Some large-format scans

 bomber, hi-rez, launch vehicles, nukes, Patreon, rockets, transports  1 Response »
Aug 272015
 

Today I picked up four large format scans from a local print shop. All were scanned in full color at 300 DPI; the B-52 diagram was so large that I had to reduce it in size a bit – from 300 to 250 DPI – to make it work in most of my image processing programs. Still… with an original 110 inches long, scaling down a bit really isn’t much of a loss.

First: a Boeing model shop diagram of a B-52B display model at 1/40 scale. Model shop diagrams are often the best bets for clear, accurate aircraft diagrams.

1-40 scale B-52 BW 1-40 scale B-52

Second, an old Boeing diagram of the Model 80 trimotor:

Boeing Model 80

Then the USAF “supersonic escape capsule” which sure looks a lot like Fat Man:

supersonic escape capsule

And then a Rocketdyne diagram of the Atlas booster rocket engine:

Atlas booster engine

These will likely be offered up to APR Patreon Patrons. If you want in on that, and to help out on the effort to procure these things (trust me, they’re *not* cheap!), please consider signing up for the APR Patreon.

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 Posted by at 8:13 pm

Mini-Art: Lockheed nuclear bomber

 bomber, nukes  No Responses »
Aug 262015
 

This piece of art has popped up from time to time over the decades (it dates from 1959 or before), showing a schematic view of the basic layout of a nuclear-powered bomber. And while the version below is not particularly clear or high-rez, it has the advantage of being in color.

The truly gigantic-looking bomb is likely not pure artistic license. At the time Lockheed was designing bombs that looked just like this at extraordinary size; they had substantial rocket propulsion capability to let the bomber release the weapon at a considerable standoff distance.

 

nuke jet

 Posted by at 6:20 pm

US Bomber Projects #15, Transports #04, Launchers #02 Now Available

 bomber, Dyna Soar, hypersonic, jetliner, launch vehicles, nukes, rockets, space shuttle, spacecraft, spaceplane, stealth, transports, US Bomber Projects, US Launcher Projects, US Transport Projects, VTOL  No Responses »
Jul 082015
 

Now available… three new additions to the US Aerospace Projects series.

US Bomber Projects #15

USBP#15 includes:

  • Bell D2001: A 1957 eight-engined Bell VTOL strike plane for the Navy
  • Lockheed “Harvey”: AKA the Hopeless Diamond, Lockheeds first design for what became the F-117
  • Convair Model 35: An early push-pull concept for the B-36
  • Rockwell D661-27: A nuclear powered strategic bomber
  • Boeing Model 464-49: The penultimate major design in the development of the B-52
  • Boeing Model 988-123: A highly agile stealthy strike fighter
  • Boeing Orbital Bomber: An early concept for a Dyna Soar derivative with eight nukes
  • Boeing Model 701-251: A twin engined concept on the road to the XB-59

USBP#15 can be purchased for downloading for the low, low price of $4.25.

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US Transport Projects #4

USTP#4 includes:

  • Boeing Model 473-13: An early twin-engine jetliner
  • ICARUS Troop Transport: 1,200 marines, anywhere, anytime
  • Republic Model 10 SST: A little known SST competitor
  • Lockheed CL-593: A giant, if slow, logistics transporter
  • Boeing 763-059 NLA: A whole lotta passengers in one place
  • Fairchild M-534: A B-36 converted into a vast cargo carrier
  • Lockheed CL-1201: Probably the largest aircraft ever designed
  • Oblique All-Wing Supersonic Airplane: A supersonic variable-orientation flying wing

USTP#4 can be purchased for downloading for the low, low price of $4.25.

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US Launch Vehicle Projects #2

USLP#2 includes:

  • Juno V, 4 stage: An early design that became the Saturn rocket
  • Boeing “Space Freighter”: a giant two-stage spaceplane for launching solar power satellites
  • Boeing NASP-D: A rare look at an operational National Aerospace Plane derivative
  • LLNL Mockingbird: The smallest SSTO ever designed
  • Boeing Model 922-101: A fully reusable Saturn V
  • NAR Phase B Space Shuttle: a fully reusable two-stage concept
  • Martin Marietta Inline SDV: A Shuttle-derived heavy lifter
  • Scaled Composites Model 351: The Stratolaunch carrier aircraft

USLP#2 can be purchased for downloading for the low, low price of $4.25.

