Crowdfunding Aerospace History on eBay

 aircraft, awesomeness, drawings, eBay, history, Patreon  10 Responses »
Jul 172016
 

Every now and then something pops up on eBay that is historically terribly important, and I’ve sat here and watched the auction shoot *way* past my  financial means. The items get sold and disappear into a black hole. Well, no more, dagnabbit. I just scored a treasure trove of vintage Convair F2Y “Sea Dart” documents and diagrams. The final price was about $400… well beyond my means. But as there were 15 contributors, it broke down to about $24.55 per person. Each of the contributors will receive a full set of 300 dpi color or grayscale (where appropriate) scans of everything in the lot. And the actual items themselves? When I’m done scanning and checking them, they will be donated to the San Diego Air & Space Museum. This is appropriate not only because they have an archive of Convair files, they also have an F2Y sitting on a pole out front.

The crowdfunding effort was announced and made available via the Aerospace Projects Review Patreon. I fully intend to do this again; I wish I had a time machine to do it with a couple of frustrating Boeing 2707 and hypersonic  auctions from a number of months ago… So if you’d like to be in on this sort of thing in the future, check out the APR Patreon.

Behold:

f27 5 f27 4 f2y 3 f2y 2 f2y a

 Posted by at 9:15 pm

Dual Keel Space Station Art

 art, drawings, history, Patreon, projects, spacecraft  4 Responses »
Jul 082016
 

A while ago I was asked by another aerospace historian if I had any artwork of the “Dual Keel” version of the Space Station design from the mid/late 1980s. This was a predecessor to the International Space Station (the “Russians” being the “Soviets” at the time) and was to be used not just as an orbiting shack for some basic research, but also as an assembly area for manned missions to the moon and Mars. Turns out I had a fair amount of Dual Keel art. As is the way of things, a lot of that art is moderately poor… scanned from dusty slides, in many cases. Still, it’s what I had. It dawned on me that others might be interested in it, so I put all the images into the same size and format (standard 8.5X11) and made a PDF out of it, seventy some pages. I have uploaded Part One to the “APR Extras” Dropbox site into the “2016-07 APR Extras” folder. This is accessible to all APR Patreon patrons at the $4 level and above (if you are such a patron and don’t have access, send me a message via Patreon, I’ll get you fixed up).

dualkeelad1

 Posted by at 1:31 pm

747 MX-launcher

 aircraft, history, nukes, Patreon, projects, rockets  4 Responses »
Jul 052016
 

Every now and then ebay provides some interesting items that are just plain too expensive. One such is a Boeing presentation on using the 747 to carry and air-launch MX ICBMs. The original Buy It Now price was over two grand; consequently, the document remained on ebay for something like a year. However, I negotiated down to $250. Still too expensive, but crowdfunding makes it reasonably affordable.

I currently have about 9 people interested in splitting the cost. Nine plus me means the cost is $25 per person… suddenly not quite so horrible. If more people come on board, the price will fall even more. Twenty people total drops it to $12.50 each. Thirty drops it to $8.33, and so on. Each contributor gets a complete high-rez scan of the document.

If you are interested in getting in on this, it’s open to APR Patreon patrons at all levels. Check out the APR Patreon for this and other rewards. The most recent posting at the APR Patreon has a place to comment and express your interest in getting a copy of this document.

The opportunity will be open until the document arrives in the mail, which should be a few days.

747-mx

 Posted by at 10:36 am

PDF Review: Aerospace Projects Clip Art

 aircraft, art, history, Patreon, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Jun 252016
 

A heavily illustrated USAF brochure on turbine engine technology included, among a vast number of little photos of engines and aircraft, a few illustrations that might be of interest.

