B-47/B-52: Signed copies!

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, B-47 and B-52 Origins and Evolution, blather, Book 3, Book X, books, drawings, history, Hmm..., new products, news, projects, rockets, secrets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Jan 142022
 

A few boxes of books finally showed up, shipped from Britain. Not as many as I’d planned on getting; with luck, one or two more boxes are simply working their way through the system slower than the others. UPDATE: the rest showed up. However, I can only make firm plans for the books I actually have on hand.

I plan on selling signed, numbered and dated copies for $55 each plus shipping (cheap in the US, but doubtless ridiculously expensive elsewhere… international postage is nuts these days). To sweeten the deal, these will all come with three 18X24 signed, numbered and dated prints of the B-47 and B-52.

To start off, I will auction off the first five copies. To sweeten *that* deal, numbers 3,4 and 5 will have a fourth 18X24 print… from the currently in-progress Book 3. Numbers 1 and 2 will have an additional 18X24, also from Book 3. The subject of Book 3 has not been made public yet, but I trust that it and the diagrams will be of considerable interest to anyone who has purchased “SR-71” and “B-47/B-52.”

The auction will be simple: send me your bid (in excess of $55) and the highest bid gets #1, second highest gets #2, and so on. Send your bid to scottlowther@up-ship.com before the end of the day Sunday.

After that I will sell off the other signed copies, starting with those who signed up. Hopefully more will arrive by that point, but for right now it looks like There will be a grand total of only 18 23 signed and numbered copies on the entire planet. So… who knows. Collectors items.

 Posted by at 1:57 am

Behold: Books!

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, Book X, books, drawings, history, new products, projects  No Responses »
Jan 132022
 

Yesterday some boxes from Britain showed up with some copies of my new book:

I will be selling these as signed copies for $55 plus postage. My plan at this time is to sell a very limited number (I currently have a grand total of 18 copies on hand; I have hopes for a *few* more to show up) with three 18X24 prints. all singed and numbered. However, fiver copies, #’s 1 through 5, will be auctioned: the idea is that the highest bid gets #1, second highest gets #2, etc. As a bonus, #’s 3,4,5 will get one extra 18X24, which will be a diagram from the currently in-progress Book 3. #’s 1 and 2 will get *two* prints from Book 3. Pretty sure that these extra diagrams will be of considerable interest to anyone who bought my SR-71 book and the B-47/B-52 book. I will contact the list of folks who signed on in a day or two.

If you want to just go ahead and buy a regular copy, it’s available from Mortons in Britain and, in a few days, from Amazon.

 Posted by at 10:35 am

Barrage balloon diagrams: 1

 aircraft, art, drawings, history  No Responses »
Jan 132022
 

A few days ago a series of auctions for 1940’s (mostly Goodyear) blimp and barrage balloon diagrams ended on eBay. I tried to get them all, but got outbid on all but one. Nevertheless, the photos posted to eBay might be of interest to some folks.

 

 Posted by at 10:17 am

Coyote Awesome

 aircraft, awesomeness, Hmm..., news, rockets, weapons, youtube  No Responses »
Jan 092022
 

Recently released footage of the Raytheon “Coyote” missile blasting the bejeebers out of a series of unmanned small aircraft. It’s certainly impressive, and certainly very effective, but it seems perhaps a bit excessive for the task. A warhead a fraction of the size would seem able to do the job. If they could scale this thing down to manpad size, so that a launch system with the size and user-friendliness of a Stinger could be employed,that would make this concept dandy for taking out quadcopters and the like. If they were *really* good… rounds launchable from a standard 40 mm grenade launcher, with an ejectable warhead, so the missile itself could be recovered, refurbished and reused.

The Coyote uses small solid rocket motors for initial boost, with a jet engine for a sustainer.

image source: Janes

 Posted by at 11:56 am

Worth watching

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, science fiction  No Responses »
Jan 082022
 

Some movies currently streaming for free (well, “free” once you get past paying for the streaming services):

“Real Genius” is now streaming on Hulu and Paramount Plus. For some reason this movie has not been released on Blu Ray, only DVD and VHS. If you haven’t seen it… why the frak not? if you have seen it, and especially if you are in the age group it was meant for (those roughly near college age in the mid 80’s), and especially if you are of a scientific mindset, it’s almost certainly got a special place in your heart. The attention to an attempt at scientific plausibility, the treatment of smart people as diverse, the production designs by Ron Cobb… Jordan. Jordan.

