“Intercity Transport” art

 aircraft, art, Hmm..., Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, projects  No Responses »
May 142021
 

Another strange piece of 1970’s/early 1980’s Boeing art, this time depicting an “Intercity Transport.” What’s going on with that circular “inlet” on the rear upper fuselage? Damnfino. Just visible under the wing root is a low-set inlet, so that would seem to provide what’s needed for the propulsion system. If there was a vertical thrust system in the nose, and good low-speed control systems on the outer wings, then that circular inlet would be fore a VTOL system. But on its own? Hmmm.

The full rez scan of the artwork has been made available at 300 DPI to all $4/month patrons/subscribers in the 2021-05 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with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.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 11:48 pm

General update

 aircraft, B-47 and B-52 Origins and Evolution, blather, Book X, drawings, history, Hmm..., nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
May 092021
 

Might have noticed that blogging has been reduced mostly to posting YouTube vids and very brief grumbles of late. It’ll probably be much the same or even less for the next month or two… I’m hard at work on “B-47/B-52” and that takes precedence. Just passed 200 pages of diagrams; a few more left to do, but text is the current priority and I’m a slower writer than draftsman (and I don’t draft that fast).

 

Side note: Amazon has decided that I might be interested in these. Amazing! How do it know?

 Posted by at 10:46 pm

“Electric Commuter Jet” concept art

 aircraft, art, Hmm..., Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, projects  No Responses »
May 082021
 

The art below is a Boeing concept from the late 70s or early 80’s depicting an almost certainly wholly conceptual “electric commuter jet” based on a rather dubious propulsion system: the ring-shaped aircraft would be equipped with massive counter-rotating flywheels which would be spun up to high speed on the ground (presumably with fixed electric motors). To fly, the flywheels would engage a compressor which would provide the jet thrust to fly. I haven’t done the math on this, but unless those flywheels are made of an adamantium-vibranium-uru alloy spun up to a few hundred thousand RPM, it seems unlikely to me that the wheels would store enough energy to provide for a meaningful flight. I doubt that this existed beyond the artists imagination… but if anyone has evidence to the contrary, I’d love to see it.

The full rez scan of the artwork has been made available at 300 DPI to all $4/month patrons/subscribers in the 2021-05 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 2:14 am

Kaman K-16 Artwork

 aircraft, art, history, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, projects  No Responses »
May 032021
 

A piece of artwork (almost certainly a negative, based on the shading and the national insignia) depicting the Kaman K-16 deflected slipstream tiltwing VTOL flying boat project. The K-16 was actually built in 1959, but never flew and was cancelled in 1962.

The airframe somehow managed to survive and is on display at the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. I visited there a couple times years ago and took a number of photos, posted HERE (2001 visit) and HERE (2007 visit). The full rez scan of the artwork has been made available at 300 DPI to all $4/month patrons/subscribers in the 2021-05 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 3:12 pm

A little Preview of “B-47/B-52”

 aircraft, awesomeness, B-47 and B-52 Origins and Evolution, Book X, books, history, new products, projects, rockets, spacecraft, weapons  No Responses »
Apr 302021
 

Here is an incomplete look at the diagrams created for my first book, “Boeing B-47 Stratojet and B-52 Stratofortress; Origins & Evolution.” It can be pre-ordered either directly from the publisher (with publication expected in late September) or through Amazon (looks like they’ll have it two months later). It is also expected to be on certain store shelves… more on that when it’s confirmed.

A few of these diagrams will be compressed to several-per-page; a few of them here are already shown in multiple optional layouts. But there are also a dozen-ish diagrams *not* shown because they are incomplete as yet. This gives an indication of the size and scope of the project…

 Posted by at 2:49 pm

Behold, Book One: Boeing B-47 Stratojet and B-52 Stratofortress; Origins & Evolution

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, B-47 and B-52 Origins and Evolution, Book X, books, drawings, history, news, nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft, US Bomber Projects  No Responses »
Apr 272021
 

My publisher has gone public with Book One, entitled

Boeing B-47 Stratojet and B-52 Stratofortress; Origins & Evolution

Woo!

It is being published by Mortons out of Britain, is scheduled for release at the end of September, and is going to be around 250 to 280 pages (I’m still furiously working away at it). As those who have seen my work may assume, it will be loaded to the gills with diagrams, in this case covering the competitors to the B-47 and B-52, the original concepts, how the designs evolved and many of the proposed and built derivatives. You can pre-order at the link above. I’m getting confirmation on availability in the States… Amazon and Barnes & Noble and other sources. Will report back on that, but it does look like both outlets will carry it.

I will post more details – including glimpses of diagrams and some of the color art created for the book by Rob Parthoens – in the coming days. Feel free to ask questions.

 

Note: Book Two has not yet gone public. But Book Two should be published *first* since it is finished and edited; I’ve seen and approved the layout. All it’s missing right now is cover art, which is in process.

 

And…behold! An Amazon link, listing it as available in late November/early December. Just in time for Chrisnukkwanzayulmass! Note though that the “150 page” length listed there is incorrect… came from the original placeholder text.

 Posted by at 8:51 am

S-IC stage recovery

 drawings, history, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Apr 212021
 

Another Boeing concept for the recovery of an S-IC stage. This used large fins with deployable drag brakes to stabilize the stage nose-down, parachutes to slow descent and sizable rocket motors for terminal braking just before splashdown. Additional rockets arrest the stages “collapse” to the side.

Would a Falcon 9-style landing have been better? Sure. But that wasn’t going to happen with 1960’s technology. A splashdown, recovery and refurbishment would have been expensive, but likely not as expensive as a brand new stage, and as has been the case with Falcon 9, as time goes by and experience grows, everything would get better and cheaper.

 

 Posted by at 9:53 pm

One of these days, Elon: Bang, zoom, straight to the moon

 awesomeness, Hmm..., news, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Apr 172021
 

NASA selects SpaceX as its sole provider for a lunar lander

No moon for you, Bezos.

NASA said it will award SpaceX $2.89 billion for development of the Starship vehicle and two flights. One of these missions will be an uncrewed flight test of Starship down to the lunar surface and back. The second mission will be a crewed flight—the first one of the Artemis program—down to the Moon.

Artemis is the NASA program that has been reliant upon the SLS. But by going with a Starship derivative… will SLS still be relevant? The plan apparently is to launch the Starship to lunar orbit unmanned, there to rendezvous with an SLS-launched Orion capsule to transfer crew over. But… if SpaceX has the ability to get a Starship to the moon, seems like they’ll have the ability to get at least a Dragon capsule there and back. I wonder what the payload capability would be for an Earth-to-lunar-orbit-to-Earth Starship might be given LEO refueling. Perhaps such a vehicle could send a couple dozen people to lunar orbit there to meet up with the Starship lunar lander; transfer four or five tot he lander and the rest stay in the transfer Starship, there to play tourist and pay for the trip.

 Posted by at 1:07 am

Sukhoi/Gulfstream supersonic business jet

 aircraft, history, projects  No Responses »
Apr 142021
 

A while beck someone sold a brochure about the Sukhoi-Gulfstrem supersonic business jet, the S-21. This concept, dating from the early 90’s, was a failed attempt to build a corporate-jet sized SST. While Gulfstream eventually dropped out, Sukhoi kept going until around 2012. The design changed substantially as time went by, but the realities of the economics of supersonic small aircraft around the turn of the century doomed the idea.

 Posted by at 9:38 pm
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