MagCloud is currently running a sale, which drops the price of my “Bell D188A: Mach 2 VTOL Fighter Project” down to $15.55. The sale is good until Mothers Day… so order quick, because whose mother *wouldn’t* want this book?
May 052011
May 042011
Photos of Tak the cat reveal that something unsettling is happening in or near the lenses. The right eye has one of these dark inclusions; the left eye at least three, one of which is quite large. Anyone know just what these might be?
May 042011
The Museum of Aviation near Robins Air Force Base in Georgia is a surpringinly well-stocked museum worthy of a visit… especially if, like me, you just happen to be going by, had no idea that the museum was there, and decide to stop for no better reason than you see a sign at the side at the side of the road reading “Aviation Museum.”
When you walk in the front door, the first thing you see is one of at least three F-15’s the Museum has. Also on display out back is a Credible Sport C-130… which you can bet your backside I took photos of.
May 042011
In Utah, it’s quite common to see pickup trucks going down the road or parked with dogs in the beds. The dogs seem to find this to be a thrilling adventure, and I’ve never heard of any trouble resulting from the practice. A month or so ago I went to the grocery store in Tremonton to pick up some milk, Spam and bullets and saw this feller in the parking lot. He’s a beautiful critter, but was entirely businesslike in his determination to keep an eye out for his master… and to protect his masters property.
May 042011
While as yet it’s unclear just what crashed at Casa Del Osama, chances are it’s a stealthy modification of the Blackhawk. The idea of a radar-stealthy Blackhawk is not a new one. In 1978 Sikorsky released some details of three design studies of Blackhawk fuselages modified for low radar cross section. No details were released about the rotor, but it’s obvious that the rotors and hubs would need a fair amount of work to reduce RCS… perhaps just the sort of modifications visible in the photos.
Note: I have better quality copies of these illustrations elsewhere, but these are what are readily at hand. I’ll add the better ones at a later date if there is interest.
Configuration1: a modification just to the cockpit area.
Configuration2: highly sloped fuselage sides.
Configuration3: sides sloped five degrees
Unsurprisingly, configurations 2 & 3 were found to add noticably to aircraft weight.
May 032011
An American helicopter crashed during the takedown of Osama bin Laden. The helicopter was then burned to prevent classified data from falling into enemy hands. Which seemed to me a little odd… what secret info would be on a helicopter during a mission like this? A few photos have been released showing parts of the wreckage… and I can’t identify the helicopter type. Seems that the helicopter was destroyed because it’s either an all new type, or an existing type, heavily modified.
Pure speculation: it’s a stealthy chopper, meant for infiltration into enemy airspace that has reasonably modern air defense systems (i.e. functional radar and such). Which would seem to be needed when invading Pakistan without Pakistans approval… or knowledge.
May 032011
Before I left Utah, I had thrown my DVD copy of “Walking With Dinosaurs” into the player. It’s a great series, and still holds up more than a decade later. But as it turns out, I wasn’t the only one interested. Buttons the cat decided that it was fascinating to watch, and even made it interactive at some points.
May 032011
The B-2 bomber on display at the National Museum of the USAF in Dayton. As expensive and rare as these planes are you wouldn’t think that any of them would be museum pieces, but… here you are.
May 022011
At the USAF Museum, R&D hangar.
May 022011
A photo found at the Watervliet Arsenal museum shows the XM28 120mm recoilless gun with a warhead attached. Note, however, that while the XM28 is pretty much what was actually put into production and fielded, the warhead is entirely different to the actual M388 warhead. The actual warhead was somewhat football-shaped, while this is a simple finned cone/cylinder. The question thus is whether this was a preliminary design for the warhead, or instead was it simply a more or less random shape meant to stand in for the actual warhead. Work on the Davy Crockett at Watervliet focussed on the recoilless gun launching systems, not on the warhead (a LLNL product), and thus early on Watervliet may not have had access to a warhead or dummy warhead… and they may not have even been clued in on just what it looked like. If Watervliets staff did not know what the warhead looked like (they would not have had a Need To Know in order to work on the guns), they might have simply guessed in order to set up a display.
