Possibilities of New Business Growth: Adding extra boosters

 launch vehicles, Monthly Historical Documents Program, space shuttle, spacecraft, spaceplane  No Responses »
Sep 012019
 

Continuing…

In 1985 Rockwell gave thought to adding relatively small liquid propellant boosters to the undersides of the Orbiters wings. Even though the boosters were relatively small, with only a single RL-10 engine fed from low-density, narrow-diameter liquid hydrogen tanks. Even so, Rockwell projected an additional 15,000 pounds of payload. This would seem to require some interesting modifications to the underside of the wings… not just adding mounting hardpoints, but doors that could close over them after the boosters are jettisoned.

 

Continue reading »

 Posted by at 12:35 am

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 launch vehicles, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, rockets, space shuttle, spacecraft, spaceplane  No Responses »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 A monthly subscription to the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program would not only help support the project, it would also provide you with a monthly package of rare aerospace documents and diagrams.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 hi-rez, Monthly Historical Documents Program, nukes, Patreon, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »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

McDonnell-Douglas M-260-RTA-1

 hi-rez, Monthly Historical Documents Program, research, VTOL  No Responses »
Jul 242019
 

McDonnell Douglas spent much of the 1970’s  trying to get NASA, the Marines and the Navy to fund the development of a lift-fan-based VTOL aircraft concept, the Model 260. This general concept showed up in a number of different forms, from strike bomber to carrier onboard delivery transport to Marine troop transport. Shown below is a”Research Technology Aircraft,” a proof of concept prototype to be assembled from existing aircraft components, much as Rockwell did with the XFV-12.

I’ve made the full resolution version of the diagram (equivalent to 37 inches wide at 300dpi) available to above-$10-subscribers of the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program/Patreon.

If this sort of thing is of interest, consider subscribing. Even a buck a month will help out; but the more you subscribe for, the more you get… and the more you help me get from eBay and save for the ages.

 

 Posted by at 1:00 am

McDonnell-Douglas Phase B Shuttle Model

 hi-rez, hypersonic, launch vehicles, Monthly Historical Documents Program, rockets, space shuttle, spacecraft, spaceplane  No Responses »
Jul 012019
 

For much of the time while the concept of the Space Shuttle was being developed the vehicle consisted of a manned flyback booster of relatively enormous dimensions, coupled with an orbiter that included sizable internal oxygen tanks, sometimes with external hydrogen tanks, sometimes internal. The model below, a masterpiece of late 1960’s model makers craft, illustrates one such concept. the orbiter is similar to the Grumman H-33 except larger, with completely internal hydrogen and oxygen tanks.

Had this type of Space Shuttle been built and flown successfully, there is every chance that it would have been substantially less costly to operate than the Shuttle we got: flying the booster back to a runway landing and refurbishing it would theoretically have been a lot faster and easier than fishing solid rocket motor casings out of the ocean and shipping them to Utah for refurb. But getting the design to the point of operation would have been a nightmare. The booster was unlike anything previously attempted, and would have been an aircraft roughly the size of the C-5 Galaxy, with a top speed like that of the X-15

 

I have uploaded the full resolution scan of the photo to the 2019-07 APR Extras Dropbox folder, available to $4 and up subscribers to the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.

 Posted by at 1:01 pm

“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
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