After spending yet more time going through my files arranging things in preparation for maybe doing the Shuttle Wind Tunnel Models collection, I find I have north of 500 reports, at nearly 8 gig. Of those, about 250 reports/2.8 gig are of pre-Shuttle program manned lifting entry vehicles and lifting bodies… NASA reports on Dyna Soar, HL-10, M2, X-24, etc. What I’m now contemplating is breaking it up further… a “X-24A Wind Tunnel Models” book,” an “M2F1/F2/F3 Wind Tunnel Models” book, etc. and work up to various aspect of the Shuttle program. By breaking it up, the books become individually more affordable. A dozen books of 30 pages might be better than one book of 360 pages, especially if someone only wants the info on the unbuilt logistics spacecraft concepts.
The books themselves would be largely restricted to the relevant graphics… photos of the models (which in some cases were the actual vehicles), diagrams, cross-sections, that sort of thing. The books would be for people who want to model the designs or render them or… whatever. But the actual *data* simply would not pack into affordable books. So I’m thinking of having a CD-ROM or DVD supplement with all the reports that go with a particular book, available separately.
In any event, these would be fairly low priority publications. Comments welcome.
4 Responses to “Further thoughts on the “Wind Tunnel Models” book…”
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Count me in! 🙂
How about one book, tracing all the wind tunnel models from BOMI on forwards to the Shuttle?
You ever seen Ron Millers “The Dream Machines?” About that size. Unless I went with postage-stamp illustrations. Bleah.
Plus, there are a whole lot of annoying gaps.
I’ve got a copy of that book, and kneel before the Holy Thing each night before I go to sleep. :- *
You don’t have to go into detail about each design, but just arrange photos of all the wind tunnel models you can find, with where they came from in time regardless the evolution of the Shuttle.
* I remember when I ordered it at around a hundred and twenty dollars, and thought “This had better be _really_ something for the price they’re asking”
Then it showed up via UPS… heavy as a concrete construction block, and I didn’t leave the apartment for around two days as I was skimming through it, end-to-end, and wolfing down peanut butter covered crackers.
Best investment I ever made. 🙂