Lockheed CL-579: An optionally-manned “communications satellite” for after WWIII
Vanguard Model 18: A short range passenger transport from the 60s with slightly unusual wings
Hiller STORC: A helicopter that could convert into a conventional aircraft for long-range ferry flights
North American Rockwell NR-356 Sea Control Fighter: The design that led to the failed XFV-12A
Bell D181: One of the first VTOL “assault transports”
Hiller Anti-Submarine Warfare Drone Tailsitter: An unmanned pulsejet-powered torpedo-launcher
Gates Twinjet: An ill-timed executive transport helicopter
McDonnell Douglas VT107-4-4I: A short-range VTOL jetliner from the early 70s
While this issue covers the usual eight designs, note that it’s about 50% longer than similar, earlier issues. The delay in publication was due in large part to working on several book… and working on several books seems to have led me to be more verbose in my descriptions. So hopefully this means a better product!
USVP #3 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $5.25:
After a delay of several years, I’m back to working on my own little publications. Since the delay was caused by working on actual published *books,* I like to think that I’ve gotten a bit better. Thus the next issue of US VTOL projects has about twice the text of the prior issue, and the diagrams are a bit better. To get best use of the diagrams, I’m reviewing how they are being incorporated into the final text. The link below is a test PDF with four pages… each page has the same illustration, but with variations in resolution, line weight, etc. I’m interested in what looks “best.” So take a look and let me know which page – if any – looks best on screen, and if possible printed out.
After watching these videos, I’m glad I passed on buying into the Mars Industries 1/18 scale “Airwolf” kit. There are a lot of problems with it. A *lot* of problems. There are design issues, uncured resin, quality control issues and, most shocking to me, problems with the vac-formed transparencies. The problem with *those* was that the forms were themselves 3D printed, which is fine… but the prints with their substantial layer lines were not sanded smooth. Thus the transparencies have layer lines. AAAARRRRGH.
“Zipline” is an American company specializing in drone delivery systems. While package delivery via drone has been promised in the US for some years, Zipline has been operating successfully in Rwanda since 2016 as a medical supplies (meds and blood) delivery system. And it seems to work *really* well… something like 90 seconds from receipt of order to launch of the drone, which flies at 60+ mph at a radius of up to 50 miles, delivering up to 4 pounds of payload via parachute. Since startup, Zipline has made over 20 million miles of flights. This system seems not only remarkable successful, but remarkably efficient to run; their main distribution center launches 500 drones a day, and they’ve made this Really Neato System as run of the mill as SpaceX is making launch vehicle recovery.
While this is great for emergency deliveries in rural Africa, it would not be a great system for package delivery in American cities and suburbs… you want your package *delivered,* not dropped, and delivered accurately, not somewhere in a dozen yards radius. A big enough quad/octocopter could over course do this, landing right on your porch and dropping off the box. This type of drone delivery has been proposed for years, but there are obvious problems. First, the things are *LOUD.* Second, all those blades spinning about would pose a hazard to people, pets, property. Third… have you *seen* city folk? Chances are real good that in the half second it takes to land and drop off, some “youths” would spring upon it, not only stealing the package but beating the drone to death with baseball bats. Because that’s where we are now, I guess.
Zipline has what looks like a decent answer to those, though. They still use a big quadcopter, but it lowers a “gondola” up to 400 feet. The gondola has some basic maneuver capability, but no more than needed for translation; all the lift is provided by the main drone. This keeps the “loud” and “dangerous” far overhead. And with the “loud” further away, there’s less chance of Cultural Enrichment spotting it and ambushing it. Additionally, their 50-pound drones are *really* quiet due to special props.
Below is an interesting video on the topic, covering both systems. There is definite cringe… the YouTube goes to Rwanda to see it in action, which is fine; he somehow finagled his way into the operations system, working to get an order processed and launched, which is fine, but his “I just saved a life!” schtick gave me a headache.
