December, January, February APR rewards

 bomber, fighter, hi-rez, jetliner, launch vehicles, Monthly Historical Documents Program, nukes, Patreon, rockets, space shuttle, space station, spacecraft, spaceplane, transports  No Responses »
Mar 052022
 

Yeesh, I am *terrible* at advertising. Just realized I missed reporting on *several* months worth of rewards packages for APR patrons and Monthly Historical Documents program subscribers.

December 2021 rewards:

Document: “B-52G Advanced Configuration Mockup inspection,” Boeing presentation on the design of the then-new B-52G configuration

Document: “Performance Potential Hydrogen Fueled, Airbreathing Cruise Aircraft, Final report, Volume I, Summary” 1966 Convair report on hydrogen fueled hypersonic jetliners

Document:  “Integral Launch and Reentry Logistics System” late-60’s Space Division of North American Rockwell presentation on very early Space Shuttle-type systems

Art: Large format McDonnell Douglas DC-10 cutaway

CAD Diagram: Convair MA-1 pod for B-58

January 2022 rewards:

Document: “The Configuration of the European Spaceplane Hermes,” 1990 conference paper on the unbuilt French spaceplane

Document: “Space Rescue Charts,” 1965 USAF presentation charts describing space “life rafts” and shelters

Document: Two nuclear-powered car brochures… Ford “Gyron” and Ford “Seattle-ite XXI”

Diagram: “AGM28 Hound Dog Missile,” North American Aviation informational graphic

CAD Diagram: Boeing MX-1965 missile

February 2022 Rewards:

Diagram: Boeing 720-022 model diagram, United Airlines configuration

Document: Aerojet Ordnance Company brochure, describes aircraft ammo

Document: “The Nova (Liquid) Vehicle a Preliminary Project Development Plan,” October 1961 NASA-MSFC report on facilities planning for the “Saturn C-8” configuration of the Nova vehicle

Document: “Ground Handling Equipment and Procedures for a X-15 Research Aircraft  Project 1226,” 1955 North American Aviation report on the early B-36-launched design for the X-15

CAD Diagram: F-111 Escape capsule

 

 

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with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.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 1:18 am

B-52G info: better late than never

 B-47 and B-52 Origins and Evolution, bomber, hi-rez, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, Patreon catalog  1 Response »
Nov 182021
 

My book on the B-52 is now being printed (I understand that copies physically exist), so it is perhaps a little late for additions and revisions. Still, I remain on the lookout for relevant information. To that end I recently plunked down a fair chunk of change for a pair of documents on ebay… a set of blueprints of the B-52G cockpit, and a B-52G mockup review. I eagerly await their arrival. I have high hopes that the US Postal Service won’t drop a tractor axle dipped in anthrax onto the package.

These will likely end up in the catalog for monthly rewards. If they are of interest, and/or if you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.



 

 

 Posted by at 2:07 am

A3J-1 Vigilante

 bomber, hi-rez, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon  No Responses »
Nov 182021
 

Back in the day, aerospace companies would actively court the public, including those crazy kids who liked to make models. To that end, a number of aerospace companies would release surprisingly nice diagrams of their aircraft. North American Aviation was one such company, and one of their aircraft that they diagrammed for the public was the A3J-1 (later A-5) Vigilante supersonic carrier based bomber. Oddly, I’ve had trouble finding the full scale print of this… but then, I’ve had trouble finding *most* of the ones released by North American. Seems that they tended to not survive to make it to ebay. However, I recently acquired a copy of an old magazine that had the Vigilante diagram, reproduced reasonably well. Woo.

A 300 dpi scan of the diagram has been made available to $4 and up patrons/subscribers in the 2021-11 APR Extras Dropbox folder. A 600 dpi scan has been made available to above-$10 patrons/subscribers. 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.



 Posted by at 1:56 am

Flashback: Engage Smug Mode

 American Nuclear Explosive Devices, bomber, nukes  1 Response »
Oct 192021
 

Almost four years ago I posted about a project known as “Flashback,” a vaguely-described mid 1960’s program to carry and drop a giant *something* from a B-52. What it was, exactly, was not described with any clarity, but there were enough clues that I tentatively speculated that it was a design for an American “Tsar Bomb” with a yield of fifty or more megatons. To my knowledge I was the first person to yap about it publicly. I sent what I’d found to a few atomic and aerospace researchers to see if they knew anything. At the time, they were as mystified as I was.

