Next two releases in progress. Note that one is a little different…
Dec 102014
Dec 092014
Ever since I started working on Aerospace Projects Review in the late 1990’s, people have asked from time to time if I planned on putting out an April Fools edition,or covering fictional designs, something along those lines. And I have always shot that concept down, because one thing I don’t want to do is contribute to confusion of mythology. Because even the most transparent fakery can be believed by far too many people (witness the patently absurd modern fiction called “Die Glocke”).
One of the better known “fakes” that has sometimes been understood to be real is the “Klagenfurt Klf 255.” This was originally published in the French aviation magazine “Fana de l’Aviation” as an April Fools gag in 1973. Supposedly a wartime German design for a rocket powered interceptor, the diagrams are actually reasonably convincing, as are the pre-Photoshop fake photos… but it was nevertheless pure fiction.
Some years back someone sent me a photocopy of the original article. I’ve scanned it in PDF format and posted it to the APR Patreon for all patrons (this means as cheap as $0.75/month). Enjoy. And remember… It’s A Faaaaaaaaaake.
If you would like to access these items and support the cause of acquiring and sharing these pieces of aerospace history, please visit my Patreon page and consider contributing.
Nov 292014
Before “Voyager” meant “a flyby probe of the Outer Solar System,” it meant “an orbiter and lander for Mars.” It was, essentially, a bigger, more ambitious version of what became the Viking missions. big enough that the Saturn V was the launcher, sending two craft at a time.
A number of companies put in bids to design and build the spacecraft. Below are images of the TRW concept. The conical section is the capsule holding the lander; the propulsion section is derived from the Lunar Module descent stage.
Nov 252014
A painting that was up on eBay a while back purported to be a McDonnell-Douglas concept rendering for a transonic jetliner. This aircraft used advanced – and expensive – fuselage shaping to lower transonic drag, much like the NASA/Boeing/Bell design illustrated in US Transport Projects #01.
The image does give me pause. There’s something about the wings that just looks… off. I don’t think they match. And the port engine looks like it’s larger in diameter than the starboard engine.
Nov 202014
A tiny, postage-stamp-sized illustration in a double-page advertisement for Lockheed in a July, 1988, issue of Aviation Week shows a CAD diagram of a jet fighter. This appears to be a twin-engined stealthy air superiority fighter. The illustration appears to be a photo taken of an old-school CRT monitor, and mirrored for some reason. Sadly, none of the text is useful or readable, and dimensions are undeterminable.
Nov 192014
The latest releases in the “US Projects” line (see the full library HERE):
USTP 02
Issue #02 of US Transport Projects, done in the same format as US Bomber Projects, USTP will cover flying vehicles designed to transport cargo, passengers and troops. Issue 02 includes:
- Jupiter Troop Transport: A 1956 Army concept for ballistically launched soldiers
- Catamaran 747: A NASA concept for a more efficient twin-fuselage 747
- Nuclear C-5A: A NASA concept for using the existing C-5 to demonstrate nuclear powered flight
- Boeing 765-076E: A recent design for a small supersonic transport
- Lockheed L-151: An early jetliner concept adding six turbojets to a Constellation
- AAFRL/Lockheed AMC-X: A recent design for a stealthy C-130 replacement
- Boeing Twin Hull Airship: A 1970’s design for a semi-buoyant cargo lifter
- Douglas D5.0-15A: A partially NASP-derived hypersonic jetliner
USTP #02 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4:
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USSP 01
Also available: issue #01 of US Spacecraft Projects. This series will present some of the wide range of manned and unmanned probes, stations, landers, spaceplanes and so on that have been designed over the decades. Issue #01 includes:
- General Dynamics 2-Man Space Taxi: A concept for the minimum possible manned spacecraft
- General Dynamics EMPIRE lander: one of the earliest designs for an excursion module to and from the surface of Mars
- Convair Landing Boat: Krafft Ehricke’s Atlas-launched spaceplane
- Zenith Star: the SDI laser battlestation experiment
- Northrop PROFAC: a flying gas station for spacecraft
- NASA Warp-drive spacecraft: a highly hypothetical concept for planning purposes
- Martin Direct Flight Apollo: lunar landing without the LEM
- Boeing DS-1 Satellite Interceptor: an early Dyna Soar with nuclear missiles
USSP #01 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4:
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Nov 162014
The November rewards for the APR patrons have been released. They include:
PDF document: “The Air Turborocket Powerplant,” an Aerojet brochure from October 1955 describing an advanced airbreathing propulsion system for missiles, bombers, intercepts, etc.
PDF document: “VTOL Transport Aircraft Comparative Study,” a report from Vertol, 1956. Describes, with data, sketches and three-view diagrams, a range of different types of VTOL transports, including tilt-wings, lift jets, aerodyne, etc.
DIAGRAMS: two parter this month. First: layout, inboard and sectional views of the Lockheed L-2000 SST. Second: Douglas diagrams… “Plans for Scale Model Construction of the Long-Tank Thor Agena.” Good diagrams of the launch vehicle.
CAD diagram: NASA-Langley hypersonic transport.
If you would like to access these items and support the cause of acquiring and sharing these pieces of aerospace history, please visit my Patreon page and consider contributing.
Nov 132014
An ad from 1989 showing the Boeing-Sikosky competitor for the LHX program. This was the winning design and was built as the RAH-66 Comanche, though not without some notable design tinkering.
Nov 112014
I’ve scanned (at 300 dpi, full color) a brochure from the Aerion Corporation describing their supersonic business jet. It’s several years old… somewhere around 2003-05, I’d guess. I’ve posted the scan in PDF format over at yon Patreon, available to any and all patrons of Aerospace Projects Review.
Nov 062014
Two current projects…
