Collier’s October 25, 1952 Available to Download

 APR, art, awesomeness, drawings, history, new products, projects, rockets, science, science fiction, spacecraft  No Responses »
Feb 012013
 

The November/December 2012 issue of AIAA-Houston “Horizons” is available to download (has been for a while). This issue has two things which I’ve contributed:

“Man On The Moon: The Exploration,” Collier’s magazine, October 25, 1952 : the third in the series of eight articles reprinting the famed “Man Will Conquer Space Soon!” articles from Collier’s magazine. I scanned a vintage copy and cleaned up the images for this.

colliers3a colliers3b

“Hubble meets Skylab:” a short article on an early Lockheed design study for a Hubble-predecessor which was to have been attached to Skylab. This was when what would become Hubble was planned to use film rather than digital imaging, and would require regular and fairly frequent visits by astronauts to change out the film canisters.

hubblemeetsskylab

A with the previous issues with the Collier’s reprints, this issue is available in both high and low resolution, from the AIAA-Houston website HERE.

 Posted by at 9:05 pm

Blueprints!

 APR, drawings, history, new products, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Jan 202013
 

Took me a few days to get a spot ready that would actually *fit* the Saturn V prints for photographic purposes, but here they are:

1/72 Saturn V (two of them):

Closeup of the 1/72 Saturn V’s:

1/72 Saturn Ib and Saturn Ib w/SRBs:

Closeup of the 1/72 Saturn Ib:

Closeup of the 1/72 Saturn Ib w/SRBs:

LM Equipment diagram:

Skylab cutaway:

And here are two versions of the A-4 (V-2) cutaway diagram. These were test prints to see how they’d look; except for being much to garishly colorful, they were ok. But I’ll need to tone them down a bit before making them available.

I’m working on the ordering webpage. Once it’s up and running I’ll email those who have expressed interest in buying prints. I expect I’ll make the prints publicly orderable within a  week or so.

 Posted by at 6:41 pm

Bell D190B rescue VTOL

 aircraft, APR, projects  2 Responses »
Nov 192012
 

The D190 designation was the catch-all for a wide range of tilt-duct vehicles Bell designed in the 1950’s and 1960’s. The D190B was a rescue version, intended to go after downed pilots and the like. Other versions were similar, but designed to mate up with a C-130 in flight; the C-130 would transport the D190 to the vicinity of a rescue and would transport it home again, greatly increasing range and lift capability of the D-190. Another version was designed to similarly mate up with flying command posts and Air Force One, to transfer supplies and personnel.

 Posted by at 1:00 am

Test Article With Impact

 APR, awesomeness, history, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, projects, spacecraft, youtube  10 Responses »
Nov 082012
 

A silent film record of the “Putt-Putt” test vehicle built by General Atomic to prove the principle of propulsion via discrete detonations. A part of Project Orion, Putt-Putt used canisters of C4 plastic explosives rather than atomic bombs, but still managed to – eventually – lurch itself into the sky.

More on this was in issue V1N4 of Aerospace Projects Review, and more will be in my Nuclear Pulse Propulsion book.

[youtube Pcidu6ppcFg]

 Posted by at 12:29 pm

40% off all downloadables sale

 APR, drawings&documents, news, sales & specials  No Responses »
Sep 112012
 

A short-term sale… just a few hours. So act fast! All downloadable drawings and documents and APRs, as well as Reichdream items. Sale excludes matter-mail items and APR subscriptions. Minimum order: $25.

There has *got* to be a way to do this with Paypal in a way that doesn’t seem lame, but I don’t know what it is. So, here’s what I’ve come up with: order the “coupon” below (a nominal fifty cents), and at least $25 more items… and I will refund you 40% of the total. More steps than would seem necessary, but I think it should be workable.

Remember to order the “coupon” and the items all in one order. Otherwise… it won’t work. No “coupon,” no savings…

Sale has ended.

 Posted by at 9:04 am

Reminder: Collier’s “Man Will Conquer Space Soon!”

 APR, art, awesomeness, blather, history, news, projects, reshaping the world, rockets, science, science fiction, spacecraft  3 Responses »
Sep 052012
 

The July/August 2012 issue of AIAA-Houston Horizons reprints the complete first Collier’s article from March 22, 1952. The original magazine layout included numerous ads and extraneous bits that were edited out of this reprint, and in several cases replaced with “Mini-APR” articles, several of which tie directly into the Collier’s series. This first article includes about 30 pages of the original Collier’s stuff. Future issues of Horizons will carry the complete set of Collier’s article,s including the Moon exploration and Mars exploration articles.

As always, Horizons is a free-to-download PDF. New for this issue, it is available in both high and low resolution.

Feel free to spread the word about this. The more it is downloaded from the AIAA site, the more interest is shown in it, the more might be done with this in the future.

 Posted by at 8:34 pm

Collier’s “Man Will Conquer Space Soon!”

 APR, art, awesomeness, books, history, news, projects, reshaping the world, rockets, science, science fiction, spacecraft  8 Responses »
Sep 022012
 

OK, here’s one of the projects I’ve been working on of late… scanning and repairing the old “Collier’s space series” articles from the early 1950’s for reprinting in the AIAA-Houston section newsletter. As far as I’m aware, this is the first time these have been republished in clear, high-rez and full color format since the original release.

For those unaware, in the early 1950’s Collier’s magazine (similar to “The Saturday Evening Post”) ran a series of articles written by the likes of Willy Ley and Werner von Braun, illustrated by the likes of Chesley Bonestell and Fred Freeman, describing what the future of manned space exploration may look like. Their vision was, to put it mildly, grandiose, and far exceeded what the actual space program became and did… but the impact on the public of these articles helped lead to  the space program becoming popular with the public… and the government. The designs that were produced, such as the Ferry Rocket and “Wheel” space stations, are comfortably described as “iconic.”

The July/August 2012 issue of AIAA-Houston Horizons reprints the complete first Collier’s article from March 22, 1952. The original magazine layout included numerous ads and extraneous bits that were edited out of this reprint, and in several cases replaced with “Mini-APR” articles, several of which tie directly into the Collier’s series. This first article includes about 30 pages of the original Collier’s stuff. Future issues of Horizons will carry the complete set of Collier’s article,s including the Moon exploration and Mars exploration articles.

As always, Horizons is a free-to-download PDF. New for this issue, it is available in both high and low resolution.

Feel free to spread the word about this. The more it is downloaded from the AIAA site, the more interest is shown in it, the more might be done with this in the future.

 Posted by at 11:28 am

Various Updates

 APR, blather, models, news, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion  2 Responses »
Aug 142012
 

1) APR V3N3: working on numerous CAD drawings of the XC-132 and related designs

2) NPP: re-designing the “Landing boat.” It’s amazing what people will sometimes post online without knowing just what it is that they have… in this case, three paintings of the landing boat, finally visible with adequate resolution.

3) Whispercraft model is just about done. Will be followed up by the Soviet LK lunar lander. Tremulis Zero Fighter may be sandwiched in there somewhere.

4) APR on MagCloud: after a few emails, it’s clear that substantially revising Volumes 1 and 2 *again* for release on MagCloud would not be worth the effort. So they will be reformatted to fit the MagCloud layout, some minor errors corrected, then released at some point. I’m considering producing a collection of CAD drawings to be released as an 11X17 formatted pDF, probably one collection per volume.

 Posted by at 4:17 pm
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