Jun 062023

I put one copy of each of my current books on ebay. They’re all in brand-new condition, and will be signed/dated when sold. They also come with bonus 18X24-inch prints… the “SR-71” book has two prints of the SR-71, the “B-47/B-52” book has one B-47 diagram and two B-52 diagrams; “US Supersonic Bomber Projects Vol. 1” has two B-70 Valkyrie diagrams. Take a look…

Apr 032023

Ever since the early sixties there have been ideas about “inspector” spacecraft that would check out other satellites. This would be done to see just what some foreign satellite actually was…r econ, communications, navigation, weapons platform. But actually doing it has not but done too often… at least, it hasn’t been *shown.* But here are the results of one commercial satellite – the Worldview-3 earth observer – looking at a Landsat from a range of about 100 kilometers. The imagery is remarkably clear.

You’ve probably seen artists’ renderings of #Landsat satellites in orbit… but how about an *actual image* of a satellite in orbit?

Thanks to Maxar, we now have images of Landsat 8 orbiting Earth from the WorldView-3 satellite.

Enjoy! 🛰️ pic.twitter.com/YFeQlHVV7t

— NASA Landsat Program (@NASA_Landsat) April 3, 2023

The story of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory

Recon, rockets, space station, spacecraft No Responses »

Nov 202022

The National Reconnaissance Office is starting a series on the history of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, a small space lab that was designed in the early/mid 1960s for the Air Force. Officially just a basic space lab, in reality it was an advanced (for the time) spy satellite. So far there is only Part One on the NRO website, and there’s not much to it… but we’ll see how it goes.

The story of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory – part one

As a reminder, there is a whole freakin’ mountain of MOL documents on the NRO website:

Index, Declassified Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) Records

Manned Hypersonic Test Vehicle

hypersonic, Recon, research, rockets, spaceplane, US Recon & Research Projects No Responses »

Oct 242022

A photo of a wind tunnel model of a Republic Aviation design for a Manned Hypersonic Test Vehicle configuration. The photo was published in 1969, but the program was circa 1965. It used a configuration previously studied as both an Aerospaceplane (airbreathing SSTO) and Mach 10 recon. That latter design was written about and illustrated in US Research & Recon Projects #2. You can tell that this is the subscale demonstrator, rather than one of the full-scale operational vehicles, because of the additional fuel tanks, projection from the lower fuselage. The fuselage was conical and ringed with a scramjet engine; a rocket engine in the tail would, after separation from a B-52 carrier aircraft, accelerate the vehicle past Mach 7 or so to scramjet operational speed.

CAD diagrams

bomber, CAD Diagrams, Dyna Soar, fighter, hi-rez, hypersonic, launch vehicles, nukes, Recon, research, rockets, space shuttle, spacecraft, spaceplane, stealth, transports, VTOL No Responses »

Oct 122022

I’m at work on a new series of CAD diagrams (see HERE for the first run) to be released as PDFs formatted for printing at 18X24. For example, here are first drafts of a few:

Boeing Space Sortie (3 sheets)
Saturn C-8/Nova
Jules Verne’s “Columbiad”
A-12 Avenger II (2 sheets)
Lockheed CL-400 “Suntan”

All of these require a bit more dressing-up, as well as explanatory text. But I think they’re starting to look pretty good.

I’ve selected a fair number more to work on. If any of these are of particular interest, or if any of the many, many diagrams I’ve made over the years would be of interest, let me know.

BIS “Daedalus” straship
Rockwell MRCC
Northrop Tacit Blue
Space Shuttle Main Engine
Boeing Bird of Prey
General Atomic 86-foot Orion
General Atomic Orion battleship
General Atomic 10-meter Orion
Martin SeaMistress
Space Launch System
Have Sting orbital railgun
Casaba Howitzer
X-20 Dyna Soar
B-47E
DB-47E/Bold Orion
DB-47E/RASCAL
B-52G
B-52H
B-52H/Skybolt
Boeing Space Freighter
Boeing Big Onion
Shuttle C
Rockwell Star Raker
Lockheed STAR Clipper
Lockheed SR-71
Lockheed A-12 (early canards)
Lockheed A-12
Lockheed A-12 (honeycomb panels)
Lockheed A-12 “Titanium Goose”
Lockheed YF-12A
Lockheed M-21/D-21
Lockheed AP-12
Republic YF-103
North American XF-108
Bell MX-2147
Convair Kingfish

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:

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.

Large Satellite

Recon, rockets, space shuttle, space station, spacecraft No Responses »

Jul 112022

A piece of artwork attributed to the DoD (1984 or before) depicting a large structure being built in space. Since it’s DoD, it is most likely a surveillance or mapping radar system of some kind, or an electronic listening system. Since it doesn’t seem to have either large PV arrays or a nuclear reactor – at least not yet at this stage in construction – I’d lean towards it being a listening system. Of course, a great deal more stuff may have been added to it after this… assuming it’s an actual design and not pure art.

Weapon System Designations: 1959

bomber, Dyna Soar, fighter, hypersonic, launch vehicles, nukes, Recon, research, rockets, spacecraft, spaceplane, transports, VTOL No Responses »

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.

March 2022 APR Rewards

hi-rez, hypersonic, launch vehicles, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, Recon, rockets, spacecraft, spaceplane, transports, VTOL No Responses »

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.

Older Entries

Aerospace Projects Review Blog

Three of my books on ebay

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird (Origins and Evolution): Signed, with bonus prints

Boeing B-47 Stratojet and B-52 Stratofortress: Signed, with bonus prints

US Supersonic Bomber Projects Volume 1: Signed, with bonus prints

Satellite Inspection