Monthly Historical Documents Program – Page 3

New Air and Space Documents & Diagrams coming soon

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Jul 312022

It has been a number of years since I’ve added much to the Air & Space Documents & Diagrams catalog (https://www.aerospaceprojectsreview.com/catalog/drawndoc.htm). On the other hand, ever since 2014 I have been sending about three documents and one large format diagram per month to Patrons and subscribers… so that’s a *lot* of stuff! But sometime in the near future I will finally add new items to the Catalog: Air *and* Space, Drawings *and* Documents. Included will be a wide variety of things… but for those interested in space, there will be two sets of SSTO design documents.

I have of late been dealing with a number of things… most relevant of which is finishing up the text of my third book. I hope to have it done in a matter of days. That will be when I’ll really get going on releasing the new Drawings & Documents. Patrons and Subscribers will be notified first… and will have the opportunity to get them at a discount. So if this is of interest, keep an eye on the APR blog, the catalog page linked above, or sign up for the APR Patreon/Monthly Historical Documents Program (https://www.aerospaceprojectsreview.com/monthly.htm). Patrons/subscribers can also get any or all of the “back issues” of monthly collections back to 2014.

Thanks!

PS: Covid does not help the writing process. Just a little heads up for those curious.

North American Model 704

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Jul 232022

Shortly after WWII the US Air Force funded studies on long range missiles, wit the intent of incorporating what had been learned from the Germans. One design, the 1947-vintage North American Aviation model 704, was derived (through numerous steps) from the German A-4 (V-2), but made longer range by way of adding wings and two ramjet engines. This would eventually evolve into the “Navaho” intercontinental cruise missile; an impressive but ultimately doomed system that used a large liquid rocket booster to shove a large Mach 3+ ramjet aircraft into the sky. In the end, ICBM were easier and cheaper.

The full rez scan of the diagram has been made available to APR Patrons/Subscribers at above the $10 level.

Variable geometry SST

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Jul 032022

A 1970’s Boeing concept for a variable geometry supersonic transport. Once the Boeing 2707 was cancelled in the wake of the oil crisis, any further work on supersonic transports focused heavily on “how do we make this more fuel efficient.” One approach was to go back to variable geometry, which had been dropped from the SST program when the 2707-200 was replaced with the 2707-300. The swing-wing of the -200 worked wonders for the low speed performance of the aircraft, but played hell with cost and weight, enough so that the -300 had a fixed modified delta wing.

The solution shown below linked a few technologies. One concept that showed promise was the “oblique wing,” as tested on the AD-1. A single-piece stricture connected to the fuselage at a single pivot point; much lighter and simpler than a traditional two-pivot swing-wing. With sufficiently rigid structures – think “carbon fiber” – the forward-swept portion could remain reasonably flat even at high speed. But this concept went one step further and linked *two* fuselages to not only a single oblique wing, but also an oblique tail. This would put the “aft” fuselage behind the shock wave shed off the nose of the “forward” fuselage, greatly reducing drag. You’d have the capacity of two SSTs for the operating cost of little more than one. Neat idea… very complex. I’m not sure if it made it much further than preliminary wind tunnel testing.

Full-rez scan uploaded to the 2022-07 APR Extras folder.

McDonnell Model 176 Lifting Body Crowdfund Success

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Jul 012022

Recently APR Patrons/Subscribers and I were able to successfully crowdfund the purchase of a lot off ebay that included a few folders of vintage lifting body work. The chief prize from the lot was a *giant* blueprint of a “GTV Structure,” a manned Model 176/ FDL-7 lifting body test vehicle (“GTV” was not explained, but I suspect it means something like “Glide Test Vehicle,” designed to be dropped from an NB-52). Scanning of the lot is underway; the crowdfunders now have access to the blueprint in several forms (full size, halfsize; full color, grayscale).

If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.

APR Rewards: June 2022

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Jun 302022

I’ve just made the June 2022 rewards available for APR Patrons and Subscribers. This latest package includes:

Large format diagram: “X-15 Access Doors.” A North American Aviation diagram from 1956 showing all the openable panels on the port (left) side of the fuselage

Document: “Harpoon Coastal Defense System:” McDonnell Douglas brochure on a truck-launched anti-ship missile

Document: “Harpoon for Fast Patrol Boats:” McDonnell Douglas brochure on anti-ship missiles for small ships

Document: “Shorts Skyvan:” small brochure about the boxy cargo aircraft

Document: “VTOL Design – Turbojet Configurations” Northrop paper on VTOL fighters, mostly a historical review but with basic layouts for designs up to Mach 3

Document: Turbofan propaganda. A number of brochures and data sheets and such on turbofans and turbojets… PW4000, F100, JT9D-7R4, J57.

CAD diagram ($5 and up): IM-99B BOMARC surface to air missile general arrangement

If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, along with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program. Back issues are available for purchase by patrons and subscribers.

