Mortons has posted a preview “sampler” of my “Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird” bookazine. You can take a look and see if it’s for you.
It is available directly through the publisher for £8.99 (Approx $12.41 or €10.34). It is also available through Amazon for pre-order for $12.99. Direct from the publisher should be available sooner; from Amazon, lower mailing cost if you’re in the US.
From the fine folks who brought you a hydraulic press crushing everything imaginable, here is a massive steel box with a small hole with a grenade-sized explosive in it. The demonstration you didn’t know you needed to see until you saw it.
Note that this demonstrates how a near-instantaneous explosive can be turned into an actual rocket. Just not a good one.
Might have noticed that blogging has been reduced mostly to posting YouTube vids and very brief grumbles of late. It’ll probably be much the same or even less for the next month or two… I’m hard at work on “B-47/B-52” and that takes precedence. Just passed 200 pages of diagrams; a few more left to do, but text is the current priority and I’m a slower writer than draftsman (and I don’t draft that fast).
Side note: Amazon has decided that I might be interested in these. Amazing! How do it know?
Amazon sent me a link to a book it thought I might like:
Does that Amazon AI know me or what?
FYI: Here’s my other computer screen at the moment…
It looks like SpaceX has finally succeeded with a true soft landing of a Starship. More than 10 minutes after landing, it’s still pointed straight up. There was a fire at the base for several minutes, but after some judicious venting the fire seems to have gone out. Oddly, SpaceX doesn’t seem to have covered the flight. There were numerous interruptions of the video feed from the vehicle itself; with luck it was recorded by the cameras and will be recovered.
UPDATE:
SpaceX has posted a video.
Here is an incomplete look at the diagrams created for my first book, “Boeing B-47 Stratojet and B-52 Stratofortress; Origins & Evolution.” It can be pre-ordered either directly from the publisher (with publication expected in late September) or through Amazon (looks like they’ll have it two months later). It is also expected to be on certain store shelves… more on that when it’s confirmed.
A few of these diagrams will be compressed to several-per-page; a few of them here are already shown in multiple optional layouts. But there are also a dozen-ish diagrams *not* shown because they are incomplete as yet. This gives an indication of the size and scope of the project…
If your cruise missile test launch is going to fail… FAIL IN STYLE.
This launch of a Kalibr-NK cruise missile from the frigate Marshal Shaposhnikov suffered a wee bit of a thrust vectoring issue. The Kalibr is hardly some shiny new experimental missile; Russia lobbed a few of these into Syria a little while back:
Sometimes things just don’t go to plan.
And this round goes to SpaceX!
The 1Q report from @BryceSpaceTech on mass to orbit:
SpaceX: 116 metric tons (mostly Starlink)
China: 26 metric tons
All the rest: Lesshttps://t.co/2HXcqt9wYe pic.twitter.com/2Kh2YBuH8l— Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) April 28, 2021
While it’s good that SpaceX continues to kick substantial ass in the field of launching stuff to orbit, expect the Chinese to do whatever they can to surpass. Note that Boeing/Lockheed/ULA doesn’t appear on here. SpaceX is essentially America’s *sole* launch provider. Great for them, but it makes them a single-point failure mode, vulnerable to screwups, physical sabotage, cyber attacks and regulations.
My publisher has gone public with Book One, entitled
Woo!
It is being published by Mortons out of Britain, is scheduled for release at the end of September, and is going to be around 250 to 280 pages (I’m still furiously working away at it). As those who have seen my work may assume, it will be loaded to the gills with diagrams, in this case covering the competitors to the B-47 and B-52, the original concepts, how the designs evolved and many of the proposed and built derivatives. You can pre-order at the link above. I’m getting confirmation on availability in the States… Amazon and Barnes & Noble and other sources. Will report back on that, but it does look like both outlets will carry it.
I will post more details – including glimpses of diagrams and some of the color art created for the book by Rob Parthoens – in the coming days. Feel free to ask questions.
Note: Book Two has not yet gone public. But Book Two should be published *first* since it is finished and edited; I’ve seen and approved the layout. All it’s missing right now is cover art, which is in process.
And…behold! An Amazon link, listing it as available in late November/early December. Just in time for Chrisnukkwanzayulmass! Note though that the “150 page” length listed there is incorrect… came from the original placeholder text.
SpaceX has launched four astronauts into orbit via Falcon 9/Dragon, as well as recovering the booster via drone ship.
Most people launched at one time since the Space Shuttle.
