October 2021 APR Rewards

 aircraft, awesomeness, drawings, history, Monthly Historical Documents Program, news, nukes, Patreon, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Oct 312021
 

The rewards for October, 2021, have been sent out. Patrons should have received a notification message through Patreon linking to the rewards; subscribers should have received a notification from Dropbox linking to the rewards. If you did not, let me know.

Document: “C-131C Tactical Unit Support Airplane,” 1953 Consolidated Vultee briefing on cargo aircraft military capabilities

Document: “Aerodynamic Model test Report Titan IIIM Final Posttest Report 0.0535 scale Force and Pressure Model Phase II,” 1967 Martin Report Of Unusual Size (ROUS, 353 pages) describing with charts, data, model photos and diagrams, of the proposed Titan IIIM topped with a Manned Orbiting Laboratory.

Diagram: General Arrangement of the Douglas D-558 research aircraft (provenance unknown)

CAD Diagram (for $5-level and up): Medusa Spinnaker, second illustration of giant but lightweight nuclear pulse propelled spacecraft

 

If this sort of thing is of interest, sign up either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program. *ALL* back issues, one a month since 2014, are available for subscribers at low cost.



 Posted by at 6:46 pm

September 2021 APR Rewards

 AARRRGH, aircraft, APR, art, drawings, Gah., Monthly Historical Documents Program, news, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, Patreon, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Oct 062021
 

Yeesh. I continue to successfully get rewards out to Patrons and subscribers in a timely fashion… but I also continue to fail to publicize the fact. Last day of September, the rewards for that month were sent out. The September 2021 rewards included:

Diagram: “Early X-3 cutaway:” A large format cutaway illustration of a not-quite-final Douglas X-3 configuration

CAD Diagram: the command module of the Solem “Medusa” nuclear pulse propelled spacecraft

Document: a giant 1100+ page “Data Sheets for Ordnance Type Materiel,”1962 US Army “catalog”of pretty much all their stuff. Includes an illustration (often, though not always, including a basic diagram) and data for everything from trucks to tanks to bayonets to pistols to rockets.

Patrons should have received a notification message through Patreon linking to the rewards; subscribers should have received a notification from Dropbox linking to the rewards. If you did not, let me know.

 

If this sort of thing is of interest, sign up either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.



 Posted by at 5:11 pm

Orbital HL-10

 aircraft, drawings, history, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Oct 012021
 

A 1964 Boeing design for an orbital HL-10 derivative, to be used for space station logistics. This would be launched atop a Saturn Ib. Cargo would be carried up int he adapter, which would be expended; passengers would go up and down within the body of the spaceplane. A heat shield would cover the canopy until after re-entry.

 Posted by at 5:24 pm

Boeing B-47 Stratojet & B-52 Stratofortress: Origins and Evolution

 aircraft, awesomeness, B-47 and B-52 Origins and Evolution, books, drawings, history, Hmm..., news, nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Sep 282021
 

My next book is slightly behind schedule, but it is coming. I was recently sent the first “proof” of the book after the graphic artists laid it out; a bit of tinkering yet, but it is nearing completion. I thought it might be interesting to post a shot of the last page.

 

 

 

 Posted by at 9:32 am

Museum photos

 aircraft, B-47 and B-52 Origins and Evolution, books, drawings, history, Hmm..., Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Origins and Evolution, photography  No Responses »
Sep 172021
 

If you contributed to my SAC Museum SR-71 photographic trip, you should by now have access to the relevant Dropbox folders with the photos. For those who contributed $10, this includes the “Best of” folder with 94 photos at 1.15 gigabytes. If you contributed at $30 or more for “All The Photos,” you should have access to:

ALCM: 47 photos, 546 megabytes

B-36: 159, 1.99Gigabytes

B-45: 85, 1.05 Gb

B-47: 168, 2.09 Gb

B-52: 179, 2.22 Gb

B-57E: 79, 1.00 Gb

B-58: 283, 3.48 Gb

Misc: 191, 2.36 Gb

SR-71: 280, 2.44 Gb

XF-85: 22, 282 Mb

You should have received a notification from Dropbox of your access to these folders. If you have just the regular personal account or no Dropbox account at all, most of these are too large for them to be allowed to sit on *your* Dropbox account… but you will still be allowed to download the photos, either individually or as a complete folder ZIP file. The description Dropbox gives is a little vague in that regards.

Also, because why not, I’ve added some “bonus” folders including photos taken during previous visits. For those who contributed $50 or more, you should have:

B-47: 75 photos, 89 megabytes

B-52: 53, 204 meg

And for those who contributes $100, you should have:

B-36: 60, 315 meg

B-58: 78, 304 meg

 

If you’re interested in the photos, or helping me pay for this trip (which included not only car repair/preparations, but also cat food, because *everything* includes cat food), or to help me work on the next couple of books and projects that this trip was in aid of, you can still sign on:


SAC Museum photo trip



—

Note: Amazon still has my SR-71 book, but, jeez, it’s a bit pricey just now at $39. Did it sell out? Dunno. I *guess* that’s a good sign?

