“XB-2002 Stealthawk”

 aircraft, art, history, Hmm..., models, politics  No Responses »
Jun 282023
 

This popped up on ebay a few years ago. It purported to be a Boeing design for an advanced subsonic stealth bomber… but the design is, clearly, rather silly. Supposedly it dates from 1984 and was produced at, by and for Boeing, intended to be a decoy for the B-2 Advanced Technology (Stealth) Bomber competitors. I’m not sure Lockheed or Northrop would have looked at this and seen a serious design, however.

*Some* aspects of it seem like they might have been taken from an actual stealthy bomber design… the inlets and exhaust, indeed much of the middle part of the wing/body, look about right. But the stubby wing and especially the straight-vertical fins in substantial numbers are goofy aerodynamics and spectacular corner reflectors.

At least two of these were made and wandered out into the wild over the years.

 Posted by at 12:31 pm

I imagine there’s a market for this sort of thing

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, Hmm..., models, science fiction, youtube  No Responses »
Jun 222023
 

A “hovertank” is, of course, a terrible idea. A hovering vehicle pretty much by definition has no traction with the ground, thus cannot well handle a lot of recoil… which is the sort of thing a cannon provides in spades. And anything that hovers has to be built light enough to get lurched off the ground, which reduces the capability to be armored. And… on and on.

Nevertheless, the “hovertank” has it’s place in science fiction.

And now modern consumer electronics and drone technology has reached the point where a hovertank can in fact be yours. In subscale plastic model form at any rate.

I’m honestly surprised and impressed that that bitty quadcopter could lift that, and do so effectively. Now imagine that the kit was designed for that from the get-go, using vac-formed parts… or even carbon fiber laid-up components. Far lighter, and better integrated with the lift system.

 

 Posted by at 12:58 pm

“2001 Briefcase Computer:” video camera

 art, awesomeness, history, Hmm..., models, science fiction  No Responses »
Jun 052023
 
A “2001 Briefcase Computer” update: there hasn’t been much to say recently, but I’ve completed the rough-cut of the video camera. It’s made from the correct model Japanese telescope, the correct tripod and a scratch-built body with four chrome-plated “knobs.” The black bits are unclear on the prop, but were made from textured 1mm black plastic, recessed slightly into the body. The body here is white; the final versions will be fiberglass and painted to look like aluminum. There is a barely-visible square at the front, presumably a sensor… and an almost invisible square at the back. As currently built the back-square is simply a square of plastic; without further views of the proper, which I doubt are forthcoming, there’s nothing more I can add that would be “canon.” However, that would be the obvious place for switches, controls, etc.
To finish the camera, I need a correct coiled cable. Unfortunately, this sort of thing doesn’t seem to be too common these days. It is larger than a phone headset cable, with the coil appearing to be about 1 inch/ 2.5 cm in diameter. Does anyone know of such a cable? There is no connection between the cable and the camera visible; I suspect on the prop the cable was simply jammed in a hole, glued or even taped on. However, some sort of reasonable “plug” would have to be included. On one hand, a USB plug would seem right… on the other hand, the “2001” aesthetic doesn’t exactly go for “simple and easy to use,” so a nightmarish cable coax fitting would almost seem right.
To compare with:
 Posted by at 8:57 am

This seems expensive

 art, awesomeness, Hmm..., models, science, youtube  No Responses »
Apr 292023
 

Adam Savage has a bunch of old (decades) silicone molds sitting doing nothing. Silicone, sadly, degrades not just from use, but over time; a mold that is years old will almost certainly fall into ruin if you try to cast a part using it. So, if you have an old mold that you want to get parts out of, what to do? Well, if you are well connected you get someone to CAT scan the mold, create an STL model of the mold, convert the hollow space within into a solid model, then 3D print. Easy! Anybody can do it! But here’s the thing: each scan the CAT scanner makes takes 30 seconds… and each mold could take 1500 scans to complete. So… twelve and a half solid hours on a CAT scanner.

Huh.

 

 Posted by at 10:21 pm
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