McDonnell-Douglas early Shuttle concept

aircraft, art, history, projects, rockets, spacecraft Add comments

Aug 072018

Scanned from a 35mm slide at the NASA HQ some years ago. The basic shape here (FDL-7/McDonnell Model 176) appeared on a great many McD designs for the latter half of the sixties from small one-man experimental designs on up to full Shuttle-sized craft like this one. It had both sharply swept fixed wings on the bottom and stowable high aspect ratio wings for landing up top.

The Unwanted Blog

Martin-Marietta HML Ad June 25, 2024
I did my best to stitch together this two-page magazine ad. Dating from 1986, it shows missile programs then underway at Martin-Marietta; front and center is the Small ICBM (“Midgetman”) in its Hard Mobile Launcher. The HML would wander seemingly at random around the western US, being difficult to track and target by the Soviets. […]
The end of video evidence: and so it begins June 18, 2024
Videos have come out showing President Biden doing bad things (specifically, acting like what he is: an elderly man who is well into cognitive and physical decline), and his PR machine is spooling up the defense that the videos are “cheap fakes” and “deep fakes.” The videos are clearly *not* fakes, neither “cheap” nor “deep,” […]
A-4 rocket diagram June 9, 2024
Via the University of Alabama, Huntsville archive, a 1942 cutaway diagram of the German A-4 (“V-2”) ballistic rocket. I’ve uploaded the full rez version into the 2024-06 APR Extras folder for subscribers/patron at the $4 level and above.
Use these phrases more often June 5, 2024
There is a constant war between sane people and those who want to neuter the English language in order to make it safer and more politically correct. One aspect of that the desire to remove from common parlance phrases that originate with firearms. For example: https://grandparentsforgunsafety.org/gun-violence-facts/words-matter/ We speak casually about dodging a bullet… […]
3D Printer “Crowdfund” May 26, 2024
So after having the 3D printer for a while and running a *lot* of resin through it, I have achieved some good things. I’ve learned enough to know that there are some things that I plan on producing as full 3D-printed kits, some to be converted into metal castings. I have a few product lines […]
Tornado vs Wind Turbines May 22, 2024
Turns out giant thin draggy structures don’t hold up that well against multi-vortex tornadoes.
Tanker Concept Art May 21, 2024
Procured from ebay, this piece of concept art sadly comes without context. It shows a tanker aircraft (pretty much a McDonnell-Douglas YC-15, though the engines appear a bit different… perhaps higher bypass turbofans) topping up an F-15. The full-rez scan of the art has been made available as a thank-you to APR Patreon and Historical […]
Updates May 20, 2024
Obviously not a lot of blogging of late. A lot of this is due to much of the function of blogging having been transferred over to my Twitter (@UnwantedBlog), but also a lot of it is due to my time having been consumed by the new 3D printer. After some weeks of tinkering with it, […]
More 3D prints May 7, 2024
1/350 War Rocket, 1/18 Pulse Units, 1/18 Atomic Artillery Shells. The War Rocket was modified & printed from a file created for Fantastic Plastic. Their version – currently available – is in much larger 1/144 scale. I was impressed with the tiny details that this smaller print picked up, but the wings are […]
1/18 3D printed A-Bombs April 30, 2024
I’ve printed off two more Fat Man bombs in 1/18. I can see where improvements can be made to the CAD model, but as is they’ll build up into spiffy little pieces. Right now I’ve got 2 Fat Man, 2 Little Boy hopefully to sell to help defray costs; if there is interest I […]