Possibilities of New Business growth: Graphite structures

 launch vehicles, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, rockets, space shuttle, spacecraft, spaceplane  No Responses »
Aug 182019
 

Continuing. This time, discussion of possibilities of swapping out existing Orbiter structures with graphite composites. The advantage would be lowered dry mass of the Orbiter, leading to potentially higher payload performance. this would, presumably, be of interest for USAF launches from Vandenburg, a possibility that Challenger put to bed.

If this sort of stuff is of interest or use, why not help support the project? A monthly subscription to the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program would not only help support the project, it would also provide you with a monthly package of rare aerospace documents and diagrams.

 



 Posted by at 3:39 am

Chrysler saucer, again

 hi-rez, Monthly Historical Documents Program, nukes, Patreon, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Aug 162019
 

Around three years ago I posted some rather cruddy images of a saucer-shaped nuclear-powered spacecraft that the Chrysler corporation drew up in 1956. At this time a manned spacecraft was a perfectly normal sort of thing for Chrysler to design; their aerospace division was responsible for the Redstone missile and the Saturn I first stage. One of the images was a small scan of the cover of the August-September 1957 issue of “Saucer News.” I finally managed to score a copy of this “fanzine”on ebay a while back and have scanned the cover at high (600 dpi) resolution. The image quality is a bit regrettable, but what can you expect from a 1950’s UFO magazine.

As always, if anyone might happen to know anything more about this design, I’m all ears. Chrysler long ago got rid of their aerospace division and whatever archive it might have had.

I have uploaded the full resolution scan to the 2019-08 APR Extras Dropbox folder, available to $4 and up subscribers to the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.

 Posted by at 1:46 am

“Mighty Mouse” in full rez

 hi-rez, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, transports, VTOL  No Responses »
Jun 102019
 

I made the full rez scan of this artwork available in 2015 to APR Monthly Historical Document Program subscribers as an “extra.” Subscribers get lots of stuff like this.

This late 1980’s art depicts the Bell “Mighty Mouse” tiltrotor, a contender for the FAAV (Future Attack Air Vehicle) concept. While details on this specific design have remained irritatingly hard to come by for the last thirty years, the design looks like functionally a VTOL OV-10 Bronco. Capable of carrying several Marines as well as a useful load of anti-tank weaponry, the Mighty Mouse would be able to fold up for storage on board a ship. The full rez version of the scan is on Dropbox HERE.

 Posted by at 2:24 pm

Space Station concept art

 hi-rez, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, research, space station, spacecraft  No Responses »
Jun 062019
 

Two pieces of Boeing concept art for mid-1960’s zero-gravity, single-Saturn V launched spacecraft. The first one looks like an interplanetary spacecraft, complete with drop-probes in the aft skirt.

I have uploaded the full resolution scan of the illustrations to the 2019-06 APR Extras Dropbox folder, available to $4 and up subscribers to the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.

 

 

 Posted by at 3:57 pm

May 2019 Monthly Historical Documents

 fighter, hi-rez, hypersonic, launch vehicles, Monthly Historical Documents Program, nukes, Patreon, research, rockets, spacecraft, spaceplane  No Responses »
Jun 022019
 

On May 31st, APR Patrons and Monthly Historical Documents program subscribers were sent emails containing links to the May, 2019, rewards. This months set of documents and diagrams included high-rez copies of:

Document: “Manned Lunar Vehicle Design,” a General Electric paper from 1962 describing a direct-landing Apollo concept

Document: “AP-76 Project 1226,” a highly illustrated Republic Aviation report from May 1955 describing their design for the X-15

Diagram: “DNI-27C, VFX Design Study Fixed Wing/Buried Engine,” September 1968 North American Aviation fighter design

CAD Diagram: three-view of the Dandridge Cole/Martin Aircraft “Aldebaran” giant nuclear powered launch vehicle notional concept

 

If this sort of thing is of interest and you’d like to get in on it and make sure you don’t miss any of the forthcoming releases, sign up either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.

 

 



All prior “back issues” are available  for purchase by subscribers. Recent months rewards have included:

 Posted by at 11:46 pm

Guns, guns, guns: Rock Island Arsenal Museum

 hi-rez, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon  No Responses »
May 212019
 

I’ve recently returned from several weeks of travels. In the process I stopped at the Rock Island Arsenal Museum and took a lot of photos (something like 200) of their large display of firearms. Because why not, I’ve uploaded all of them to Dropbox for APR monthly funders; guns aren’t aerospace, of course, but there tends to be some overlap in interest. One wrinkle: these were taken with my best camera, which means each photo is about 13 megabytes; 200 of which adds up to a lot. It took a ridiculous length of time to upload them all.

 

I have uploaded the full set of ~200 photos to Dropbox available to $4 and up subscribers to the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.

If you’ve been wondering why blogging has been a bit reduced and why emails might not have been answered… well, there ya go.

 

 Posted by at 3:02 am

B-58 weapons possibilities

 hi-rez, Monthly Historical Documents Program, nukes, Patreon, Recon, rockets  No Responses »
Apr 172019
 

An early-ish Convair illustration of the potential weapons and other payloads to be carried by the B-58 bomber, both in the centerline pod and under the wing roots. Note not only ballistic missiles but also several recon options, and a “bomb bay pod” giving the aircraft a payload of several gravity bombs, presumably nuclear.

I have uploaded the full resolution scan of the illustrations to the 2019-04 APR Extras Dropbox folder, available to $4 and up subscribers to the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.

 Posted by at 6:30 pm
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