 

 Posted by at 5:38 pm

SR-71: Signed copies

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, blather, books, drawings, history, Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Origins and Evolution, projects, sales & specials, SR-71 Origins and Evolution  No Responses »
Sep 012021
 

I have fifteen five three zero remaining copies from the original fifty. They are all signed and dated and numbered, and come with two 18X24 poster-sized prints.  Yours for a flat $25, shipped via Media Mail within the US. If you are non-US, the price is sadly rather a lot higher… an extra $20, even if you are just a few feet across the Canadian border because the price of international postage really is that high these days.

When they’re gone, they’re gone.

Update: they’re gone.

This is of course still available on Amazon. Currently nine reviews, all five-star!

 

 Posted by at 10:30 am

Five-star, so far

 aircraft, awesomeness, blather, books, drawings, Hmm..., Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Origins and Evolution, projects, SR-71 Origins and Evolution  No Responses »
Aug 292021
 

Because why not: my SR-71 book currently has seven reviews on Amazon, all of which are five-star. So… huzzah! Now… to sell a million copies. For starters. If people will buy books about sparkly mopey vampires, why shouldn’t books about the evolution of the SR-71 sell like hotcakes? Anyway, Christmas is coming up. Make sure to stock up on copies of the book before the forthcoming collapse in the world transportation infrastructure leaves you flatfooted. “Sorry, little Timmy, but the PlayBoxStation 12 is still stuck in China. But here’s the best book ever written!”

Also: if you click on the Amazon link below (or use the Amazon search box up and to the right) and then continue on to search for and buy other stuff, I get a pittance. Woo.

 

If you’ve purchased a copy through Amazon, feel free to leave a review for the book there. The more reviews, the more it’ll likely be seen, and the more it’ll likely sell… and the greater likelihood of more books like this down the line. Maybe even a greatly expanded second edition.

 Posted by at 11:30 pm

Books!

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, Book X, books, drawings, history, Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Origins and Evolution, news, projects, rockets, spacecraft, SR-71 Origins and Evolution  No Responses »
Jul 232021
 

Two boxes with fifty copies of “SR-71” showed up yesterday. Woo! These will be signed and with any luck at all sold.

 

As previously mentioned, I’m working on a pair of 18X24 prints to go with the signed copies. if you’re on the mailing list, you should have recently received a message (or three… email continues to be problematic) about this.

Here’s a glimpse of the work in progress.

 Posted by at 5:19 pm

The Ford Nucleon was ridiculously *small*

 AARRRGH, art, awesomeness, blather, Crazy, drawings, Gah., history, Hmm..., nukes, projects, science, science fiction, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jul 102021
 

One of the more imaginative and incredibly unlikely concept cars was the Ford Nucleon, a 1950’s idea for a nuclear powered car. Apparently this was pretty much a complete art and sales project, without much actual engineering; it was based on the notion that not only could nuclear reactors be scaled down small enough to fit in a car, they could be made not only wreck-tolerant, but that lightweight and virtually magical radiation shielding would be invented that would allow said reactor to hum away at full power mere feet from paying customers without roasting them or giving them explosive ass cancer. It was, let’s face it, wholly ridiculous… and entirely awesome.

Photos of models of the Nucleon have been available since the 1950’s, but diagrams have been lacking. An article posted online a few days ago included a few specifications for the proposed vehicle, finally nailing down some of the dimensions. And for reasons that seemed good to me (and which are probably obvious), I slapped together a quick side view. I think my side view is *reasonably* accurate based on numerous photos of the scale model Ford built and the dimensions given. What I’m not certain about is whether *Ford* truly understood their vehicle.

Here’s the side view using the 200-inch (16.7 ft) length specified by Ford, accompanied by two normal-sized humans:

The driver doesn’t even come *close* to fitting. So I scaled the Nucleon up until it seemed to look right, with the end result being that the car is now about 26 feet long:

That’s by no means a small vehicle… but then, it’s nuclear. Scaling it up by a factor of about 1.55 makes the cab big enough to fit actual full-size humans. But scaling it up that much makes the 77.4″ width (6.45 ft) into 120 inches, or ten feet. Good luck squeezing *that* onto the road; the Hummer H1, known as an uncomfortably wide vehicle, is a mere 87 inches wide.

Does anyone have any information to contradict and correct the Ford specifications? Or is it just another case of the art department kinda ignoring reality?

 Posted by at 4:28 pm
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