APR April 2020 Rewards

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, drawings, history, Monthly Historical Documents Program, new products, Patreon, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Apr 302020
 

I’m terrible at posting updates on the latest rewards, but I do get every rewards package out on time. That said, APR Patrons and Monthly Historical Documents Program subscribers have just been sent the rewards for April, 202. This package includes:

1) “Flying Carpet Feasibility Study Submarine Carrier,” a full scan of the 1958 Boeing report on a series of submarines design to carrying Mach3+ VTOL strike fighters

2) “F10F Descriptive Data,” a full scan of a 1953 Lockheed document describing this competitors design

3) Diagram 35-17610, B-52 airdrop carrier aircraft for the Model 844-2050 X-20 Dyna Soar

4) A CAD diagram of a two-stage Rockwell Trans Atmospheric Vehicle using a ground effect machine first stage

 

If this sort of thing is of interest and you’d like to get in on it and make sure you don’t miss any of the forthcoming releases, sign up either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.

 

 



All prior “back issues” are available for purchase by subscribers.

 Posted by at 2:52 pm

Anybody have a *good* three-view of the Convair B-46?

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, drawings, history  No Responses »
Apr 282020
 

What I’m looking for is a (preferably large format) Convair diagram of the B-46 with some fair level of detail and importantly accuracy. Not after three-views created unofficially for magazines and such. Looking to buy, borrow or rent either a high-rez scan or an actual physical original.

In the mean time, please enjoy this cutaway diagram of the B-46, an aircraft that surely would have gone down as perhaps the US Air Force’s most beautiful operational aircraft had not the Boeing B-47 wiped the floor with it.

 Posted by at 8:51 pm

F-204

 aircraft, drawings, history, projects  No Responses »
Apr 232020
 

In 1974 Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm studied a twin-engine derivative of the F-104 Starfighter, largely because West Germany had themselves some F-104’s that were showing their age. At first glance the design looks pretty much like a stock F-104, but from above it’s clear that it has two engines.

This illustration came from a 1983 paper about the development of the TKF/J-90, an early competitor for what would become the Eurofighter.

 

The paper that the above illustrations came from has been scanned and made available to above-$10 APR subscribers and Patrons.

 

 Posted by at 12:46 pm

Unknown Bomber

 aircraft, drawings, projects  No Responses »
Apr 212020
 

Published in the German “Der Flieger” magazine in 1967, this diagram depicts a strategic bomber seemingly of the AMSA variety. But the minimal text accompanying the diagram gives no indication *who* designed it. Boeing? Lockheed? Tupolev? Volkswagen? If anyone recognizes it, I’d appreciate any info.

 Posted by at 12:43 am

APR Monthly Historical Documents Program

 aircraft, APR, art, drawings, history, Hmm..., Monthly Historical Documents Program, new products, news, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, Patreon, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Apr 052020
 

Once again Patreon seems to be becoming unstable. So I’ve got an alternate: The APR Monthly Historical Documents Program

For some years I have been operating the “Aerospace Projects Review Patreon” which provides monthly rewards in the form of high resolution scans of vintage aerospace diagrams, art and documents. This has worked pretty well, but it seems that perhaps some people might prefer to sign on more directly. Fortunately, PayPal provides the option not only for one-time purchases but also monthly subscriptions. By subscribing using the drop-down menu below, you will receive the same benefits as APR Patrons, but without going through Patreon itself.



Details below.

Continue reading »

 Posted by at 9:11 am

X-15 with a hypersonic ramjet

 aircraft, drawings, projects, rockets  No Responses »
Apr 012020
 

A page from a 1962 North American presentation on the X-15, showing a preliminary design 0f an underslung rocket-boosted scramjet test vehicle. It was expected to get to a blisteringly fast 17,000 feet per second (about Mach 15), but it doubtless would not have much of a burn time. The ABLX-259 rocket booster was a solid rocket used as the “Antares II” third stage of the Scout space launcher. Note that the X-15 had an extended nozzle.

 Posted by at 12:21 am

X-34 proposals

 aircraft, drawings, history, projects, rockets  No Responses »
Mar 272020
 

The X-34 was the first aerospace project I worked on after graduation. Sadly, one week after I was hired to work on the X-34 the whole program was cancelled. “Welcome to aerospace, kid. Here’s your layoff… last one in, first one out.” Feh. Anyway, Orbital Sc iences proposed two vehicles:

1: The X-34A was a small-ish vehicle carried under the same Lockheed L-1011 jetliner that OSC used to launch the Pegasus. The X-34 needed greater volume than the Pegasus, but since there was limited clearance under the L-1011, the X-34A had a wide lifting body-like fuselage.

2: The X-34B was a larger, better optimized vehicle to be launched from atop a Shuttle-carrying 747.

Both the A and B models had payload bays that would contain an upper stage and an orbital payload. Neither was built (apart from a full scale mockup of the A); after the program was cancelled it came back as the X-34C. the C model *was* built, but it never flew.

 Posted by at 10:20 am

A month of aerospace

 aircraft, art, drawings, history, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Mar 182020
 

Given the craziness going on, I decided that what the world clearly needs is something consistent. Like, say, me posting one piece of aerospace diagram or art every day for a month or so. So I’m going to do that. But in order to keep people from getting too complacent, I’m posting some of them on this blog, some on the other blog. Why? Because why not, that’s why. I’m slapping the posts together now and scheduling them to show up one at a time, one a day. Given the pandemic… who knows, this little project might well outlive *me.*

So, check back in (on this blog or the other) on a daily basis. Might be something interesting.

 Posted by at 1:46 pm
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