Interesting:
Sep 302022
Sep 182022
A mid-1960’s North American Aviation concept for a sorta-lifting body spacecraft that would use deployable rotors for landing. Functioning as an autogyro, these rotors would be a more controllable alternative to a parachute, in principle allowing fairly pinpoint runway touchdowns. I had cause to go looking for information on this recently; i was fairly certain that I had a few reports on the subject, but could not find them. Grrr.
A few photos I found online a few years ago of a display model, presumably originating from an auction website such as ebay:
Sep 062022
I looked through a small fraction of my surprisingly vast pile of CAD diagrams for some I thought might look good in really large format. Some I’ve gone some distance towards formatting them that way already; some are still formatted for small sheets. There are more, of course. In no particular order.
Lockheed CL-400 “Suntan”
Lockheed M-21/D-21:
Lockheed A-12:
Lockheed SR-71A:
Lockheed YF-12A:
X-20 Dyna Soar/Titan III:
A number of 10-Meter Orion vehicles/sub-vehicles:
USAF 10-meter Orion:
General Dynamics “Kingfish:”
North American XF-108:
Lockheed A-12 concept w/canards:
Boeing B-47E:
Boeing B-52G:
Boeing B-52H:
Boeing B-52H + Skybolt:
Boeing DB-47E + Bold Orion:
Rockwell Star Raker:
Boeing “Big Onion” SSTO:
Boeing Space Freighter:
NASA Saturn C-8:
Lockheed STAR Clipper:
Interest in new CAD diagrams?
B-47 and B-52 Origins and Evolution, bomber, Dyna Soar, fighter, future projects, hi-rez, hypersonic, jetliner, launch vehicles, Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Origins and Evolution, nukes, Recon, research, rockets, ships, space shuttle, space station, spacecraft, spaceplane, stealth, transports, VTOL
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Sep 052022
Back in 2016 I released seven PDFs of CAD diagrams formatted for printing at 24X36 inches (those are shown after the break). This was another product line that didn’t exactly blow up the market, and no further diagrams were released. But now that I have two books of CAD diagrams released, and two more coming (and potentially more after that), I’m considering trying again. The Lockheed CL-400 Suntan, A-11, A-12, SR-71, YF-12, along with several B-47 and B-52 related designs are possible, as well as designs that aren’t from those books (X-20 Dyna Soar, several Orion vehicles, etc.). If this sounds interesting, let me know; if there is something specific you might be interested in, let me know.
Jul 092022
Before the RAH-66 Comanche, there was the LHX (Light Helicopter Experimental) program of the 1980’s. Initially the need was broadly defined, and companies such as Bell interpreted it to include the possibility of single-seat combat tiltrotors. The Bell Advanced Tiltrotor (BAT) was one such design. It was design for battlefield surveillance, ground attack/anti-tank… and for blowing Soviet Hinds out of the sky. Whether a tiltrotor could be made that could be safely handled by a single pilot while doing all that craziness is far from certain, especially with 80’s-tech, but the design was certainly appealing. Unlike attack helicopters and F-18’s, the BAT could escort the V-22 on its missions.
Clearly the overall configuration has a great deal of similarity to the XV-15 and the V-22.
Jun 302022
I’ve just made the June 2022 rewards available for APR Patrons and Subscribers. This latest package includes:
Large format diagram: “X-15 Access Doors.” A North American Aviation diagram from 1956 showing all the openable panels on the port (left) side of the fuselage
Document: “Harpoon Coastal Defense System:” McDonnell Douglas brochure on a truck-launched anti-ship missile
Document: “Harpoon for Fast Patrol Boats:” McDonnell Douglas brochure on anti-ship missiles for small ships
Document: “Shorts Skyvan:” small brochure about the boxy cargo aircraft
Document: “VTOL Design – Turbojet Configurations” Northrop paper on VTOL fighters, mostly a historical review but with basic layouts for designs up to Mach 3
Document: Turbofan propaganda. A number of brochures and data sheets and such on turbofans and turbojets… PW4000, F100, JT9D-7R4, J57.
CAD diagram ($5 and up): IM-99B BOMARC surface to air missile general arrangement
If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, along with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program. Back issues are available for purchase by patrons and subscribers.
Jun 212022
Have you ever wondered to yourself “what were the Air Force Weapon System Designations as of September, 1959?” Wonder no more:
The following page does not continue the Weapon System list, but goes on to list Air Force ace fighter pilots.
May 092022
Mike released a video on some of the stranger aircraft designed in the US since World War II. It includes a plethora of full-color concept paintings, including the first color rendering of the McDonnell Douglas ATB that I’ve seen.
Apr 262022
The third of three pieces of vintage aerospace concept art – the actual paintings, not reproductions – that I recently procured from ebay has arrived. This is a 1960’s Hughes concept for a “Hot Cycle” Rotor Wing VTOL aircraft. The prior two – a 1970’s Bell AMST concept for a four-turbojet C-130 test aircraft and a 1980 Bell concept for a hovercraft to allow fighters to launch from bombed-out runways – were just able to be scanned on my flatbed scanner. But the Hughes painting was much larger, so I digitized it via photography, resulting in a 10,878X7500 pixel (about 36X25 at 300 dpi) image. Several iterations of the image – the stitched-together final image, and a version that was fade-corrected to make it look more like the actual painting – have been uploaded to a Dropbox folder with the Bell art.
These paintings are currently framed and will be hung on my wall… for a time. At some point my plan is to donate them to a good museum. The Smithsonian NASM is the obvious default, but I’m interested in alternatives. A museum that would *want* these and would protect yet display them would be ideal.
If you happen to see other aerospace concept art on ebay that’s not going for *insane* amounts and you’d like to see it preserved… let me know. I now have four pieces (not counting things like blueprints); not a great collection by any measure, but it’s something.
I am going to continue to work on digitizing this painting. I’ve been trying to find a local flatbed scanner big enough to scan the whole thing all at once; if I can get that done, the results will also be uploaded to the Dropbox folder.
If you’d like access to the folder – and thus the high-rez images, as well as some PDF documentation I’ll be adding – here’s an opportunity to do so. These paintings were not cheap to secure, so there’s a bit of a charge ($25):
Procuring these was not cheap, but now they are saved for posterity.
If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, along with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program. Back issues are available for purchase by patrons and subscribers.
Mar 312022
I’ve just made the March 2022 rewards available for APR Patrons and Subscribers. This latest package includes:
Art: A poster of the 1990’s German Sanger II two-stage-to-orbit spaceplane
Document: Bell-Boeing “Pointer” brochure… full color brochure describing the proposed tiltrotor UAV
Document: Cessna EV-37E STOL: 1964 presentation on battlefield recon/surveillance version of the T-37
Document: History of the Juno Cluster System: conference paper on the early satellite launching system
CAD diagram: work-in-progress layout of the Aerocon Wingship. General arrangement diagram with brief description of how much trouble I have to go through sometimes…
If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, along with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program. Back issues are available for purchase by patrons and subscribers.
