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.

PDF Review: modifications to BQM-34E drone

Patreon, PDF Review, Recon, research No Responses »

Jul 142017

A 1972 Teledyne Ryan report on modifying their supersonic BQM-34E Firebee II target drone into RPV’s for testing new aerodynamics, wings and area-rule add-ons and the like. Numerous diagrams are included.

Here’s the link to the NTRS abstract.

Here’s the direct link to the PDF.

Support the APR Patreon to help bring more of this sort of thing to light!

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:

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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.

Brodie Rig for UAVs

Recon No Responses »

Jan 292017

In 1961 Ryan Aircraft looked at alternate means of ground launching their Firebee UAvs. A number of companies put forward ideas for various catapults. The SDASM Flickr account has illustrations of a number of the concept put forward. One of them was Brodie Rig, similar to the suspended runway I posted about a few weeks ago. Sadly details on this and the other studies is very limited… basically the date and the illustrations. The Brodie rig has what appears to be a winch a tthe end, indicating that the drone would have been accelerated not only by its jet engine but also the rig itself, getting it up to flight speed ASAP. Whether it would be able to be recovered with the rig at the end of the mission is difficult to determine, but doing so would require a definite level of precise flying that I’m not sure the Firebee would have been able to attain in 1961.

See somewhat higher rez version of this illustration HERE.

OK… who got these hypersonics reports?

fighter, hypersonic, launch vehicles, Recon, rockets, spacecraft, spaceplane No Responses »

Oct 052015

In the last few days a stash of Boeing hypersonic reports and diagrams were sold on ebay. I put in good bids, but got beat *bad* and by a number of bidders. If anyone knows who scored these, I’d sure like to be put in touch with ’em.

USBP 16, USSP 03 Now Available

bomber, Dyna Soar, hypersonic, launch vehicles, nukes, Recon, research, rockets, space shuttle, space station, spacecraft, spaceplane, US Bomber Projects, US Spacecraft Projects 4 Responses »

Sep 132015

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

US Bomber Projects #16: The B-52 Evolution Special

Boeing Model 444 A: A late war turboprop heavy bomber
Boeing Model 461: An early postwar turboprop heavy bomber
Boeing Model 462: A large six-turboprop ancestor of the B-52
Boeing Model 462-5: A six-turboprop B-52 ancestor
Boeing Model 464-17: 1946 four-turboprop strategic bomber, a step toward the B-52
Boeing Model 464-18: a reduced-size version of the 464-17 turboprop strategic bomber
Boeing Model 464-25: a modification of the 464-17 turboprop bomber with slightly swept wings, among other changes
Boeing Model 464-27: a slightly-swept turboprop B-52 progenitor
Boeing Model 464-33-0: A turboprop B-52 predecessor
Boeing Model 464-34-3: A turboprop B-52 predecessor
Boeing Model 464-40: The first all-jet-powered design in the quest for the B-52
Boeing Model 464-40: The first all-jet-powered design in the quest for the B-52
Boeing Model 464-046: A six-engined B-52 predecessor
Boeing Model 464-49: The penultimate major design in the development of the B-52
Fairchild M-121:A highly unconventional canard-biplane
Convair B-60: A swept-wing turboprop-powered derivative of the B-36
Douglas Model 1211-J: An elegant turboprop alternative to the B-52
With additional diagrams of the B-47, XB-52 and B-52B

USBP#16 can be purchased for downloading for the low, low price of $6.25.

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US Spacecraft Projects #03

Northrop ST-38 Space Trainer: a rocket-powered T-38 for trips to space
“Have Sting:” A General Electric design for a gigantic orbital railgun
JPL Thousand Astronomical Unit probe: A spacecraft into interstellar space
Integrated MannedInterplanetary Spacecraft: A Boeing concept for a giant spacecraft to Mars and Venus
Convair Inflatable Spacecraft: an early spaceplane concept
One Man Space Station: A 1960 McDonnell concept for a tiny space station
Astroplane: A lightweight aircraft for the exploration of Mars
Reactor-In-Flight Test: A Lockheed nuclear-powered stage for the Saturn V

USSP#03 can be purchased for downloading for the low, low price of $5.25.

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PDF Review: History of MOL

PDF Review, Recon, research, rockets, space station, spacecraft 1 Response »

Aug 142015

Just released today… an official “History of the Manned Orbital Laboratory” by Carl Berger of the MOL Program Office, 1970. This originally Top Secret history still has a number of blacked-out text redactions and, sadly, no illustrations in its 356 pages. I’ve only skimmed through it, but it looks to be an interesting read.

Direct link to the “History of MOL” PDF file

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