Several futuristic concepts here, several old ones. Of particular interest is the “Supersonic Multirole Fighter,” which looks like a cross between the old Lockheed Hopeless Diamond concept and the Northrop XST design… tailless with an inlet on top, with features reminiscent of the F-117, but blended rather than faceted.

aeroclipart2

 

Of these “Emerging Concept Needs,” several are distinctly old. The middle row of three designs are all 20+ year-old concepts.

aeroclipart3

aeroclipart4

 Posted by at 6:13 pm

The Amazing F-111

 aircraft, art, history, Patreon  8 Responses »
Jun 122016
 

In May, 1968, Popular Science ran an article about the then-current F-111. The article, illustrated with a painting by Bob McCall, described both the USAF and USN versions in generally glowing terms, but also points out the problems (and corrects surmises that the Navy might ditch theirs, and build a whole new plane). I’ve scanned in the article and posted it up at Dropbox for $4 and up APR Patreon patrons. There is a two-page spread of the McCall painting; I’ve stitched it back together and tried to patch it up. The full-rez version of that is included as well. For patrons, it’s in the 2016-06 APR Extras folder.

If interested, check out the APR Patreon.

centerfold

 

 Posted by at 9:00 pm

Forthcoming: Archangel A-1

 aircraft, drawings, history, Patreon, projects  No Responses »
May 282016
 

I’m hurrying to get together the CAD diagram for the May APR Patreon Rewards package. The rest of the reward items are ready to go, but there’s still a little work to accomplish on the diagram. But rest assured it’ll be ready before the end of the month and will be sent out to current APR Patreon patrons. So if you’d be interested in the Lockheed A-1 diagram – which in the largest form is formatted for 18X24 – signed up soon! It’s only a few dollars…

So, check it out…

patreon-200

arch-002 A-1-Model

 Posted by at 8:02 am

Pax Orionis update

 My Fiction, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, Patreon, Pax Orionis, science fiction, spacecraft, Utah  4 Responses »
Apr 122016
 

And then there’s this: I’ve roughly finished another Pax Orionis yarn: “Birth of the Bomb.”  It’s a greatly expanded, completely re-written version of a snippet I have previously posted and, perhaps shockingly, it’s not grimdark but rather the opposite (in a way). This one deals not with war but exploration. It’s somewhat longer than “The Deadliest Catch,” so it’ll be in two parts.

I’m currently going over it, tinkering. I need to add the Technical Diagram (a helicopter is mentioned in the story, and I’ve been tempted to draw *that,* but I’ve decided to stick with more Orion-based diagrams for the time being) and a few other bits, but I should have Part One available for Pax Orionis patrons in a week or two. So if you are interested, take a look at the Pax Orionis Patreon page.

becomeapatron

 Posted by at 10:25 am

AH-56 & JVX

 aircraft, art, drawings, history, Patreon, projects  4 Responses »
Feb 282016
 

I’ve put scans of a 1968 Popular Science article on the Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne attack helicopter and a Boeing-Bell brochure on the JVX tiltrotor (which became the V-22) on the APR Patreon dropbox, in the 2016-02 folder.

The Pop Sci article featured cover art by Robert McCall. Just cuz, I tinkered with the cover art, attempting to scrape off the text and restore it to just the painting. Perhaps not a 100% success, but not too bad. The JVX is not *quite* the final V-22 design; a notable difference is the inclusion of a .50 caliber gatling gun in the nose and a rocket launcher hanging off the side the cockpit.

If interested in getting these, please consider signing up for the APR Patreon. The “Extras” are available to all $4 patrons. Quite a pile of high-rez stuff is available now.

jvx ah-56

 Posted by at 3:02 pm

WS324A Characteristic Summary

 aircraft, drawings, history, Patreon, projects  7 Responses »
Feb 232016
 

One of an extremely large large number of designs put forward for Weapons System 324A, Tactical Fighter X, which eventually became the F-111. This particular design, circa 1962, is the WADD 46 from the Wright Air Development Center and is pretty typical… a twin engine supersonic design with sizable variable-sweep wings.

Two full-rez pages from the WS324A Characteristics Summary have been posted to the 2016-02 APR Extras Dropbox folder for all $4 and up APR Patreon patrons.

Ws324a

 Posted by at 12:04 am
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