AFRL Distributed Propulsion Concept Vehicle

future projects, stealth, transports 2 Responses »

Jan 092020

Air Force Displays Model Of Exotic And Potentially Revolutionary Hybrid Electric Airlifter

@AFResearchLab unveiled novel distributed propulsion concept vehicle at #aiaaSciTech – incorporating array of electric fans could be basis for ‘vision vehicle’ for future @usairforce STOL tactical airlifter pic.twitter.com/UXfdrehXr7

— Guy Norris (@AvWeekGuy) January 8, 2020

The propulsion system may be efficient, but it has the appearance of not being a particularly stealthy one, which makes for a schizophrenic contrast with the clearly stealthified fuselage. Amusingly, if you look closely the USAF insignia on the wings of the model are *deeply* engraved.

SR-71 Instrument Panel Diagram

hi-rez, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, Recon, stealth No Responses »

May 122019

A pretty detailed layout of the SR-71 pilots instruments.

I have uploaded the full resolution scan of the illustrations to the 2019-05 APR Extras Dropbox folder, available to $4 and up subscribers to the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.

Skunk Works VTOL

stealth, transports, VTOL 1 Response »

Jul 222017

Currently being sold on eBay is a 4″x5″ transparency showing a Lockheed Skunk Works VTOL concept. I seem to recall this concept showing up in Av Week long ago… the 1990’s?

LOCKHEED SKUNK WORKS VTOL AIRCRAFT CONCEPT 4″X5″ COLOR TRANSPARENCY 01

Jul 162017

Every month, patrons of the Aerospace Projects Review Patreon campaign are rewarded with a bundle of documents and diagrams, items of interest and importance to aerospace history. If you sign up, you get the monthly rewards going forwards; the “back issues” catalog lets patrons aid the APR cause by picking up items from before they signed on. The catalog, available to all patrons at the APR Patreon, has been updated to include everything from the beginning of the project back in 2014 on up to February, 2017.

Below are the items from 2016 (and the first two months of 2017):

If you are interested in any of these and in helping to fund the mission of Aerospace Projects Review, drop by the APR Patreon page and sign up. For only a few bucks a month you can help fund the procurement, scanning and dissemination of interesting aerospace documentation that might otherwise vanish from the public.

US Transport Projects #07, US Recon & Research Projects #01

future projects, hypersonic, jetliner, nukes, Recon, research, rockets, space shuttle, spaceplane, stealth, transports, US Recon & Research Projects, US Transport Projects No Responses »

Apr 152017

Now available: two new US Aerospace Projects issues:

US Transport Projects #07

US Transport Projects #07 is now available (see HERE for the entire series). Issue #07 includes:

Lockheed L-279-9: an early SST
Convair HST – Phase II Variable Sweep Configuration: A mid-1960’s hypersonic transport
Lockheed CL-1373: a short-haul turboprop liner
Boeing Model 702-134(4): a large nuclear-powered logistics hauler
McDonnell-Douglas Swept Wing Spanloader: a heavy cargo carrier
Lockheed Hybrid Wing Body: a current design for an efficient military transport
NASA Cut-Down 747 SCA: a 1973 idea for a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft
Rockwell Boost Glide Transport: An early 1970’s rocket transport

USTP #07 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4:

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Also available, the first in a new series:

US Recon and Research Projects #01

US Recon & Research Projects #01 is now available (see HERE for the entire series). Issue #01 includes:

General Dynamics “FISH”: 1958 concept for Mach 4 parasite
NACA-Langley X-Tail X-15: early hypersonic rocket plane concept
“Jake’s Jeep”: WWII-era motorjet design
Lockheed “Archangel”: The first step on the road to the SR-71
Boeing Model 853-21 “Quiet Bird”: A 1961 stealth platform
Northrop Tacit Blue: Operational version of the early stealth experiment
Convair Pilotless Airplane I-40 Inhabited: WWII-era design of a manned test for a flying bomb
Lockheed CL-278-1-1: a proto-U-2