“Starflight One: the Plane That Couldn’t Land” was a *wholly* ridiculous 1983 TV film starring the Six Million Dollar Man as a jetliner pilot in what could have been the ultimate expression of the “Airport” series of aviation disaster movies, had it been branded as such. In short, the maiden flight of a US-to-Australia hypersonic transport goes wrong and the aircraft ends up in *orbit.* The math ain’t right, the ultimate solution is silly beyond belief, and the idea that NASA could turn around the Shuttle Columbia in a *day*? Snerk. Still, it’s a freakin’ *hoot.* The design of the HST, and the actual execution of the miniature, is far better than a movie-of-the-week would suggest. Currently on Paramount Plus.

“SST: Death Flight” is really rather awful. It’s a 1977 TV movie, with Americas first SST suddenly losing control Because Reasons. The SST appears to be a Lockheed L-2000 model, but with the L-2000’s nacelles cut off and 747 nacelles added on. This looks ridiculous; it seems to have been done so that a few external shots could be filmed at the passenger entrance of a 747 looking aft. You can make out the wings and clearly see the turbofans, but you can’t see the fuselage. So I *guess* you can assume that the real aircraft you’re seeing is the SST. Note: it’s a TV movie, so imagine my surprise when beeeewwwwbs suddenly make an appearance, a scene that was added for foreign showings. The production values are everything that “Starflight One” ain’t. It’s worth pointing and laughing at. Currently on Amazon Prime.

“Strategic Air Command” is on Amazon Prime. If you don’t know about this movie… holy frak, what are you doing here? Go get you some SAC and behold the *glorious* B-36 and B-47 footage.

“Blue Thunder” is currently on Amazon Prime. The LAPD gets themselves an Aerospatiale Gazelle that sexually identifies as an attack helicopter.

“Prophesy:” a 1979 eco-horror flick about a skinless bear on a rampage. I haven’t seen this since… well, 1979. So now that it’s on Hulu, I’m going to go take a look when I get a chance. I vaguely recall it as being an effective horror movie; but as I was just a kid at the time, I bet a modern viewing will not stand up well. But hey, why not.

 

What else we got?

 Posted by at 3:52 pm

Intentionally crashed his plane?

 AARRRGH, aircraft, Crazy, dumbassery, Gah., youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jan 052022
 

This seems a dubious situation… a guy was flying along in his 1940’s Taylorcraft plane when the engine stopped… so within seconds he bailed out. The plane glided to a crash in the California mountains, fortunately missing humans and structures and not starting any fires. Interestingly, the guy had a *lot* of GoPro cameras on his plane. Lots of footage. It sure looks like he did this on purpose.

if he did this intentionally, I gotta believe he’s on the hook for *lot* of charges. If he did this honestly, I gotta believe the FAA and NTSB are gonna jump all over him for being rather incompetent. Bailing out that fast from an aircraft that seems to be flying well and at reasonably high altitude? He barely had time to register what was going on before jumping out.

 Posted by at 12:15 am

Lockheed AP-12

 aircraft, awesomeness, Book X, books, drawings, history, Hmm..., Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Origins and Evolution, projects, rockets, spacecraft, SR-71 Origins and Evolution  No Responses »
Jan 042022
 

The Lockheed Skunk Works A-12 was the immediate predecessor of the SR-71, a single seat recon vehicle in some ways a bit superior to the SR-71, in others not as good. One of the odder ideas put forward was to use the A-12 to carry a modified Polaris missile with a recon satellite on a once-around mission… a way to turn the Mach 3+ A-12 into a global range hypersonic, nearly orbit-capable recon platform. It was bonkers, but the math checked out; nevertheless it was not built. It is described in greater detail in:

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird – Origins & Evolution

Available either directly through the publisher or through Amazon.

 Posted by at 3:14 am
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