkable feature. Even the passenger windows on the side are vast compared to the tiny human figures. The engines look somewhat small for the design, but at least they exhaust almost directly onto the vast canopy over the tail “lounge” area. Surely that’ll not pose any problems…

The full rez scan of the artwork has been made available at 300 DPI to all $4/month patrons/subscribers in the 2021-06 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 12:15 am

“Mastering the Transatmosphere”

 aircraft, art, history, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, projects, spacecraft  No Responses »
Jun 192021
 

The June 1986 issue of “Air Force Magazine” had a cover article about the next big thing for the Air Force… aerospaceplanes capable of attaining orbit. Those who have been paying attention since 1986 might have noticed a dearth of aerospaceplanes, but at least the article has some spiffy cover art, along with interior art of what it claims is a 1965 McDonnell Douglas aerospaceplane. Two problems, though… McDonnell Douglass didn’t exist until 1967, and the art sure looks more like an SST to me. Shrug.

Anyway, I’ve uploaded a 300DPI scan of the article (and two ads… one depicting what appears to be a neutral particle beam space weapon, the other for a series of space-based nuclear powerplants) to the 2021-06 APR Extras folder on Dropbox, available to all APR patrons and subscribers.

 Posted by at 2:49 am

Short PD.16

 aircraft, drawings, history, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, projects  No Responses »
Jun 112021
 

The Short PD.16 was a circa 1957 design for a twin engined turboprop cargo/passenger plane. The configuration was similar to the Fairchild C-119, and would have been, by modern standards, an unusual passenger aircraft. Slow, voluminous, with (in one configuration) a cargo hold stuffed with cars and an upper deck filled with people in *luxurious* seating by modern standards, probably deafened and rattled. Half a dozen of one…

This was procured from eBay thanks to the contributions of Patrons and subscribers. The complete article has been sent to all patrons/subscribers at the more than $10/month level. 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 3:36 am

Starship/Superheavy animation

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, Hmm..., projects, rockets, spacecraft, youtube  No Responses »
Jun 092021
 

An interesting piece of “fan animation” depicting a test flight of a Starship/Superheavy stack with subsequent water landings. I have high hopes that a flight will look this good… but realistically, we can expect a few flights with a bit more energetic ends. And that’s ok: failure is an option here. Failure can be a fantastic teacher. Certainly a far better teach than “not trying.”

Also of note: there are some bits of the animation here that are distinctly not “Hollywood A-Game.” But compare what just a few guys managed to do with, say, the first couple seasons of Babylon 5.  Technology progresses.

 Posted by at 12:54 am

Rocket Cargo

 aircraft, awesomeness, history, Hmm..., news, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Jun 012021
 

Hmmmmm…..

Department of Defense Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 Budget Estimates

Page 215

Title: Rocket Cargo

Description: The Department of the Air Force seeks to leverage the current multi-billion dollar commercial investment to developthe largest rockets ever, and with full reusability to develop and test the capability to leverage a commercial rocket to deliver AFcargo anywhere on the Earth in less than one hour, with a 100-ton capacity. The Air Force is not investing in the commercialrocket development, but rather investing in the Science & Technology needed to interface the capability with DoD logistics needs, and extend the commercial capability to DoD-unique missions. Provides a new, faster and cheaper solution to the existing TRANSCOM Strategic Airlift mission. Enables AFSOC to perform current Rapid-Response Missions at lower cost, and meet a one-hour response requirement. Rocket Cargo uses modeling, simulation, and analysis to conduct operational analysis, verify military utility, performance, and operational cost. S&T will include novel “loadmaster” designs to quickly load/unload a rocket,rapid launch capabilities from unusual sites, characterization of potential landing surfaces and approaches to rapidly improve those surfaces, adversary detectability, new novel trajectories, and an S&T investigation of the potential ability to air drop a payload after reentry. This is not a rocket engine or launch vehicle development program. It is an S&T effort to leverage the commercial development into a novel new DoD capability.FY 2021 Plans:Utilize modeling, simulation, and analysis to conduct operational analysis of Rocket Cargo concepts, trajectories, and design considerations and verify military utility, performance, and operational cost. Gather operational data from on-going commercial large-scale, instrumented, reusable launch events.FY 2022 Plans:Mature effort in leveraging commercial space launch to create military capability in Rocket-based Cargo delivery. Complete S&T testing leveraging the current commercial prototype testing. Perform site measurements needed to integrate the capability onto DoD missions including plume-surface physics and toxicity, loads, detectability, and acoustics. Also, complete initial AFRL wind tunnel testing to assess novel trajectories needed for air-drop capability, and high-speed separation physics. Under contract and CRADA, partner with Commercial to test and demonstrate an initial one-way transport capability to an austere site. Seek to perform an early end-to-end test to fully identify the technical challenges. In addition, complete Industry outreach for load master concepts including novel container designs, load/unload concepts, and testing the compatibility of AF cargo with rocket launch and space environments. Issue solicitation and award contracts.FY 2021 to FY 2022 Increase/Decrease Statement:FY 2022 increased compared to FY 2021 by $38.169 million. Funding increased due to planned program requirements and the development and maturation activities described above.

HMMMMM….

Sounds vaguely familiar. I wonder where I’ve seen ideas kinda like that before.

 Posted by at 8:30 pm
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