B-47C Concept

 aircraft, art, drawings, history, projects  No Responses »
Oct 222018
 

The B-47C was a 1950 Boeing proposal to re-engine the six-engine B-47 with four engines. It is usually depicted as being largely indistinguishable from the standard B-47 except that the inboard engine nacelles only had a single engine. However, in early 1952 the Model 450-155-33 was designed and designated the B-47C that not only had four P&W J-57-P-1 engines but also a very different fuselage. Most obviously, the cockpit was completely redesigned and was now indistinguishable from that of the B-52.

 Posted by at 12:56 pm

New CAD diagram PDFs?

 art, drawings, history, Hmm..., new products, projects  No Responses »
Oct 222018
 

Two and a half years ago I released seven CAD diagrams as 18X24 “posters” in PDF format. There was a little bit of interest, but not enough to move the project to the top of my to-do list and, like many of my projects, it fell by the wayside. Still, it’s always possible that some of the CAD diagrams I’ve created for US Aerospace Projects and other efforts in the years since might be of interest. If so, and you’ve always wanted to see such-and-such a diagram made available, comment below.

Here are the original seven:

 

CAD007

CAD 007: Northrop Low Altitude Penetrator

A 1/72 diagram of a 1979 design for a B-2 alternate configuration

Download for $3

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CAD006

CAD 006

A 1/96 scale diagram of the 1979 Rockwell D645-4a spanloader bomber.

Download for $3

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CAD005

CAD 005

A 1/144 scale diagram of the Manned Spacecraft Center MSC Orbiter 020, a 1972 Space Shuttle concept with a single 260″ solid rocket booster.

Download for $3

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CAD004

CAD 004

A 1/350 scale diagram of the 1971 Boeing Resource Air Carrier (AKA RC-1, AKA “Brute Lifter”) designed as a flying oil tanker for the arctic.

Download for $3

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CAD003

CAD 003

A 1/72 scale diagram of the Martin-Marietta “Zenith Star” experimental space-based laser for the Strategic Defense Initiative.

Download for $3

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CAD002

CAD 002

A 1/24 diagram of the Lockheed “Harvey,” the initial concept for a low radar cross section strike platform that eventually became the F-117.

Download for $3

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CAD001

CAD 001

A 1/32 diagram of the North American Rockwell D-541-4 “Surprise Fighter” from 1973, an early stealth concept designed to sneak up on Soviet AWACS planes.

Download for $3

 Posted by at 12:00 am

Yay, I beat Fox News

 awesomeness, history, Hmm..., projects, spacecraft, US Spacecraft Projects  No Responses »
Oct 162018
 

Just published on the Fox News website is this:

NASA eyes stunning ‘cloud city’ airship concept to explore Venus

This article discusses the NASA “HAVOC” concept for manned exploration of Venus by way of balloons and blimps. That’s cool and all… but readers of US Spacecraft Projects would have known about this six months ago.

 

 Posted by at 1:29 pm

$5 Billion vs $5 Billion

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Gah., Hmm..., news, politics, projects, rockets, spacecraft, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Oct 152018
 

Elon Musk pegs SpaceX BFR program at $5B as NASA’s rocket booster nears $5B in cost overruns

Chances are good that the SLS first launch, currently officially slated to slip to June 2020, will probably actually slip to 2021 some time. More good news: it’s fantastically over budget.

In other words, compared to Boeing’s first serious 2014 contract for the SLS Core Stages – $4.2B to complete Core Stages 1 and 2 and launch EM-1 in Nov. 2017 – the company will ultimately end up 215% over-budget ($4.2B to $8.9B) and ~40 months behind schedule (42 months to 80+ months from contract award to completion).

Ye gods.

By the time SLS actually flies, chances are pretty good that BFR will have already gone to orbit, if not the Moon or Mars. The upper stage is slated to fly in some form in 2019; and while I won’t be the slightest bit surprised if BFRs schedule slips, I’d be beyond astonished if it slips anything like SLS’s. For a company like Boeing, the SLS core should have been a snap. The engines are decades old designs, the core tankage is based on the ET, which is decades old; they’re not recovering it, it’s literally nothing special or new. It should have *easily* flown by now.

 Posted by at 3:48 pm

Maintenance Station in Space

 art, nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Oct 142018
 

A piece of art from 1962 depicting a Westinghouse Electric Corp. concept for a space station meant to provide servicing for nuclear powered spacecraft. it appears to be more of a space craft than a space station, since it is equipped with a substantial nuclear propulsion system of its own. It’s unclear what the set of rings at the “front” of the space station are meant to do.

 Posted by at 8:43 pm

Early Martin Co. Satellite Art

 art, history, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Oct 122018
 

An illustration from circa 1960 showing the launch of a communications satellite. Note the booster falling away in the background… unlike pretty much every booster the US actually built, this one is a slim cone. The caption very likely does not accurately describe this; it is unlikely to be a geosynchronous satellite given not only the low altitude depicted but also the fins on the booster stage.

 

 Posted by at 6:45 pm

M-1

 art, history, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Oct 092018
 

The Aerojet M-1 rocket engine was to be a beast of an engine. Bigger than the F-1 with almost as much thrust, it differed in being fueled with hydrogen. Its intended role was to power post-Saturn “Nova” type rockets. It got as far as testing major components, but no complete engine was ever test fired. The need for such an engine went hand-in-hand with the development of very large boosters; the M-1 could have been used for either first stage or upper stages, but no booster sizable enough for such an engine survived the mid-sixties, so the M-1 died away.

 Posted by at 9:02 pm

VTOL Gulfstream

 aircraft, models, projects  No Responses »
Oct 062018
 

A photo found for sale on ebay a while back shows a display model (circa 1973) of a Rockwell International concept for a Grumman Gulfstream 2 corporate jet modified for VTOL capability. This was not meant to be an operational concept, but a research vehicle to demonstrate VTOL technologies and operations in a jetliner-like aircraft, with the potential to be implemented into larger passenger-carrying jetliners such as the DC-9. This would allow such airliners to operate from smaller airfields. But the fuel-hungry nature of VTOL aircraft put an end to such notions in the 1970s. This aircraft would have used lift fans in flattened pods on the wings (each pod containing two YJ97 GE-100 gas generating turbojets) and vectorable-nozzle forward-thrust fans (again with two gas generators), for a total of six jet engines.

 Posted by at 12:32 pm
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