A 1963 Douglas concept for a space station. This one appears to have everything… to the right, the (Douglas-built) S-IV stage; to the left the (Douglas built) S-IVb stage; docked and coming in to dock, the (Douglas designed) ASTRO spaceplane. All mounted to a core space station that appears to be based on the S-II upper stage.
A lithograph found on eBay presents a rather unlikely design for a Space Shuttle:
Dating from 1970, the craft shown here in a NASA PR glossy appears to be wholly fanciful.
I’ve cut the prices on all my cyanotypes by at least 25%, up to 40%. I’ve also gotten rid of the watercolor versions; it’s all vellum paper now (not only is it more historically accurate, it’s also a lot easier to process and ship).
So… take a look.
An early1960’s illustration of the Delta launch vehicle. While the quality here is middlin’ at best, due to being scanned from an old magazine, it’s a safe bet that the original piece of (non-computer-generated) art was a thing of beauty.
Less than a day left on these ebay auctions. Given the dearth of bids and watchers, it looks like not only will you be able to get them cheap, this’ll be your *only* chance to get them.
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A while back I took a stab at printing cyanotype blueprints on canvas (the kind used by artists for painting on). After a rough start, I managed to get the process to work pretty well. It’s more complex and substantially more expensive than cyanotype printing on vellum paper, so I don’t know if I’ll make canvas blueprints available for regular sale like the paper versions. Still, I’ve put the first three successes on ebay if anyone is interested:
I’ve got the first of the Patreon-supported “PDF Reviews” up over at the APR Blog.
A ginormous glider designed and patented by Burt Rutan carrying a space launch rocket on its back, towed by a jetliner and performing some interesting maneuvers to assure positive separation.
The first stage of the Falcon 9 from the ORBCOMM launch a week ago did a soft landing in the ocean. Better video this time, though still kinda awful quality due to ice buildup on the lens. I believe later this yer SpaceX is going to try to land one of their boosters on a barge out at sea. If that’s successful… wow.
[youtube CQnR5fhCXkQ]
For $10 patrons on my Patreon campaign, a new message should appear there asking you to vote on what I’ll release in August (two documents and one large format diagram). For those who are $10 patrons, here’s a partial list anyway… if you see something there and you really want to make sure it becomes available, well, the obvious thing to do is sign on and vote!
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Drawing: fairly detailed 3-view of Lunar Roving Vehicle (as actually flown to the moon)
Drawing: “Plans for Scale Model Construction of the Honest John Surface-to-Surface Missile” by McDonnell-Douglas, 1971 (does anyone know of more of these???)
Document: “Douglas Aircraft Company: An Overview,” 60+ page brochure showing existing and proposed jetliners, by McDonnell-Douglas, ca. 1980
Art: a vintage lithograph of the Lockheed L-2000 SST in flight, w/3 view on the back.
Document: “CT-39 International Sabreliner,” a Rockwell International booklet/brochure describing the multipurpose utility jet
Document: “Air Force Expeditionary Catapult,” a truly massive billet of paper serving as a proposal from the All American Engineering Company for the System 300 Catapult, 1955. This was to be a turbojet-powered cable launching system for jet fighters which could be easily transported and set up in the field. (NOTE: this one counts as two reports, as it’s fairly gigantic)
Document: Aeroassisted Flight Experiment Nonadvocate Review, 1989, NASA
Document: Pocket Data for Rocket Engines, 1953, Bell
Document: SAM-D Air Defense Weapon System, 1973, US Army
Document: Pilots Handbook of Operation XLR11-RM-3 & XLR11-RM-5, liquid Rocket Engines, 1950, Reaction Motors
Art: X-15 lithograph (date unknown)
Document: The Centaur Program, 1961, Convair
Document: Orbiter Vehicle Structures, Rockwell
Document: An integrated Moonmobile-Spacesuit Concept, 1961, Aerojet
Document: The Intercontinental Stratoliner 707-320, 1955, Boeing
Document: Douglas DC-8 Design Study, 1953, Douglas
Document: Transport Weight Comparison Based on Lockheed 49-10, 1943, Lockheed
Document: ETR Launch Operations Plan for Cenaur on Shuttle, 1979, General Dynamics
Diagram: MD-11 wing diagram, six-feet long: McDonnel-Douglas, 1995
Document: A Lockheed presentation on the GL-224 Turbo-Jet VTOL Aircraft, 1958
Document: A Project RAND report on the GG-2 all-wing bomber, 1949
Document: A small Rockwell brochure on the “common core” concept for a fixed-wing subsonic B-1 variant, 1979 4) A presentation on the Douglas “Skybus,” 1944
Document: A NAA report on a turboprop-powered F-82E for ground attack, 1949
Document: A Curtis report on the twin engined F-87C, 1948
Document: A Vertol report on VTOL transport aircraft, showing several very different configurations, 1956
Document: A Lockheed presentation to the AIAA on the history of the Fleet Ballistic Missile, 1978
Document: A collection of Manned Spacecraft Center Space Shuttle orbiter concepts, 1972
Document: A Convair collection of design drawings of an Assault Seaplane, 1948 (NOTE: this one counts as two reports, as it’s fairly gigantic)
Document: A Vought report on the Regulus II missile with detailed diagrams, 1955
And… that’s as it should be. A first look:
[youtube xWBGrkc360M]
This looks like a throwback to the early Ralph McQuarrie concept for the X-Wing:
The paint job on the new X-Wing looks like the ship has been beat to hell. Which, compared to the shiny, chrome and pure-white fighters from the second trilogy, is as it should be. “Star Wars” loos best when it looks beat up.
I’m about $21 short of the next milestone, which will result in two “PDF reviews” per month of little-known online aerospace history resources. So if that idea appeals… consider signing up (and telling all your friends who have a few dimes to rub together).
Also: in August there will be three documents/large format diagrams released, along with three CAD diagrams. The documents/LFD’s are yet to be chosen (the $10 patron will get to vote on this in the next week or so), but the CAD diagrams are underway. One is already basically complete: the first accurate and clean, large 3-view diagram of the Northrop Tacit Blue demonstrator. The second will be of a proposed launch vehicle. The third is still up in the air.
