Boeing Model 987-350

 bomber, CAD Diagrams, fighter, nukes, US Supersonic Bomber Projects Vol 2  No Responses »
Nov 222022
 

A bit short of a week ago I posted artwork of a “Boeing Advanced Fighter.” This led to the re-discovery of the actual model number 987-350 (I knew it some time back, but my brain is full I guess). And that led to the below CAD diagram, coming in just under the wire for a forthcoming book. The 987-350 was a tactical supercruiser; armament is unfortunately left a bit vague in the available documentation. The artwork depicts it with four folding-fin AGM-69 SRAM missiles; another diagram depicts it with two larger-diameter missiles of similar length. All were to be semi-submerged for low drag.

 

 Posted by at 5:01 pm

Boeing Advanced Fighter

 bomber, fighter  1 Response »
Nov 172022
 

Another early 80s advanced fighter concept from Boeing. This one used Viggen-like close coupled canards and vectorable 2D exhaust nozzles for aerial agility. Stealth seems to have been a minimal concern, with performance being more important. The inlets and overall aerodynamcis suggest supersonic cruise. Four sizable missiles – possible SRAM nuclear-tipped surface attack missiles – are semi-submerged in the belly for reduced drag. No further data.

Full rez scan is in the 2022-11 APR Extras Dropbox folder.

 Posted by at 4:18 pm

Advanced Fighter Art

 bomber, fighter, hi-rez, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon  No Responses »
Nov 142022
 

A Boeing rendering of an advanced fighter from the late 70’s/early 80’s. This design features variable sweep wings and inlets mounted over the shoulders, reminiscent of the Boeing Model 818 design proposed in the early 1960s for the TFX program (won by General Dynamics, resulting in the F-111… check out “US Supersonic Bomber Projects Vol 1” for more on that). There are four weapons mounted conformally to the underside. All in all it looks like an early attempt at a *somewhat* stealthy aircraft… not true stealth, but a substantial reduction in radar return, specifically from ground-based radar. This would seem to indicate that the aircraft was intended to generally fly low and to serve in a strike capacity.

The configuration is broadly conventional, apart from the inlets. The twin exhaust nozzles are 2D vectorable, reducing IR signature and increasing agility and short field takeoff performance. The twin tails are canted outboard, probably to knock out the “corner reflector” problem for radar returns. This was likely intended to be something of a replacement for the F-111 rather than the next air dominance fighter like the F-15.

The full rez scan has been uploaded into the 2022-11 APR Extras folder on Dropbox for $4 and up Patrons/Subscribers.

 

 

 Posted by at 5:04 pm

Extended (early) ALCM

 bomber, nukes  No Responses »
Nov 062022
 

The model AGM-86 Air Launch Cruise Missile began life as a decoy missile, sort of an updated “Quail.” it was decided that the decoy could carry a nuclear warhead, and thus provide a lot more service; this began its development as a cruise missile. As originally envisaged, it had to fit in the some bays that could hold the AGM-69 SRAM missile; this made sense in a lot of ways but strictly limited its capabilities due to the short length. Efforts to increase the range of the missile included adding a droppable belly tank and stretching the fuselage for more internal fuel volume. The latter route was chose, along with making the nose much blunter and more voluminous.Both the external tank and the fuselage stretch meant that it could not long fit in internal SRAM bays, a tradeoff that was deemed worthwhile.

The illustration below dates from mid 1976 at the latest.

The full rez scan has been uploaded to the 2022-11 APR Extras folder on Dropbox for $4 and up APR Patrons/subscribers.

 Posted by at 11:17 pm

Early A-10

 bomber  No Responses »
Nov 052022
 

An artists rendering of the Republic A-10 circa 1971. This is very nearly the final design, but it differs in details; the cockpit canopy is a little off, for instance.

 

 Posted by at 5:51 pm

APR Rewards: October 2022

 bomber, CAD Diagrams, fighter, hi-rez, hypersonic, launch vehicles, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, rockets, spacecraft, spaceplane, VTOL  No Responses »
Nov 012022
 

The October 2022 rewards are available for APR Patrons and Subscribers. This latest package includes:

Large format art: A Bell Aerospace painting of the D188A VTOL fighter/bomber

Document: “Standard Aircraft Characteristics – Convair Class VF Seaplane Night Fighter (SKATE)” diagrams and data for seaplane jet fighter

Document: “21St Century Aerospace – The 20th Century Challenge,” General Dynamics presentation, late 80’s about hypersonics/NASP. From photographs.

Document: “Prototype X-14 VTOL Aircraft,” Bell Aerospace presentation, 1971, on the “SeaKat” operational naval VTOL. From photos, but art and diagrams were also scanned for clarity.

CAD Diagram ($5 and up): XB-70 Valkyrie forward fuselage configuration

 

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.



 Posted by at 12:23 am

Recent project

 bomber, fighter, VTOL  4 Responses »
Oct 182022
 

Here’s a look at Book 4. Some of the diagrams I do are completed in just a few hours. Some take considerably longer… several to many man-days, sometimes spread out over months as I dial in details. This one was sort of mid-range. The most complex and time consuming are typically the diagrams of aircraft that were actually built… those have to be accurate, and more details are available. This one is of an unbuilt aircraft that is reasonably well documented, but was a configuration that was in a constant state of design flux.

 Posted by at 12:50 pm

“US Supersonic Bomber Projects Vol 1:” exists

 bomber, Book 3, nukes, rockets, US Supersonic Bomber Projects vol 1  No Responses »
Oct 152022
 

Photos of a physical copy, fresh from the printer, somewhere in the wilds of Britain. UK/EU buyers should start receiving them shortly, I’d imagine.

The ordering link straight from the publisher:

US Supersonic Bomber Projects

And the updated Amazon link:

US Supersonic Bomber Projects Paperback – December 23, 2022

As previously mentioned, if you are interested in a signed, dated and bonus-print copy, let me know so I know how many to order.

 Posted by at 1:33 pm
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