Does this sound familiar to anyone?

 AARRRGH, blather, Crazy, Hmm...  No Responses »
Sep 192018
 

This is of minor importance, but it’s been bugging me for a while. Long LOOOONG ago I saw an episode of… something. It wasn’t that memorable, but I’ve been unable to find any reference to it, and the mere inability to nail it down drives me buggo. So: sometime in the 80’s there was an episode of some anthology series, akin to “The Twilight Zone,” that featured a Vietnam veteran who built dioramas, like wargame battlefields. I seem to recall that he made them in a barn. And this being a fantasy or sci-fi series, a replica of a Vietnam battlefield, with little figures an inch or so high, comes to life and torments him, the soldiers chase him around or some such. Ring any bells for anyone?

 

UPDATE: episode found! Check comments for info…

 Posted by at 12:58 am

AR-2-3 Rocket Engine Mockup

 aircraft, art, eBay, models, rockets  No Responses »
Sep 182018
 

Just slightly out of my means just at the moment, but it does appear to be a remarkable piece of work. The condition is a bit regrettable, but I bet in earlier days it was probably pretty close to indistinguishable from the real thing. If you have an interest in the NF-104 aerospace trainer, I guess you aught to have one of these.

ALL ORIGINAL ROCKWELL AR2-3 ROCKETDYNE ROCKET ENGINE MOCK-UP 39″ 1950-1963

Price:
US $35,000.00
Buy It Now –
 Posted by at 11:26 pm

There is not enough booze

 art, awesomeness, Crazy, weapons, youtube  No Responses »
Sep 182018
 

I am not a drinker. Even so, I can assure you that there is not enough booze on the planet to get me drunk enough so that I could ever think I could do *anything* like what’s shown here:

The US Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon does stuff that Hollywood would need a team of CGI artists to pull off.

 

 Posted by at 2:08 pm

The Sound of Silence

 art, awesomeness, blather, Hmm..., youtube  No Responses »
Sep 172018
 

“Disturbed” released a cover of “The Sound of Silence” a few years ago. The Cylon & Garfunkel original never really appealed to me that much, but, dayum, here’s that rare instance where the reboot is superior to the original.

The official music video, which has a distinctly apocalyptic look to it:

And a live recording on the Conan O’Brien Show:

For clarity, Disturbed is the same group who produced “Down With The Sickness” nearly 20 years ago:

Something I think should be noted: regardless of what you think of the various forms of “metal” music, the fact is that, generally, metal singers CAN SING and usually without the benefit of autotune or other artificial means of tinkering. Remember this from 2016, when a sixty-plus-year-old Dee Snider pounded out a remarkable rendition of “We’re Not Gonna Take It:”

In contrast, listen to most modern rappers. They sound like they are, at best, mumbling their way through the song, combining illiterate lyrics with ham-fisted mush-mouth. So it’s no real surprise that Disturbed’s “Sound of Silence” has more than 400 million views on YouTube. Sometimes people do appreciate quality over pop. And on that subject… Rag’n’Bone Man has racked up more than 600 million views for “Human,” and for good reason… he can belt out a tune. Feller’s British, which I would not have guessed by either looking at him or listening to him. I would’ve guessed he’s from somewhere in the south. Shrug.

 

 Posted by at 11:27 pm

SpaceX lunar passenger announcement

 awesomeness, Hmm..., news, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Sep 172018
 

… will be livestreamed at 9PM eastern time. Billionaire, certainly. Japanese, possibly. Anybody want to make guesses?

UPDATE: yup, the paying passenger is Japanese online entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa, who is paying an unstated but clearly substantial sum. The plan is that in 2023 a BFR/BFS will launch around the moon carrying Maezawa and six to eight artists of his choosing in the hopes that they’ll come home and make an art.

If they said what the *total* crew and passenger complement will be, I didn’t catch it. But it should be substantially more than one billionaire and eight artists.

Musk estimates that the development cost of BFR will be no less than $2 billion, probably around $5 billion, no more than $10 billion.  Compare to SLS/Orion, which has so far spent in excess of $11 billion on the SLS and will spend something like $6 billion for the Orion capsule.

 

 

 Posted by at 3:35 pm

Now Available: Air Documents 27-31

 aircraft, drawings, drawings&documents, history, new products, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Sep 172018
 

It has been *years* since I have released any “Air & Space Drawings & Documents,” high rez scans of vintage aerospace items. At last, I’m adding new items. The complete catalog can be seen HERE.

New items. Each are available for $4.

Air Document 27: “Design Study for an Air Force Model F-82E Airplane Modified to a Ground Attack Airplane” A 24-page study from 1949 for a twin-bodied F-82 modified with Allison turboprop engines. The engines would be mounted in the mid-fuselage, about where the cockpits originally were; the cockpits would be moved forward to compensate. The document, taken from a vintage copy printed from microfilm, includes numerous diagrams and B&W art.

Air Document 28: “This Is The Life With Lockheed” A 36-page booklet produced by Lockheed, Georgia Division, showing the wonders of working there in 1959. Includes not only descriptions and photos of the local environment and amenities but also photos of Lockheed facilities, products and projects. An interesting view of a very different era.

Air Document 29: “SAM-D Air Defense Weapon System” A 1973 Redstone Arsenal information booklet on the Surface-to-Air Missile, Development, which became the “Patriot” anti-aircraft/ anti-missile missile. The booklet describes the various elements of a SAM-D deployment.

Air Document 30: “V-397 (Regulus II) Summary Report” A 42-page 1955 Chance-Vought report on the Regulus II supersonic cruise missile. Includes data and glorious diagrams on the tactical missile as well as the flight test vehicle with landing gear. Scanned from a vintage printout from microfilm.

Air Document 31: “Republic XF-103 data” Dating from the mid-50’s, this collection of data and diagrams of the Mach 3+ XF-103 interceptor comes not from Republic, but from Lockheed. A rare look into corporate “competition data gathering,” this 21-page data file shows the sort of information that Lockheed put together on the designs put forward by their competitors.

 

Several of these were released *four* *years* ago to patrons of the Aerospace Projects Review Patreon. Patrons receive items such as these at a low cost and years earlier than waiting for them to appear on the Drawing & documents catalog… and most of the Patreon items *won’t* appear here.

If this sort of thing is of interest, please consider signing up for the APR Patreon.

patreon-200

 Posted by at 3:27 pm

This is how you get conspiracy theories

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Hmm..., news, science, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Sep 162018
 

Solar observatory closed due to “ongoing security concern,” officials say

The observatory was taken over by the FBI and shut down  over a week ago, and so far there has been no explanation other than a “security concern.” I expect it’ll be something like one of the researchers selling secrets to the Chinese, or someone running a meth lab in the back, or software or equipment having been stolen. But by keeping it secret, the FBI is opening the door to more whackadoo explanations like “they saw a UFO/incoming impactor” or some such.

 Posted by at 12:09 am

The glorious spectacle of cultural enrichment

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Forward!, Gah., news, politics, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Sep 152018
 

Anyone who argues against the notion that “diversity is our strength” is clearly a racist. As two examples showing the beautiful rainbow of woke awesomeness that comes from not expecting or demanding assimilation, there’s this minor example from the United States, and a much more enlightened example from Britain.

The future will be interesting.

 Posted by at 5:43 pm
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