I would not have handled this well

 AARRRGH, blather, critters  No Responses »
Oct 132010
 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39656646/ns/health-pet_health/

In short: man with almost no money takes his suffering old dog to the vet to have it put down. The next day, it stands back up and stares at him. Doesn’t have the money to feed or care for the dog… and neither the money nor the heart to try euthenasia again.

Shudder.

Had this happened with Koshka, I would have instantly transformed into a permanently gibbering idiot, like a Lovecraftianwitness to a Great Old One, or a Democratic Senatorial candidate.

 Posted by at 7:19 pm

XB-53 Video

 aircraft, drawings, projects, youtube  6 Responses »
Oct 132010
 

Now that it seems that I can post embedded video, it’s time to start abusing the power. Here’s a NACA-Langley video of wind tunnel testing of a Convair XB-53 configuration. While described as a “free flight” test, I believe that this is more like a “kite flying” test, as I don’t think that the model had its own jet engine. Still, it showed that the tailless forward swept configuration was at least controllable, even without computers.

[youtube ZCPI45YNM0E]

UPDATE: I forgot I had CAD drawings of three versions of the A-44/B-53 Not quite finished, but… shrug. Here they are.

 Posted by at 2:55 pm

Sea Launch: 1961

 Uncategorized  8 Responses »
Oct 132010
 

Remember the now-bankrupt Sea Launch enterprise? It was hardly a new concept. Reproduced below is a snippet from the September 1961 issue of “Space World” magazine, showing a concept that was largely identical.. an offshore platform to be used for space launch.

 Posted by at 12:37 am

The Fat VTOL Mixmaster

 aircraft, awesomeness, drawings, projects  3 Responses »
Oct 132010
 

Published in 1962, this is a Douglas concept for a VTOL military or passenger transport… a twin-rotor helicopter with a  pusher prop. Somewhat similar in concept to the slightly earlier Kamov Ka-22 and the slightly later Mil V-12, this design was more aerodynamically refined, and looks a whole lot like a Douglas B-42 or early DC-8 configuration… just with rotors on the wingtips and a bloated fuselage.

No further info, sadly.

 Posted by at 12:21 am

Ummm… huzzah???

 blather  No Responses »
Oct 122010
 

It took a while, but the WordPress blog has been upgraded. At first glance it doesn’t *seem* to have lost any of the content. So hopefully this version will be a bit more stable and won’t decide to arbitrarily shut down discussions.

We’ll see…

 Posted by at 10:22 pm

Grrrr. Stooopid WordPress…

 blather  No Responses »
Oct 122010
 

OK, it failed me again, shut down all commenting. I guess it’s time to knuckle undera nd update the WordPress to the latest version. Note that updates come with big friendly warnings about “losing all uploaded images, comments and posts.” So, even though i’ve backed it up (mostly), don;t be surprised if the next time you check the Unwanted Blog it’s content free.

I will be attempting to update momentarily, so if it screws up… you probably won’t have seen this update anyway.

 Posted by at 9:11 pm
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