Feb 222025
 

Now scanning: “Norspiel,” rules book for a wargame created at Northrop Aircraft in 1957. Not the usual sort of thing I go after, but it seems interesting. I wasn’t able to find anything online about it other than the ebay listing, so it may be new to the wargaming world. I’m not a wargamer (not since about 1987), so I’m no expert, but it seems a lot simpler than, say, Dungeons and Dragons or Warhammer 40K.

This will be added to the next APR Patreon/subscriber catalog to be voted on for a monthly reward. If this sort of thing is of interest, please check out: 

aerospaceprojectsreview.com/monthly.htm

 Posted by at 6:12 pm
Feb 032025
 

Rewards for January 2025 have just been sent out. They include:

CAD: Lockheed-Martin RATTLRShypersonic missile

ART: Douglas Nike-Zeus advertising artwork

Doc: 1987 Martin-Marietta “Titan II Program Familiarization – Titan II Training & Certification.” Well illustrated guide to the Titan II launch system.

Doc: University of Michigan report: “The Radar Cross Section of B-70 Aircraft,” 1960. originally secret, declassified report prepared for NAA describing the RCS of the B-70, and how to reduce it.

Subscribers/Patrons for the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program not only receive a monthly collection of aerospace goodies such as these, but can also pick up back issues all the way to 2014.

aerospaceprojectsreview.com/monthly.htm

 Posted by at 11:36 pm
Sep 012024
 

The rewards went out this AM bright and early. They include:

Diagram: Two sheets of Rocketdyne schematics for the Space Shuttle Main Engine and propulsion system

Document: “B-1B New Strength for America’s Defense” An early 80’s brochure on the then-forthcoming B-1B

Document: “Aerojet propulsion for Space Systems,” a very nicely illustrated booklet on the AJ10-137, the main engine of the Apollo CSM

Document: Two articles in French on VTOL Aircraft from the ICARE revue De L’Aviation Francaise “Salon 69”

CAD Diagram: WIP of the Boeing Model 2000-201 VTOL stealth spec ops transport

 

If you are interested in helping to preserve this sort of aerospace history, consider signing up for the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program for as little as $1.50 per month:

https://www.aerospaceprojectsreview.com/monthly.htm

 

 Posted by at 2:32 pm
Jul 172024
 

A general arrangement diagram of the Douglas Model D-3203-29. This was a modified DC-9-50, appears to be the basic design for the MD-80, dated 7-26-1977.

The full-rez scan (more than ten times larger than this one) has been made available as a bonus to above-$10 subscribers and Patrons. If interested in such things, consider subscribing:

https://www.aerospaceprojectsreview.com/monthly.htm

 Posted by at 2:02 am
Jul 012024
 

A day late, but I’ve sent out the June 2024 rewards to APR Patrons/Subscribers. Includes:

1: A pack of X-30 NASP propaganda. Seven double-sided 8X10 glossies, a double-sided poster, a bumper sticker and an emblem sticker.

2: “Non-Planing Seaplane Study” by Convair, 196. Two presentations; The $4 and up subscribers get not only the cleaned-up report, but the original as-scanned negative-image transparencies. marvel at the liberal use not of white-out but of black-out.

3: Detailed diagram of the KC-135 (1/40 scale model)

4: In lieu of a CAD diagram, first public art of the F-117A, 1988

If you are interested in helping to preserve this sort of aerospace history, consider signing up for the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program for as little as $1.50 per month:

https://www.aerospaceprojectsreview.com/monthly.htm

 

 Posted by at 6:33 pm
Jun 242024
 

I did my best to stitch together this two-page magazine ad. Dating from 1986, it shows missile programs then underway at Martin-Marietta; front and center is the Small ICBM (“Midgetman”) in its Hard Mobile Launcher. The HML would wander seemingly at random around the western US, being difficult to track and target by the Soviets. When the time came, the trailer would be dropped off and the suspension collapsed to lower the trailer to the ground; sloped shells would drop to the ground. In the event of a nearby nuclear detonation, it was hoped that the shockwave would roll over the shell without excessively damaging the trailer. Then the missile launch tube would be raised and the missile fired, sending a single warhead across the planet. The tractor for this version was designed and built by Caterpillar and used rubbed treads, unlike the wheeled Boeing competitors.

Image below is a reduced-rez version of the full scan. The full image  has been made available as a thank-you to APR Patreon and Historical Documents Program patrons at the $4 and above level, placed in the 2024-06 APR Extras. If interested in this piece or if you are interested in helping to fund the preservation of this sort of thing, please consider becoming a patron, either through the APR Patreon or the Monthly Historical Document Program.

 Posted by at 9:25 pm
May 212024
 

Procured from ebay, this piece of concept art sadly comes without context. It shows a tanker aircraft (pretty much a McDonnell-Douglas YC-15, though the engines appear a bit different… perhaps higher bypass turbofans) topping up an F-15.

The full-rez scan of the art has been made available as a thank-you to APR Patreon and Historical Documents Program patrons at the $4 and above level, placed in the 2024-05 APR Extras Dropbox folder. If interested in this or if you are interested in helping to fund the preservation of aerospace history, please consider becoming a patron, either through the APR Patreon or the Monthly Historical Document Program.

 

 Posted by at 9:09 am
Apr 232024
 

This is a little outside the usual for APR, as it is satire rather than actual aerospace design. But I thought it appropriate nonetheless; I remember dreaming up just about the exact same ideas when I was twelve. There was something about the design of those pens that just *screamed* for them to be envisioned as spaceships and missiles and whatnot.

The full-rez scan of the article, and a few more bits, been made available as a thank-you to APR Patreon and Historical Documents Program patrons at the $4 and above level, placed in the 2024-04 APR Extras Dropbox folder. If interested in this or if you are interested in helping to fund the preservation of aerospace histgory, please consider becoming a patron, either through the APR Patreon or the Monthly Historical Document Program.

 Posted by at 11:29 am
Mar 052024
 

I’ve just uploaded a 1986 article on the “Midgetman” road-mobile Small ICBM developed but not deployed by the US at the end of the Cold War to Dropbox for above-$10 APR Patrons/Subscribers.

 

 

This is of course on top of the monthly rewards packages and the “Extras” posted rather irregularly. If you’d be interested, consider subscribing:

https://www.aerospaceprojectsreview.com/monthly.htm

 Posted by at 7:19 am