Boeing Model 733-606 art

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Jun 232022

The Boeing 733 is *reasonably* well known as the designation for the Supersonic Transport before it got re-designated the 2707. However, Model 733 was sort of a catch-all designation for a long (numerically and temporally) series of designs covering the gamut from giant Mach 2+ SST’s down to bombers, strike aircraft and fighters. The link seems to be that the 733 started off specifically as an SST designation; but other aircraft types were designed using the same aerodynamics. A fighter that was basically a scaled-down SST might be a model 733 (such as the Model 733-605). Shown below is a reasonably commonly reproduced piece of art from the 80’s depicting what is sometimes called the Model 606; it’s actually the Model 733-606. I’ve seen diagrams for a number of aircraft based on this basic geometry; the 733-606-11 and 733-606-12 were strike aircraft. The aircraft below is generally described as an interceptor, sometimes as a supercruise research platform.

The full rez scan of this artwork has been uploaded to the 2022-06 APR Extras folder on Dropbox for APR Patrons and Subscribers.

Well, that was less than fun

AARRRGH, aircraft, art, awesomeness, blather, drawings, eBay, history, Hmm..., Monthly Historical Documents Program, news, Patreon, projects, spacecraft, ಠ_ಠ No Responses »

Jun 192022

There is a bit of a thrill in the last moments of any auction. I suppose it’s like gambling or sportsball-watching, neither of which I’m into, but I guess there is a similar result. Anyway, this afternoon saw the end of an Ebay listing for a lot of McDonnell manned lifting body + ASSET documentation & blueprints; this is exactly the sort of thing the APR Patreon/Subscription was created for. Having seen such auctions go for *stupid* sums in the past, I expected the same here, so I had a group of people together to crowdfund it. I was prepared, with crowdfund backing, to bid a *stupid* amount for it. And in fact I did bid a *stupid* amount (well above what I’d gathered via crowdfunding) in the last few seconds. Fortunately, the final cost was not so tragically high, so the funders only got charged a smidgeon and my tragically over-stretched credit card didn’t get demolished.

Still, those last few moments were troublesome. Because as it turns out, my cardiopulmonary system ain’t over the Pinko Pox yet, and my system *really* didn’t like that at all. That aspect of the exercise sucked.

But hey, manned lifting body. Woo.

“SIPS”

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Jun 182022

Recently sold on eBay was a display model for a vehicle labeled “SIPS.” No other data was available. However, this appears to be an upper stage modification for the LIM-49 Spartan surface-to-air anti-missile missile. Which suggests that the first “S” in “SIPS” standard for “Spartan.” Perhaps something like “Spartan Integral Propulsion System” or some such. However, this seems to appear to be a complete vehicle…. the very large first and second stage motors, as well as the warhead section, *appear* to have been replaced with a new, small booster with fins. Perhaps this was meant to test the third stage of the Spartan… or perhaps it was meant to be a way to find some use for the Spartan third stage after program cancellation, as some sort of scientific test vehicle.

The other photos from the ebay auction have been uploaded to the 2022-06 APR Extras folder on Dropbox for Patrons and Subscribers.

The diagram below shows the complete Spartan missile.

HOTOL Art

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Jun 162022

HOTOL (HOrizontal Take Off and Landing) was a British Aerospace concept for a single stage to orbit airbreathing launch vehicle, originating in the mid 1980’s. It was a stellar example of aerospace optimism; like its contemporary the X-30 National Aerospace Plane, it relied on a propulsion system of spectacular complexity and stunning lack-of-actual-existence to function. As originally conceived it was supposed to have an RB545 engine; unlike the X-30’s scramjet engine, the RB545 was an air breathing rocket engine. Liquid hydrogen would be used to liquify incoming air, a portion of which would be turbine-fed into rocket engines to burn with the hydrogen. Due to some amazing bureaucracy, the engine was slapped with the “Official Secrets Act” which meant that it was so amazing that it had to be classified… so classified that it basically couldn’t be worked on. Genius! Whether it would have actually worked any better than NASP’s scramjet is anyone’s guess. In the going on forty years since the RB545 was dreamed up, it obviously hasn’t driven an aircraft to orbit. Or, it seems, off a runway. Like the scramjet, it *might* work, if only the development effort was properly funded and allowed to work through issues, rather than starved and throttled.

The early HOTOL configuration shown here would have taken off using a ground trolley in order to save on landing gear mass. The vehicle was nominally unmanned, though crew and passengers could be installed in a module in the cargo bay, located well aft. One problem the configuration had was substantial center of gravity and center of pressure issues, driven by the long, slim fuselage filled with sloshing and emptying hydrogen tanks. As memory serves, this remained a problem throughout the design lifetime of HOTOL.

The full rez scan of this artwork has been uploaded to the 2022-06 APR Extras folder on Dropbox for APR Patrons and Subscribers.

“Vanguard to Dyna Soar”

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Jun 032022

I’ve just made available to subscribers and Patrons at the $11 and up level a mid-1961 Honeywell booklet describing the space projects they were involved with at the time.

While not a detailed technical design document, this illustrated bit of PR is nonetheless interesting as it shows the sort of thing that aerospace companies would produce Way Back When in order to inform and enthuse the public. Modern aerospace companies would probably produce this as a web page or a PDF, which just doesn’t have the same impact. Of course, *this* one is being distributed as a PDF, but moving on…

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