Today there’s less mystery. I was contacted by one of the researchers I had contacted back then, letting me know he’s writing an article to appear in a month or so in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, covering Flashback among other things. He has Found Some Stuff. In short… Flashback was a design for a 50 to 100 megaton hydrogen bomb.

Giggitty.

 

 Posted by at 9:50 pm

A preview of “B-47/B-52”

 B-47 and B-52 Origins and Evolution, bomber, Dyna Soar, future projects, hypersonic, jetliner, launch vehicles, nukes, Recon, research, rockets, spacecraft, spaceplane, transports, VTOL  3 Responses »
Oct 142021
 

Here are some screenshots snagged from a not-quite-final version of the book, showing the sort of content you can expect from the final product.

As before it is available for pre-order from both the publisher and from Amazon:

 

 

 

 

 Posted by at 10:57 pm

Boeing B-47 Stratojet & B-52 Stratofortress: Origins and Evolution

 B-47 and B-52 Origins and Evolution, bomber, nukes, Recon, rockets, spacecraft, spaceplane, transports, VTOL  No Responses »
Sep 282021
 

My next book is slightly behind schedule, but it is coming. I was recently sent the first “proof” of the book after the graphic artists laid it out; a bit of tinkering yet, but it is nearing completion. I thought it might be interesting to post a shot of the last page.

 

 

 

 Posted by at 8:30 am

It’s tough to be a Loon

 bomber  No Responses »
Aug 302021
 

The German V-1 “Buzz Bomb” was a relatively simple weapon, and one that a sufficient number were found sufficiently intact that the Allies were able to reverse engineer. In the US, copies of the V-1 were built by Republic Aviation by September of 1944 as the Jet Bomb-2 “Loon.” The V-1 was found to be a crude weapons, inaccurate and not particularly spectacular… but it was cheap and unmanned. In late 1944 the US was staring down the barrel of Operation Downfall, the forthcoming invasion of Japan. Nobody was quite sure how that was going to go; the only thing the expert were sure of was that it would be a bloodbath. So a stand-off weapon that could be launched in *vast* numbers to saturation-bomb Japanese targets while putting approximately zero American lives in harms way? It was an easy sale.

The JB-2 was externally nearly identical to the V-1 but had an active guidance system, theoretically making it more accurate than the fairly dumb V-1. But even with a radar-based guidance system the JB-2 was meant to be built in large numbers… the goal of 1,000 units per month by April, 1945. However, by the end of the war only a little over 1,300 had been built. Exactly how to use the JB-2 does not seem to have been nailed down; one reasonable notion was to use it as a “harassment” weapon: on days when cloud cover negated manned bombing missions, the Japanese might be expected to be scurrying around rebuilding and reprovisioning and generally getting stuff done… and then here come the buzz bombs.

Problem was, simple as the V-1 was, getting the thing to work right was not so simple. Testing of the JB-2 continued to about 1950, by which time it was woefully obsolete and was being used as an aerial target. But early on, simply getting the thing into the air, never mind flying stably, was a chore.

 Posted by at 1:45 pm

Grumman ATF artists concept

 bomber, fighter  1 Response »
Aug 022021
 

A Grumman design from the 80’s  (looks like 1980) for an advanced fighter. This was clearly from the era where fighters did not need to prioritize stealth over all else, though also clearly stealth aspects are included. The aircraft had missiles integrated onto the back surface, an unusual location; it appears that these are unpowered bombs, using wings to generate lift to fling themselves upwards. It’s not immediately clear what the purpose here is; chances are that these might be nukes, so flinging the bombs upwards would give the jet a few moments to gain some distance before the bombs glide down to the ground. Or it might be a low-observability feature… launching from the top would allow the aircraft to fly at a stupid-low altitude to avoid anti-aircraft systems.

 Posted by at 7:43 pm
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