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 Posted by at 12:41 am

2015-06 APR Patreon Rewards are out

 bomber, hi-rez, launch vehicles, nukes, Patreon, Recon, rockets, spacecraft, stealth  No Responses »
Jun 272015
 

For APR Patrons, here’s what you now have available:

Documents: 2 General Electric reports on nuclear turbojets, *packed* with diagrams

Document: Mercury/Redstone booster recovery

Large diagram: 2 this time… “Long Tank Delta” space launch rocket and “Honest John” battlefield nuclear missile

CAD diagram: Convair “FISH,” 1958 configuration

If you’d like to access these and many others, or if you’d simply like to help the cause of recovering and making available forgotten aerospace ephemera such as this, please check out the APR Patreon page.

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2015-06 ad

 Posted by at 10:45 pm

PDF Review (sorta): USS United States

 bomber, fighter, hi-rez, PDF Review, ships  5 Responses »
Jun 182015
 

The USS United States (CVA-58) was a supercarrier that was begun in 1948, but never finished. Even though the keel was laid, the actual layout of the final ship has always been pretty poorly defined in published sources. It would have been an angled-deck supercarrier of modern design, but with no island at all, just a flat deck. But diagrams of it have always been vague, unofficial or dubious.

Huzzah! The National Archives has a number of high-rez plans of the ship as designed in October 1947. Five diagrams of slightly differing study concepts are available; I’m not sure which – if any – most accurately depicts the ship as it was eventually to be defined.

CV-New Study Arrangement Plans

Here’s one of the diagrams… greatly reduced in size. See the National Archives page for the full-rez versions.

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 Posted by at 6:47 pm

“City in Space” and TAV art

 bomber, hi-rez, hypersonic, launch vehicles, Patreon, space shuttle, spacecraft, spaceplane  3 Responses »
Jun 172015
 

I have just uploaded 300 dpi-high-rez scans of two things to the APR Patreon “Extras” folder (2015-06 sub-folder):

1) An article from the May, 1956, issue of Popular Science, “Now They’re Planning A City In Space.” This article, illustrated with full-color paintings, describes the gigantic artificial gravity space station proposed by Darrell Romick of Goodyear Aircraft Company as part of the METEOR project. This space station is forward-thinking by today’s standards, and is challenged in scale only by the likes of the O’Neill space colonies.

2) A McDonnell-Douglas painting depicting a Trans Atmospheric Vehicle in orbit.

These items are available to all $4+ APR Patreon patrons, and were made possible by the support of APR patrons and customers. If you’d like to access these and many other extras, please check out the APR Patreon page.

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cityinspace McDonnell Douglas TAV in orbit art

 Posted by at 3:17 pm

“Hot Flight” NB-36 film

 bomber, nukes, research  No Responses »
Jun 052015
 

A Convair film about the NB-36H, a heavily modified B-36 bomber equipped with a nuclear reactor. The reactor was not hooked up to anything but instruments; all it did was sit there and give off radiation. Which was in fact the point of the exercise; the plane was an experiment in support of atomic powered aircraft, but the experiments were to see how crew, structure and instruments would stand up to the radiation environment produced by an airborne reactor.

 Posted by at 9:05 am

General Dynamics AMPSS artwork

 bomber, hi-rez, Patreon, US Bomber Projects  No Responses »
May 042015
 

A piece of artwork from General Dynamics, circa 1963, illustrating their AMPSS (Advanced Manned Precision Strike System) design. This was a predecessor program to the AMSA (Advanced Manned Strategic Aircraft – a.k.a. Americas Most Studied Aircraft) that was a predecessor to the B-1 program. The General Dynamics design shown here is very similar to (possibly the same as, though the engine arrangement and canopy frames look a little different) the design presented in US Bomber Projects issue #6, available here and here. This was much like a scaled-up F-111 in terms of overall configuration, especially visible around the cockpit. However, few if any actual components would carry over. GD AMSA

I have made the full-rez version of this scan available at the APR Patreon for $4-and-up patrons. It is in the APR Patreon “Extras” Dropbox, in the 2015-05 folder.

 Posted by at 12:14 pm
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