Now that the X-37 is back in the news, here are some photos of a large display model of it. These shots were taken at Marshall Space Flight Center back in 2005.
Wow. Five years ago. The pace of aerospace development is just blistering.
And here are three pics of a similar model on display at the Hunstville airport, from the same expedition.
After some further tinkering on this project, I took some of the resulting files up to Logan to be printed. They were printed in tow forms… on glossy 16X20 photo paper (the upper two in the first photo) and on regular paper (the lower two). The glossy versions came out looking spectacular, but are too expensive. The other two came out looking just as good, IMO, at somewhat lower price, and look more authentically blueprintish.
And now I’m not quite sure what to do with ’em. The 16X20’s are destined for the wall (or to send to the gents who helped me obtain the original drawings)… might put the rest on eBay. The Lockheed LS-200, certainly, since I had a couple copies made up.
For a year or two prior to the re-launch of Aerospace Projects Review, I was torn over whether the initial run should be simply converted to PDF as-is, or re-written. One of the factors that influenced my decision to go with the re-write was the fact that while I still had the digital image files for issue V1N2, the actual Word document had been lost somehow… meaning that no matter what I’d have to re-type the whole thing. So if I had to go to that effort, I fugured I might as well re-work the whole thing.
<> So today I’m digging through my archived files looking for the CAD drawings I’ve made… when I found that while I have the Word document for the new electronic V1N2, I don’t have any of the *new* image files (including the CAD drawings I made of six VTOL fighters).
Grrrr.
I can extract the image files out of the Word document, but the CAD drawings are a loss. I have *no* idea where they might have gone.
Bah.
It goes without saying, I suppose.
But my misunderstandification of the female of my species only increased upon reading of “Vajazzling.”
I Got Vajazzled (and had a camera crew)
No, I’m not posting any of the photos. This is a family-friendly blog, goddamnit.
Drawn in late 1963, this large diagram shows the Boeing Model 733-197 swing-wing SST. Top and side views are complemented by a number of cross-sections, as well as geometric, weight and payload data. Listed as drawing number 65-38350, this drawing set includes four versions:
A great deal of work went into cleaning up this drawing from its original state, and the end result is an impressive diagram of an impressive, though ultimately doomed-to-never-be-built aircraft.
Air Drawing 46 can be downloaded for $5.50.
Given that a NERVA-style nuclear engine can run for *hours* without breaking down, attaching one to a stage with such minimal hydrogen tank seems a bit of a waste of capabilities. A Lockheed concept shown in 1964.
An impressive 8.8 magnitude earthquake offshore Chile has led to tsunami warnings across the Pacific. Hawaii, New Zealand, Oz and Japan would seem to be in for some waves.
2010/02/27 06:34:14 (UTC)
Preliminary Magnitude: 8.8
Latitude: -36.1 Longitude: -72.6
Location: near the coast of central Chile
Woman who found coin worth £2,000 in garden becomes first to be prosecuted for not reporting treasure
A court heard the silver piedfort marking Charles IV’s ascension to the French throne in 1322 was discovered by Miss Harding 14 years ago as she worked in the garden with her mother.
Following her mother’s death a short time later, Miss Harding kept the 1.4g item as a memento until she eventually approached museum experts with it last year who identified it as a piedfort, but she did not inform the coroner.
This is just sad.
A followup to this. A visit to the local thrift-dump scored three crappy old cookers. Of the three, one had a cord that fit the vac former (and another one that might, after a visit with Mr. Dremel Tool). With some trepidation, it was installed, plugged in and turned on. While it smelled of burning shoggoths, the heating element *did* warm to a nice hot orange glow, the 15-year-old sheet of plastic sagged as badly as my hopes and dreams, and the shopvac provided adequate suction to make passable copies of the two empty cans of cat food that happened to be near at hand. Woo! The power cord itself got disturbingly warm, however.
So, now I will be able to make some vac-formed items. The long-dreamed-of, long despised for being incredibly expensive 1/288 scale “Archangel Michael” seems like a possible prospect.
Yeah, whatever.
The Intarweb Tubes are loaded with “political tests.” Here are a few links, and my results.
http://www.theadvocates.org/quizp/index.html
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http://www.politicalcompass.org/test
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http://www.okcupid.com/politics
Note that this graphic shows “Socialist” and “Fascist” at the opposite ends ofthe scale. Hwoever, Fasiscm was simply a nationailstic subset of Socialism, so how they can be opposite like that… shrug..
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http://helloquizzy.okcupid.com/tests/the-world’s-smallish-political-test
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And so on.
The thing I noticed is that these “tests” have a lot of vaguaries, and with limited multiple-choices, a lot of the answers are not good ones. Many questions give you these options:
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Agree
Strongly agree
But not “I don’t give a damn.”
So they are of somewhat limited virtue… but they all seem to come up with the same general trend.
Oh, and… if someone pops up with the dreary old argument “Yeah, but those were created for Americans, and don’t factor in how other nations view right vs. left, blah, blah, blah,” just keep in mind… I am an American. I am going to judge myself, and my world, via American standards. I’m no more going to determine what’s Left and what’s Right by European standards, say, than I am to spell “color” with a “u” or use the word “milliard” in any context other than “I don’t use the word ‘milliard'” or suggest putting Euro-trash monarchs on US currency.
So there.