A box of documents showed up today. They are loans, to be scanned and returned, but I figured some of y’all might find a few of interest. If you are interested in making sure that these sort of things are preserved, I recommend wandering by the APR Patreon and signing up. And just as importantly… tell anyone else you know who might be interested. The more people signed up, the more I’ll be able to do (and the more of these documents will be made available to you).
I’ll believe it when I see it…
From 2018, Space Adventures flights will take members of the public on the first commercial journeys to the moon
Space Adventures is the company that has sent a handful of paying customers up to the ISS over the years. Their goal is to send two customers to the ISS for ten days, and then send them on to the moon for an Apollo 8-style flyby (no landing). SA has been pushing this concept for a number of years. Not really sure why they got this bit of press recently but… shrug. If they can pull it off, more power to ’em.
There’s no indication of price for this on the Space Adventures website. However, when SA first started sending people to the ISS, the ticket prices was, IIRC, $20 million. Today it’s $50 million. And when SA first announced their lunar mission idea some years ago, I recall the price being $100 million for each of the two passengers. So I would assume there’s been roughly similar price inflation. Gotta wonder what SpaceX could do it for…
After a substantial delay, I’ve posted the first of two PDF Reviews for September over at the APR Blog. This one covers a Ling Temco Vought concept for an SST from 1973.
These PDF Reviews are brought to you by the APR Patreon. For as little as 75 cents per month, you can help me dig into the forgotten corners of aerospace history… and get yourself some goodies in the process. Head on over!
Currently up on eBay is an original watercolor illustration of a McDonnell-Douglas cargo plane concept. Details are lean, but it looks like it dates from the 1980’s.
A multibody design make sense for heavy cargo lifters. By spreading the load across the wing, rather than suspending it from a single point, the wing is stressed considerably less. Of course, drag is noticeably increased and runways need to be wider.
This particular design seems a little odd… especially with the leading edge of the wing. Unless the aft fuselage is taller than the forward fuselage, or the wing is tilted up at a substantial angle of incidence, then the leading edge of the wing should be submerged into the upper fuselage, as the trailing edge is. Artistic oversight?
After a bit of a delay, the September rewards have been released. These include a large-format inboard profile of the North American Aviation F-108 Rapier Mach 3+ interceptor:
And “Notes on Space Technology,” a compilation of notes by the Flight Research Division of the NACA Langley Research Center based on a space technology course given in the early part of 1958. A hefty 670+pages in length, this covered just about every aspect of space travel as understood in 1958. While I haven’t read the whole thing, it appears to be not only of historical interest, but also useful to get a pretty good general grasp of space travel science, principles and technologies.
Also included for the higher level patrons are three CAD diagrams:
Boeing Bird of Prey stealth, manufacturing and materials testing prototype aircraft from the 1990’s
Zenith Star experimental space based laser anti-missile system, 1988
Hypersonic Test Vehicle 2, a maneuverable hypersonic glider for missile-launched warheads
The September rewards are about a week and a half late in being released. Since I hope to get the October rewards out a little earlier than normal, that means that the September releases will probably be available for a short time.
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.
McDonnell Douglas artwork from ~1970 showing the F-15 late in the design process. While it’s recognizably the F-15, a number of differences are visible, primary being the ventral fins and slimmer nose.
Artwork showing the major Dyna Soar/Titan III contractors. The Titan IIIc show here includes the large pitch stabilization fins (and small yaw fins) attached to the solid rocket boosters. Not depicted are the thrust vector control fluid tanks. At the time, the fins were thought needed to counteract the pitch moment that would be produced by the wings of the spaceplane way up front. In the end, it was concluded that thrust vector control would be more than adequate for the task; and while the Titan IIIC never launched a Dyan Soar, it retained the TVC capabilities that were produced to deal with the Dyna Soar.
Much, much more on the Dyna Soar, including the final few Titan III variants, can be found in Aerospace Projects Review issue V3N4.
The SLS may never fly in reality, but NASA has created a spiffy computer generated animation:
[youtube HOZ00J-0jhY]
There is at least one major continuity error. Can you spot it?
A 1970’s (and boy does it show) film by NASA that *briefly* depicts O’Neill cylinder colonies, but mostly deals with the Stanford Torus:
[youtube EgrdAUFFMrA]
Issues 09 and 10 of US Bomber Projects is now available (see HERE for the entire series). Issue #09 includes:
USBP#09 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4:
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Issue #10 includes:
USBP#10 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4:
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