Apr 172019
 

An early-ish Convair illustration of the potential weapons and other payloads to be carried by the B-58 bomber, both in the centerline pod and under the wing roots. Note not only ballistic missiles but also several recon options, and a “bomb bay pod” giving the aircraft a payload of several gravity bombs, presumably nuclear.

I have uploaded the full resolution scan of the illustrations to the 2019-04 APR Extras Dropbox folder, available to $4 and up subscribers to the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.

 Posted by at 6:29 pm
Apr 122019
 

A Boeing diagram of the Model 767-85M, a pre-767 jetliner concept from 1971 designed to cruise at Mach 0.98. In order to achieve that, the design was massively aerodynamically optimized for transonic efficiency… with “wasp-waiting” taken to something of an extreme. The aircraft would have been fuel efficient at high (but still subsonic) speed, but would have been a nightmare to manufacture.

I’ve made the full-rez scan of this large format diagram available to above-$10-subscribers to the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program/Patreon.

If this sort of thing is of interest, consider subscribing. Even a buck a month will help out; but the more you subscribe for, the more you get… and the more you help me get from eBay and save for the ages.

 

 Posted by at 7:52 pm
Feb 122019
 

As a bonus for those who subscribe to the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program at above the $10 level, I have made available a diagram I photocopied several decades ago at the US Air Force Museum archive: a detailed and seemingly accurate three-view of the MiG-31 “Firefox” from the movie of the same name. I *think* it’s “fan art,” but am not sure… but the USAF thought that it was worth archiving. If this is of interest, consider subscribing at the $11 level of higher.

 Posted by at 6:35 pm
Feb 022019
 

On the 29th, APR Patrons and Monthly Historical Documents program subscribers were sent emails containing links to the January, 2019 rewards. This months set of documents and diagrams included high-rez copies of:

Document: “ASTRO A Manned Reusable Spacecraft Concept,” a Douglas Missiles & Space brochure from August, 1962, describing a two-stage Shuttle-like vehicle

Document: “Status update Ramjet Propulsion 1978” a brochure from the Marquardt Company

Document: “Rocket Blitz Form the Moon” an article from the October 23, 1948 issue of “Colliers” magazine describing the use of the Moon as a missile base, with some helpful Bonestell illustrations of Manhattan getting nuked.

Diagram: A large format color scan of the 1970 North American Rockwell PD-157-17-2 HIPAAS V/STOL jet fighter

CAD Diagram: isometric view, Bernal Sphere space habitat

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.

 

 




 Posted by at 2:21 am
Jan 282019
 

The Internet Archive has a *lot* of stuff. One thing there is a scan of the French-language aeronautical magazine “L’Aeronautique” covering 1919-1921. It is available in a number of formats, including PDF, here:

https://archive.org/details/la02b9eronautiqu03pari/page/n2

Included in this is a design for a truly gigantic aircraft with a wingspan of 110 meters, produced by Professor Junkers, presumably Hugo Junkers of Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke AG.Hugo was an innovator in the field of all-metal aircraft construction, including the first practical all-metal aircraft the Junkers J 1 from 1915. The giant aircraft would have a wing area of 1,400 square meters and a gross weight of 60 tonnes; 12 engines would produce 4,000 horsepower and drive six propellers. Two tractor props would have a diameter of 6 meters, while four pusher props would have a diameter of 3.7 meters. No performance data seems to be given, but it can be assumed that it was meant to be a long range passenger or cargo transport.

 

Support the APR Patreon to help bring more of this sort of thing to light! Alternatively, you can support through the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.

Bonus: A helicopter design from one Douglas Shaw. This would have failed entertainingly.

 Posted by at 6:51 pm
Dec 242018
 

2018-12 Rewards are now available for downloading for APR Historical Documents subscribers. This month the rewards include:

1: A large document: “Sea Launch and Recovery of Very Large Rocket Vehicles,” a 1962 Aerojet report on the sea Dragon concept

2: “Ryan Aeronautical Company Plane Portraits,” information, photos and three-views of a sizable range of Ryan aircraft, manned and unmanned

3: “Nova,” a blueprint of the NASA “Saturn C-8” launch vehicle with 8 F-1 engines

4: CAD diagrams: Star Raker scrap views

If you are interested in signing up, you can do so either at Patreon or directly through PayPal. Signing up now makes you eligible for rewards starting with the *next* months rewards. The directly-through-PayPal system is new; it would probably be best to sign up after the first of the month.

 Posted by at 6:16 pm