Victory Through Air Power

 aircraft, art, history, Hmm..., Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, rockets, science fiction, weapons, wisdom, youtube  No Responses »
Dec 012021
 

The most recent APR rewards included a CAD diagram I created of the “Disney Bomb.” This little known weapon was created by the British in WWII, but dropped by USAAF B-17’s in the last months of the war in Europe. The reason for the unusual name: in 1942 Disney produced an animated propaganda film on the history and potential or military air power. This film included sequences of the war to come, depicting some kinda-sorta sci-fi thinking. Included here is a bomb with a rocket motor, used to penetrate the reinforced concrete roof of a submarine pen. This gave some British engineers ideas… and they made it reality. The Disney bomb was imperfect, but damned if it didn’t work. Next time someone argues that sci-fi doesn’t actually directly inspire engineers to create the future, remember the Disney bomb.

The YouTube version of “Victory” linked below is pretty awful in reproduction quality, but it’s the best I’ve seen (it was released on DVD some years ago).

 Posted by at 12:19 pm

November 2021 APR Rewards

 aircraft, awesomeness, drawings, history, Monthly Historical Documents Program, nukes, Patreon, projects, rockets, science, spacecraft  No Responses »
Dec 012021
 

The rewards for November, 2021, have been sent out. Patrons should have received a notification message through Patreon linking to the rewards; subscribers should have received a notification from Dropbox linking to the rewards. If you did not, let me know.

Document: “Galactic-Jupiter Probe Program Concept:” 1967 NASA-Goddard brochure describing a Pioneer/Voyager type of space probe

Document: “Mixed Mode Rocket Vehicles for International Space Transportation Systems,” 1973 paper describing modified Shuttles and other launch vehicles

Document: “Nuclear Physics Made Very, Very Easy,”1968 NASA NERVA test operation publication that summarizes nuclear physics

Diagram: Navalized Advanced tactical Fighter (Northrop NF-23) general arrangement

CAD Diagram ($5 and up): “Disney Bomb,” British designed and built, American dropped rocket-boosted submarine pen penetrating bomb from the end of WWII

 

If this sort of thing is of interest, sign up either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program. *ALL* back issues, one a month since 2014, are available for subscribers at low cost.



 Posted by at 12:42 am

More evidence that the 70’s are back

 AARRRGH, art, history, Hmm..., ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Nov 302021
 

Looming threat from Commies? Check. Incompetent President? Check. Inflation? Check. Malaise? Check. NASA sans a space program? Check.

And then there’s this:

This 1977 Dodge Tradesman Sex Van Is The Greatest Vehicle For Sale On The Internet Right Now

It actually sold for $40,000.

While the van *screams* “70’s,” it has a shocking lack of airbrushed wizards, dragons, barbarians, dames in bikini armor. I do wonder just how insane a coke-sniffing dog would get if it came within a hundred yards of this thing.

 

 

 Posted by at 11:39 pm

Well that’s a darn shame

 Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, news, politics  No Responses »
Nov 302021
 

CNN suspends Chris Cuomo indefinitely

CNN is suspending prime time anchor Chris Cuomo “indefinitely, pending further evaluation,” after new documents revealed the cozy and improper nature of his relationship with aides to his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

It’s a fair reason to suspend Fredo. Of course, getting rid of him because he is a terrible journalist would have been a good reason too, but then, who would be left at CNN if they did that? Ironically the article is co-written by Brian Stelter.

 

 Posted by at 11:12 pm

One hopes Elon is being a little overly dramatic

 AARRRGH, Hmm..., news, projects, rockets, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Nov 302021
 

Elon Musk tells SpaceX employees that Starship engine crisis is creating a ‘risk of bankruptcy’

Ummm…

“The Raptor production crisis is much worse than it seemed a few weeks ago,” Musk wrote.

UMMM…

Raptor engines power the company’s Starship rocket, with Musk adding that SpaceX faces “genuine risk of bankruptcy if we cannot achieve a Starship flight rate of at least once every two weeks next year.”

UMMM…

A flight rate of once every two weeks within a year for a rocket that hasn’t flown yet? Ahhh… ummm…

 Posted by at 12:56 pm

The F-35 is not a submarine

 AARRRGH, aircraft, Crazy, dumbassery, Gah., news, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Nov 292021
 

But not for lack of trying:

The Royal Navy tried to launch one of their kinda pricey F-35’s from the HMS Queen Elizabeth, but wound up sending it straight to the bottom of the Mediterranean where I assume a Tom Clancy-esque adventure is currently being played out between American, Russian, British and Chinese forces to recover the airframe from the sea floor a mile down. Perhaps shockingly, this was not a result of the F-35 being a hideously expensive disaster, but because apparently the deck crew didn’t remove a rain shield from an inlet, strangling the engine (it may also have ingested a cover than had been left on the deck).

Womp womp…

 

 Posted by at 11:11 pm

The original was probably a masterpiece

 AARRRGH, art, awesomeness, history, Hmm..., rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Nov 292021
 

The scan quality is terrible. The print quality was probably mediocre. But I get the feeling that the original piece of artwork, produced at Boeing in the early/mid 1960’s to illustrate the interior structure of the Saturn V S-IC stage (built by Boeing back when Boeing could be relied upon to build things like this), was a thing to behold. It was probably in all the colors that an artist working in paint or pen or even colored pencil could produce.

If anyone knows if the original still exists… let me know, and do what you can to make sure it survives. We should do everything possible to preserve the artifacts of our culture at its peak to preserve them against the dark age to come.

 Posted by at 3:58 pm
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