A number of techniques are demonstrated here to make a model aircraft look weather-beaten and dilapidated.
Feb 012022
Jan 312022
Fantastic Plastic has at last released for purchase the War Rocket model I CADded for them a few years ago:
Emperor’s War Rocket
Jan 312022
An Antonov 225 shows the fog who’s boss:
Jan 292022
Jan 262022
Below is one of the diagrams that I used to help create “Lockheed SR-71: Origins and Evolution.” It is a Lockheed diagram taken from a CIA report showing the D-21 drone atop an M-21 mothership… basically a two-seat version of the A-12 spyplane. The D-21 program as a whole was a dismal failure, but launching it from the back of a manned Mach 3 aircraft proved to be fatal. Still, the D-21, for all the trouble it had, was an impressive piece of work; had there been more of a drive to make it work, doubtless Lockheed would have made it into a successful recon platform. But the time, effort and expense just didn’t compare well to results from spy satellites, and the program was ended. A number of airframes have been preserved, and there have been attempts to resurrect them for use as experimental platforms.
The full-rez diagram has been uploaded to the 2022-01 APR Extras folder on Dropbox. This is available to all $4 and up Patrons and Subscribers. If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, along with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.
I plan on uploading a number of the diagrams, art and whatnot that I used to create the CAD diagrams in “SR-71” the the APR extras Dropbox in the coming months.
Jan 242022
This thing looks like it’s out of a sci-fi flick. Specifically, a sci-fi flick where the VFX people were told to ignore the laws of physics.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CXt-uFYNVfL/
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Jan 222022
Where some computer graphics experts try to figure out what’s going on in a 5-hour time lapse video that shows an anomalous high altitude *something.* Interesting to watch them go from “what could it be” to “oh, it’s probably this.”
Jan 192022
Radian announces plans to build one of the holy grails of spaceflight
The “holy grail” in this case is an SSTO spaceplane. It is to *not* incorporate airbreathing or wacky unproven technologies; instead, it is to use fairly conventional liquid propellant rocket engines in the tail of a cranked-delta spaceplane. To lob it off the ground, it will use a powered sled for a horizontal runway launch.
Ehh.
Same basic concept as the Sanger Silverbird of 1944 vintage, or the Boeing “Windjammer” and RASV concepts from the 70’s. If they can get the mass ratio to work… sure, it’s possible. They’re claiming a 48-hour turnaround. Uh-huh. I’ll believe it when I see it. I wish them the best, but I’ve seen far too many such press releases since the 90’s to get all excited.
A few patent applications that might be of interest:
“Earth to Orbit Transportation System”
“Rocket propulsion systems and associated methods”
The not terribly enlightening website is here:
https://www.radianaerospace.com/
Curiously, one of the names attached to both patent applications that might be of interest to readers of this blog is Gary Hudson, of the Phoenix SSTO, Air Launch and Roton fame. But he doesn’t seem to be listed on the website.
Jan 152022
To a certain limit of the definition of “flight,”
Once again, another flight test video where the audio is obscured, in this case by music. I fully imagine that this thing was brain-meltingly loud nearby, a result of the basic physics of high disc loading.
Jan 142022
A few days ago, a light plane crashed and promptly got run over by a train. The bodycam footage from one of the cops who yoinked the pilot out of the plane *just* before the train turned the plane into confetti is certainly worth watching.