The military applications for this are obvious, but somehow were left completely out of the video. Never mind the dullsville of dropping off medical supplies or even ammunition… Zipline has figured out how to make a nearly silent drone delivery system. An inherently quiet drone with a sensor platform/bomb pod suspended 500 feet below it? You could likely drift along over a trench at night, the gondola maybe only ten feet up, dropping off small care packages as you go. The drone itself would be virtually silent, and so far up that it would be virtually impossible to shoot down with small arms. Ordnance that was set to go off via timer or remote activation would allow this to scatter bomblets around and set them all off at once. Or, heck, just pack the gondola with high explosives, napalm, thermite, WP, drift it right up to somebody or something your really don’t like and BLAMMO. Won’t hurt the drone none.
I’ve added some more things to my eBay: “Dynascott.” There are some new cyanotypes, some books, a piece of vintage NASA test equipment that I bought *years* ago to serve as a prop for The Alternate History Movie That Shall Not Be Named. Some cyanotypes I’ve had before; the photos are of the *actual* prints I’m selling. I have more cyanotypes and a lot more books to add soon, but this gets the ball rolling. I’ve included Buy It Now for them.
In a world where SpaceX is doing it’s thing, other small launcher companies had damned well better have a *really* good idea. And while dropping an expendable rocket from a 747 might have been neato-keen in the 1990’s… right now it looks kinda dumb. Sure, the ability to launch from anywhere with a big enough airport is nice… but it doesn’t seem to be enough.
Circa 1980 Lockheed jumped on board the “X-Wing” bandwagon. For those unfortunate enough not to have been graced to grow up in the 80’s, the X-Wing was a concept for a four-bladed helicopter where the rotors were rigid and could be stopped in flight, turning into two forward swept and two aft-swept wings (see Aerospace Projects Review issue V5N6 for a whole fat article on the concept). one of the Lockheed concepts that was publicized at the time was a one-man research/proof of concept vehicle, smaller than a Bell Cobra. I’ve got fair to middling diagrams and data on it, but what I don’t have is a designation. Which is terribly frustrating because I’m convinced that, many years ago, I *read* a designation for it, CL-something, decided “that’s interesting information, I shall surely remember where I read that for future reference,” and have never been able to find it again.
I will be posting some more cyanotype blueprints to ebay in the coming days. These were made from old transparencies I’d had made prior to the move from Utah. But I also hope to have some “brand new” cyanotypes in the near-ish future. The transparent film remains astonishingly elusive; two separate companies are trying to obtain it… and have been for a few months now. Every other print shop in the area has flat refused to try. A print shop a few hundred miles away made a few transparencies for me a few months back; I just sent them files to have a few more made. With luck they’ll come through. I have a *bunch* more I’d like to have done. Here are what I recently sent off:
Martin XB-51. The original print was 1/40 scale; this blueprint will be 1/72 scale.
The Avro “Arrow” structural layout.
Two sheets from NASA illustrating the Saturn V. One sheet is very likely more interesting than the other, so what I might end up doing is ebaying the two sheets and cataloging just the one.
The US-1205 and UA-1207 solid rocket motors for the Titan IIIC and IIIM, respectively. I have the originals of these framed and hanging on my wall; conveniently, they fit in off-the-shelf 11.75X36 panorama frames that you can get at Hobby Lobby and the like. I will probably tinker with some of the other blueprints that are *close* to this size to massage them to fit into that frame. Because as awesome as the prints are on their own, they’re spectacular framed.
I have also sent a revised version of my SR-71 CAD diagrams to be re-printed. The first print’s lines came in too light/fine. Live and learn…
An interesting CGI video depicting three sizes of folding rotor tiltrotor High Speed VTOL from Bell. The concept is not new; actually building and flying one, though, would be. The designs shown are also not new; Bell has been floating them for a few years at least since late 2021.
I’ve never gotten into RC aircraft. Partly because I know that I am fated to spend thousands of hours building something only to have it promptly flop over two seconds after I launch the thing. But static display models? All about that. So this electric RC B-1B bomber looks intriguing. At $800, it’s out of my price range and I *certainly* don’t have a place to display it (seems to be about 1/23 scale)… but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s just neato.
