MiG-41: gotta say, I have doubts

 aircraft, Crazy, Hmm..., projects, russian empire  8 Responses »
Aug 312017
 

Russia claims new Mach 4+ MiG-41 Interceptor will be able to operate in space

No actual details.

An aircraft capable of Mach 4+? Sure, I suppose. Seems an odd thing to develop these days. Those sort of speed were an aviation fetish in the 50’s and 60’s, but there really isn’t a whole lot of need to go that fast and the penalties for doing so are *harsh.*

Operating in space? Meh. Might be a translation error or a simple misunderstanding. An aircraft capable of going that fast could potentially pop above the sensible atmosphere, perhaps like the X-15. So it would be in space, but nowhere near orbit (which would require Mach 25, not merely Mach 4). if it did so, it would need to have some ability to control its attitude, presumably with attitude control thrusters.

Or it could be BS. That would be entirely unsurprising.

 Posted by at 12:35 am

PDF Review: Grumman H-33 Orbiter definition

 aircraft, drawings, history, Patreon, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Aug 132017
 

As a followup to the photos of the H-33 display model, here’s a Grumman report from July, 1971, giving a pretty good and well illustrated description of the H-33 orbiter.

The abstract on NTRS can be seen HERE.

The PDF file can be directly downloaded here:

Alternate space shuttle concepts study. Part 2: Technical summary. Volume 2: Orbiter definition

 

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 Posted by at 2:25 am

Grumman H-33 Shuttle Orbiter: plexiglas cutaway model

 aircraft, art, history, models, projects, rockets, spacecraft  4 Responses »
Aug 122017
 

The H-33 orbiter was designed in early 1971 to be launched atop a reusable manned flyback booster, a truly giant supersonic vehicle. The orbiter itself was similar in configuration to the Shuttle Orbiter as actually built, but it differed in that it had internal liquid oxygen tanks and expendable external hydrogen tanks, rather than a single large ET. The NASM has some good photos of a display model of the full system.

The H-33 was a popular design, at least at Grumman. A number of display models were made of it, including this detailed “cutaway” model made – seemingly – of plexiglas.

I have uploaded the full-rez images to the 2017-08 APR Extras Dropbox folder, available to all $4 and up APR Patrons. If interested, wander on by the APR Patreon and sign up. Lots of aerospace goodies available.

 

 Posted by at 10:26 pm

Like a ten megawatt NERVA, I need to see it to believe it

 awesomeness, history, Hmm..., news, nukes, politics, projects, rockets, science, spacecraft  19 Responses »
Aug 072017
 

BWXT Awarded $18.8 Million Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Reactor Design Contract by NASA

NASA has apparently given reactor manufacturer a contract to design a next general nuclear thermal rocket engine, a modernized NERVA. This is in support of a manned mission to Mars.

 

While this is of course great news, it’s not exactly world-shattering in scope. A total of 15 employees are slated to work on the project. And given politics, the chances of a nuclear thermal rocket getting to the test stand are minimal, to say nothing of getting on a launch vehicle. It would be interesting if SpaceX got on board with the project, put its money where Musks mouth is. I’m sure SpaceX wants to design their own NTR, but they don’t have the decades of experience at actually designing reactors that BWXT has.

I will also point out, just before I go off into a corner and cry, that I interviewed at BWX for a job back in 1999.

 Posted by at 8:24 am

Forthcoming

 aircraft, drawings, history, projects, US Bomber Projects  4 Responses »
Jul 282017
 

US Bomber Projects #20 will be a “special” covering the Boeing XB-59. This will bring together and update the Model 484 and 701 diagrams from prior issues and will add a bunch more, fleshing out not only the development of the B-59 configuration but also showing some of the designs that followed it.

 Posted by at 12:36 pm

APR Patreon “Back issues”

 aircraft, APR, drawings, history, new products, news, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, Patreon, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Jul 162017
 

Every month, patrons of the Aerospace Projects Review Patreon campaign are rewarded with a bundle of documents and diagrams, items of interest and importance to aerospace history. If you sign up, you get the monthly rewards going forwards; the “back issues” catalog lets patrons aid the APR cause by picking up items from before they signed on. The catalog, available to all patrons at the APR Patreon, has been updated to include everything from the beginning of the project back in 2014 on up to February, 2017.

Below are the items from 2016 (and the first two months of 2017):

 

If you are interested in any of these and in helping to fund the mission of Aerospace Projects Review, drop by the APR Patreon page and sign up. For only a few bucks a month you can help fund the procurement, scanning and dissemination of interesting aerospace documentation that might otherwise vanish from the public.

 Posted by at 12:52 am

PDF Review: modifications to BQM-34E drone

 aircraft, drawings, Patreon, projects  1 Response »
Jul 152017
 

A 1972 Teledyne Ryan report on modifying their supersonic BQM-34E Firebee II target drone into RPV’s for testing new aerodynamics, wings and area-rule add-ons and the like. Numerous diagrams are included.

Here’s the link to the NTRS abstract.

Here’s the direct link to the PDF.

 

 

Support the APR Patreon to help bring more of this sort of thing to light!

 

patreon-200

 

 Posted by at 12:04 am

Woo! Conspiracy theory time!!!

 Forward!, Hmm..., news, projects  10 Responses »
Jul 122017
 

OK, I have no opinion on any of this since I don’t know if any of it’s true. But if it’s even partially true, it’s certainly interesting. The idea is that the Russian lawyer who met with Donald trump Junior supposedly to give him Russian government dirt on Hillary was instead a Democrat “plant.” Shrug.

https://mobile.twitter.com/Cernovich/status/885184428367990784/video/1

 Posted by at 3:04 pm

PDF Review: X-20 Dyna Soar Progress Report

 aircraft, history, Patreon, projects, rockets, spacecraft  5 Responses »
Jul 112017
 

Seems I’ve been a wee bit lax on the PDF Reviews. I will attempt to rectify that in the future.

Here is a Air Force conference paper from May, 1964, describing the X-20 Dyna Soar program and vehicle. At this point the program had been cancelled for some months; the configuration shown in the paper was essentially the final design. It’s a decent overall view of the Dyna Soar.

Here’s the link to the abstract:

The X-20 (Dyna-Soar) Progress Report

Here’s a link directly to the PDF.

 

Support the APR Patreon to help bring more of this sort of thing to light!

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 Posted by at 11:38 pm
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