USRP #01 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4:

——–

——

Almost there…

hypersonic, jetliner, nukes, Recon, research, rockets, space shuttle, spaceplane, stealth, transports, US Recon & Research Projects, US Transport Projects No Responses »

Apr 122017

So very, very close on the next two US Aerospace Projects issues. I’m only lacking cover “art”and have to deal with a bit of “dead air” in the middle of US Transport Projects #7. Usually I can shuffle things around well enough to not have this sort of thing, but this time it just hasn’t worked out. I suppose it doesn’t really matter all that much, but it does look kinda lazy like that.

It’s been about a year since I released the last USxP issue. That last issue was the first time where I used vector diagrams embedded within the issue, rather than raster images; getting the diagrams from AutoCAD into Word was a bit of a chore back then. And in the intervening months… I forgot how I did it. So I had to figure it out again, and the process is different. I have to walk the AutoCAD diagram through Rhino 3D and save as a WMF and blah, blah, blah; end result is it works just fine. I’ve done some further refinement… the main outlines are set at 0.25 mm width and the ends of the lines have been reset to rounded and mitered, so sharp corners now look more like sharp corners.

Hoping to have these two out in a day or two. The other three will be rather longer.

Apr 022017

I’m essentially done with the drafting portion of the exercise. Now to finish the writing. I had planned on releasing ll five at once, but due to external factors I’ll almost certainly have to split this up. So… which ones do people want more? The publications forthcoming are Fighters, Bombers, Transports, Launchers and Recon & Research. Comment below…

Mar 102017

Coming soonish: the return of USXP publications. Five are under current development and are mostly done. There is a new title in the bunch… USRP. Strictly speaking it should probably be USR&RP… United States Research and Recon Projects. Perhaps Recon and Research aren’t necessarily the most obvious categories to link together into a single title, but apart from the vitally important alliteration, there is this important fact: compared to, say, Bombers, there aren’t that many Recon and Research projects out there.

If there are specific proposals, or general categories you’d like to see in future publications, feel free to comment below.

APR Patreon Back Issue Catalog NOW AVAILABLE

bomber, Dyna Soar, fighter, hi-rez, hypersonic, jetliner, launch vehicles, Patreon, Patreon catalog, rockets, space shuttle, space station, spacecraft, spaceplane, stealth, transports, VTOL No Responses »

Oct 302016

I’ve been running the Aerospace Projects Review Patreon project for a bit over two years now. Every month, Patrons get rewarded with sets of aerospace history stuff… currently, one large-format diagram or piece of artwork, three documents and, depending on level of patronage, an all-new CAD diagram of an aerospace subject of interest. More than two dozen such packages have been put together so far and distributed. Given that you can get in on this for as little as $1.50 a month (for 125-dpi scans… $4/month for full-rez 300 dpi scans) and you get at least four items, that’s a pretty good bargain compared to the individual aerospace drawings and documents.

Patrons who signed up after the process got underway can now get “back issues” of the previously released rewards packages. A catalog of more than the first years worth has just been posted; each month will see an updated catalog posted for Patrons to order from. So if you are interested, check out the APR Patreon page to see how to sign up; if you are already a patron, check out the catalog here.

PDF Review: Aerospace Projects Clip Art

bomber, fighter, future projects, hypersonic, jetliner, launch vehicles, PDF Review, space shuttle, spaceplane, stealth, VTOL 1 Response »

Jun 252016

A heavily illustrated USAF brochure on turbine engine technology included, among a vast number of little photos of engines and aircraft, a few illustrations that might be of interest.

Several futuristic concepts here, several old ones. Of particular interest is the “Supersonic Multirole Fighter,” which looks like a cross between the old Lockheed Hopeless Diamond concept and the Northrop XST design… tailless with an inlet on top, with features reminiscent of the F-117, but blended rather than faceted.