Dyna Soar Instrument Panel

 aircraft, APR, drawings, history, Hmm..., projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Mar 042015
 

While the overall configuration of the Dyna Soar was set (and is well known) well before the program ended, the pilots instrument panel seemed to be in a constant state of flux. A number of mockup photos and diagrams of generally low resolution and/or poor reproduction quality. But a decade ago what appears to have been a decent-quality instrument panel layout was auctioned off:

858: DynaSoar Blueprints Diagrams Photos

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So… is there any chance that anyone reading along knows the buyer, or has access to this or a similar instrument panel layout diagram?

PS: if you are interested in the final Model 2050E Dyna Soar design, you could not do much better than to check this out.

 Posted by at 11:05 am

USBP13/ USLP01 updates/corrections

 AARRRGH, aircraft, art, books, drawings, Gah., new products, news, projects, rockets, spacecraft, US Bomber Projects, US Launch Vehicle Projects  4 Responses »
Mar 042015
 

I happened to notice that the last diagram in US Bomber Projects #13, showing that issues various designs all together at the same scale, was not the actual finalized diagram. So I’ve corrected it. At the same time, I added an equivalent diagram to US Launch Vehicles Projects #01, showing all the boosters to the same scale. If you have previously purchased one or both of these, the info in the email your received with the download instructions will still work if you’d like to download the revised versions.

And if you haven’t purchased these… well, here’s another chance!

 Posted by at 2:00 am

The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress: let’s see how they screw this up

 art, blather, Hmm..., news, science fiction  9 Responses »
Mar 042015
 

Step one: change the title to “Uprising.”

Bryan Singer Attached to Sci-Fi Film Based on Robert A. Heinlein Novel

Let me guess: it’ll be lightly revised to become a tale extolling the virtues of living under a massive distant government, business and individualism are bad, and in the end everyone on the moon will come to learn to love working selflessly for the “less fortunate” on Earth.

 Posted by at 12:26 am

Sure, why not

 blather, cats, Crazy, dumbassery, history, Hmm..., Meh., news, ಠ_ಠ  11 Responses »
Mar 032015
 

Is the US government actually run by Nazi aliens?

According to the Iranian news agency Fars, which is undoubtedly as reliable a source of fact as Pravda, Dan Rather or Brain Williams, German Nazi aliens took over the US government in 1945 after arriving in Nevada via submarine.

Yup.

Anyway, you should know that researching these hard-hitting blog postings is harder than it might seem. You never know when you might come down with a double case of armcat.

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 Posted by at 4:58 pm

Smug Mode

 awesomeness, blather, books, history, Hmm...  4 Responses »
Mar 032015
 

After stumbling across a 1974 issue of Analog magazine that I’d forgotten that I’d been lucky enough to have inscribed by Larry Niven (as regaled HERE), it dawned on me that I actually have a number of books that the authors have enscribbled for me. So I went digging. I’m *sure* I have more than these, but this is what I found:

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As it turns out I *do* have a first edition of Footfall signed by both Niven & Pournelle. Neato!

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 Posted by at 1:27 pm

Impro Guns

 art, awesomeness, weapons  8 Responses »
Mar 032015
 

Whenever you’re feeling down and losing faith in humanity, check out this blog:

Impro Guns

It’s loaded with photos of improvised/home-made firearms from around the world. Some are *incredibly* crude. Some are extremely professional-looking. All serve as reminders that, no matter how poor you are or how restrictive and totalitarian the government, there are people who have the initiative and cleverness to take a box of scraps and turn it into something useful.

The triple-barreled shotgun pistol from Brazil actually looks kinda spiffy. Might just be a cut-down “professional” gun, though.

 

 Posted by at 12:43 pm

PDF Review: Space Settlements, A Design Study

 awesomeness, books, history, Patreon, projects, reshaping the world, science, spacecraft  2 Responses »
Mar 022015
 

NASA SP-413, “Space Settlements, A Design Study,” was published in 1977 and brought together the results of a 1975 NASA-Ames Research Center effort to do a preliminary study of a giant torus space station for several thousand permanent inhabitants. It is a basic text on the subject of space colonies, but obtaining a copy of the printed book of course requires money (but not much… a quick check at abebooks.com shows them going for about $8) and online versions have typically been either black-and-white scan PDFs of indifferent quality, or versions rendered into painful HTML format. Fortunately, someone (it’s unclear to me who, though it seems a professional job) has scanned in the book and all the illustrations and reformatted the text into an all-new, clean PDF version.

The PDF can be downloaded HERE.

spacesettlements4 spacesettlements3 spacesettlements2 spacesettlements1

Much more aerospace stuff is available via the APR Patreon.

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 Posted by at 11:35 pm

US Bomber Projects #13, US Launcher Projects #01

 aircraft, books, drawings, history, new products, news, projects, rockets, spacecraft, US Bomber Projects, US Launch Vehicle Projects  No Responses »
Mar 022015
 

Two new publications in the US Aerospace Projects series are now available.

Now available: US Bomber Projects #13. This issue includes:

  • Ryan Model 162: A VTOL strike/recon plane
  • Boeing Orbital Bomb: a nuclear-tipped re-entry glider
  • Northrop Atomic Wing: an asymetric nuclear powered design
  • Consolidated Vultee High Speed Flying Boat: an early post-war Skate design
  • Martin Model 189: a canard version of the B-26 Marauder
  • Boeing Model 464-046: A six-engined B-52 predecessor
  • Curtis F-87C: a night fighter with bomber abilities
  • Boeing Model 701-247: a supersonic antecedent of the B-59

usbp13ad

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USBP #13 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4:

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Also available: US Launch Vehicle Projects #01. The premiere issue of this new series includes:

  • Pre-Saturn Phase III Vehicles: 1958 concpet for clustered Atlas boosters
  • Boeing “Big Onion”: an SSTO to launch SPS
  • Northrop TAV: an in-flight propellant transfer spaceplane
  • Martin Orbit Project: A 1946 concept for a hydrogen fueled SSTO
  • Saturn V derived HLLV for FLO: A brief Saturn V revival in the early 1990s
  • MSC Orbiter 020: An early Shuttle with straight wings and a single SRB
  • Hammerhead ET: a way for the Shuttle to transport outsized payloads
  • Loral Aquarius: A way to make space launch cheap

 

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USLP #01 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4:

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 Posted by at 3:37 am
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