Last night in Utah

 blather, drawings, nukes, weapons  4 Responses »
Aug 022008
 

Mostly packed, though I’m still at a bit of a loss as to how exactly I’ll deal with the cats. The sun is about to go down; some car packing, and then I’ll go out and look at the Milky Way for a while. Assuming I don’t get canned right off the bat (you never know), I suspect it’ll be a good long while before I see the night sky again. That close to primary targets like Baltimore and D.C., the night sky is more of a “theory” than a “fact.”

Sigh.

Oh, well, maybe one of these days a platinum meteorite the size of a grapefruit will hit my house and I’ll be able to afford an old missile complex somewhere out in the middle of nowhere. Admit it… you’d want one of these too.

titanbase.jpg

 Posted by at 11:08 pm

Visions of the future based on Dyna Soar

 aircraft, drawings, projects, spacecraft, weapons  1 Response »
Jul 242008
 

Circa 1960, these graphics show a number of payloads that Boeing was projecting for the future. Notice how many of them are Dyna Soar related or derived, including ICGMs (Inter Continental Glide Missiles), orbital bombs, orbital recon systems and most impressively, lunar landers (this was before the idea of Lunar Orbit Rendezvous took hold). Also of note are some non-Dyna Soar payloads, such as satelite inteceptors, recon systems and a 5,000 ton Orion vehicle.

image108a.gif

image107a.gif

 Posted by at 1:19 pm

Raedthinn’s no pussy

 cats, weapons  No Responses »
Jul 232008
 

Unlike many, Raedthinn does not have a pathological fear of firearms. Consequently, I’d trust his opinions on gun rights over those of, say, Nancy Pelosi.

img_1254a.jpg

Cobray M11. A fine piece; a mite clumsy and certainly kinda big and heavy for a pistol that fires the puny 9mm round, but it was originally designed for full auto, and larger size and greater weight give controlability advantages at high rates of fire. On the other hand, it’s inexpensive and about as mechanically complex as a hammer… it is by far the easiest pistol I own to disassemble and clean. It is, of course, Greatly Feared by many. It is semi-automatic, not full auto; and the round it fires is relatively weak and entirely common. But it looks funny, thus legislatures in several states have outlawed this particular weapon. And thus criminals, who by nature obey the law, make sure to not use it…

 Posted by at 2:56 am

VB-9 “ROC-1” guided bomb

 aircraft, drawings, weapons  3 Responses »
Jul 042008
 

Relatively poorly known is the VB-series of guided bombs developed by Douglas for the US Army Air Force during WWII. The VB-9 was a radar guided bomb; the radar transmitter was located in an aircraft (not necessarily the bomber), the receiver was located in the bombs nose, and the radar image would be sent to the launch aircraft, where the bombardier would view the image and send radio commands back to the bomb to guide it to its target. Radar was chosen over TV due to its all-weather capability.

The VB-9 used a 1000-pound bomb with cruciform wings. The wings were for guidance, not lift; it fell on a largely ballistic path rather than gliding to the target.

The drawing below show a test version of a self-guided ROC-1. In this case, the seeker was a photoelectric cell, and the target on the ground was brightly illuminated. The image sent from the bomb to the bombardier would thus be similar to what would be sent if radar was used; it would just be a while lot cheaper. Even so, with complete control over the illumination of the target, tests were stil inconclusive.Additionally, there was so much clutter in the radar image that it and the resulting guidance were almost completely useless. As a result, the VB-9 “ROC-1” was cancelled in early 1945.

Length overall: 9.98 inches

Wingspan: 77 inches

Weight with payload: 1300 lbs

roc1.jpg

 Posted by at 11:21 am

Pluto art onhand!

 aircraft, APR, drawings, projects, weapons  2 Responses »
Jul 012008
 

The first very limited run of Pluto posters is on hand. I have 11 posters, 10 inches by 30, printed glossy on heavy paper. In short, they look fricken’ *sweet.* I’m quite pleased at how they turned out… it’s a quality product.
I’d been planning on reserving selling the posters until the Pluto issue of APR comes out… but I kinda need to recoup some costs (as well as the Pluto posters, I also had a boxload of photos printed, and that really added up in a hurry). So, at this time the cost is $25 per poster, postage extra. Not quite sure what postage is yet… I’ll find out tomorrow when I mail one off to the artist. So if you are interested, send me an email.

I’m hoping these sell quick, so I can run and get another larger print run made.

<> img_9620.JPG<>

 Posted by at 7:03 pm

Heller Decision

 news, weapons  2 Responses »
Jun 262008
 

The Supreme Court has handed down their decision on the Heller case. In case you’ve been hiding under a rock, Heller was about whether or not individuals actually have the right to own firearms, as laid out pretty clearly in the 2nd Amendment. Well, amazingly enough, the US Supreme Court has determined that individuals do:

Answering a 127-year old constitutional question, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to have a gun, at least in one’s home. The Court, splitting 5-4, struck down a District of Columbia ban on handgun possession. Although times have changed since 1791, Justice Antonin Scalia said for the majority, “it is not the role of this Court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct.”

Two things immediately jump out:

1: Why wasn’t it 9-0?

2: If there was some question whether or no it was the USSC’s role to pronounce the 2nd Amendment extinct… is there a similar question regarding the 1st Amendment???

 Posted by at 10:50 am

Badass tank: the T28 part 1

 photography, weapons  No Responses »
Jun 112008
 

On display at the Patton tank museum at Fort Knox, Kentucky is the T28. This monster was designed during WWII to trundle up to Nazi fortifications and blast the bejeebers out of ’em, but was too late to see service.  It was so massive that it required four treads, and even then it likely would have sunk in the mud. Even so, at 95 tons it was only about half the weight of the German Maus tank. And don’t even get me started on the “Ratte…”

pdr_0006a.jpgpdr_0007a.jpgpdr_0008a.jpgpdr_000a9.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-28_Super_Heavy_Tank 

 Posted by at 2:43 am
 Older Entries  Newer Entries