(Post in progress…)
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Jun 272015
Jun 172015
I have just uploaded 300 dpi-high-rez scans of two things to the APR Patreon “Extras” folder (2015-06 sub-folder):
1) An article from the May, 1956, issue of Popular Science, “Now They’re Planning A City In Space.” This article, illustrated with full-color paintings, describes the gigantic artificial gravity space station proposed by Darrell Romick of Goodyear Aircraft Company as part of the METEOR project. This space station is forward-thinking by today’s standards, and is challenged in scale only by the likes of the O’Neill space colonies.
2) A McDonnell-Douglas painting depicting a Trans Atmospheric Vehicle in orbit.
These items are available to all $4+ APR Patreon patrons, and were made possible by the support of APR patrons and customers. If you’d like to access these and many other extras, please check out the APR Patreon page.
May 142015
A brief article on a Japanese mini-shuttle, photographed from an issue of “Space World” magazine a few months back (sadly, I didn’t catch the date of the article, but it would have been sometime in the early/mid 1980’s). This is, I believe, an early design of the “HOPE” spaceplane which was more or less Japans answer to the French Hermes spaceplane. This mini-shuttle would have been a little bigger than the Dyna Soar from twenty years earlier, but equipped not only with its own onboard rocket propulsion system but also a pair of turbojets of atmospheric propulsion.
Apr 272015
Just added five more issues to Amazon for $2.99 each. These are Kindle-fied versions of the issues otherwise available as PDFs here.
Apr 062015
Now available… two new additions to the US Aerospace Projects series.
US Bomber Projects #14: System 464L Special
USBP#14 brings together the competitors to Weapon System 464L, the first major effort in the Dyna Soar program. These designs were previously shown individually in prior issues of USBP; here they are brought together, with some updates, as well as a few extra diagrams and a section of diagrams formatted for 11X17 printing. This issue includes info and diagrams of the Lockheed, Republic, General Dynamics, McDonnell, Boeing, Douglas, Northrop, North American and Martin-Bell entries as well as their various booster systems. Also included are detailed diagrams of the ultimate Dyna Soar design, the 2050E.
USBP#14 can be purchased for downloading for the low, low price of $6.25.
Also available:US Transport Projects #03.
Included in this issue:
- Lockheed “Environmentally Responsible Aviation” box-wing jetliner
- Martin Commercial Twin-Hull concept from 1942
- North American Aviation NAC-60 SST competitor
- McDonnell-Douglas Cargo Spanloader
- Boeing Model 763-058 “New Large Airplane”
- BoMi Passenger Transport Rocket
- Lockheed L-152-1 early jet transport with unusual inlets
- Aerial Relay System: for when crazy is preferred
USTP #03 can be purchased for download for only $4.25:
Mar 272015
I have made some adjustments to the Aerospace Projects Review Patreon campaign. The first is that I’ve reduced the number of rewards levels, which I was informed was previously Too Many. More importantly, I have added some new rewards: if you become a patron at $5 or more per month, you receive 10% off all future purchases of APR, US Aerospace Projects and downloadable Documents and Drawings. If you become a patron at $10 per month, you will receive 20% off any such purchases. Check of the APR Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=197906
Additionally, the campaign has reached the point where the rewards are now *three* aerospace documents, one high-rez historical diagram and one all-new CAD diagram per month. This is in addition to the random “Extras” I throw in for $4 and up patrons. The most recent extra is a full-rez restoration of a three-view diagram of a 1978 McDonnell-Douglas concept for modifying Skylab to be serviced by the Space Shuttle. You can see a smaller-rez version of that here: http://www.aerospaceprojectsreview.com/blog/?p=2153
If you sign up now you will get the latest rewards which include:
- A Bell Aircraft presentation on the SR-126 Bomber Missile, a manned ICBM predecessor of the Dyna Soar
- A Lockheed paper on the history of the Polaris to Trident Fleet Ballistic Missile
- A large poster illustrating the missiles and rockets of the Orbital Sciences Corporation
- An all-new CAD diagram detailing the 10-meter Orion nuclear pulse propulsion vehicle designed by General Atomic for the USAF
Mar 212015
Eugen Sanger was an Austrian engineer from the early/mid 20th century. While largely forgotten by the vast majority of everybody today, he is remembered, at least in aerospace circles, as the originator of the Silbervogel (“Silverbird”) rocket-powered suborbital bomber. This work was performed during WWII for the German government, and included some substantial rocket testing; the odd thing – though wholly in character for the Nazi regime – was that this work was entirely separate from the development work on the V-2 rocket. Had the efforts been brought together, chances are that German rocketry would have been further advanced by the end of the war.
In 1934, Sanger published a paper on advancement in liquid propellant rocketry, work that would later feed into his Silverbird effort. “Recent Results in Rocket Flight Technique” not only reported upon work done in developing a gas-oil and liquid oxygen burning rocket engine, but also proposals for manned rocket powered aircraft. The paper was originally written in German and granted the catchy title “Neuer Ergebnisse der Raketenflugtechnik,” but it was translated into English by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in April of 1942. Why was it was translated just then? Depending on the speed of the translators, the work may have begun just after the American entry into WWII, which might indicate a bit more interest in German rocketry in certain portions of the US Government than has generally been understood.
The abstract & such for the report can be seen on the NASA Technical Report Server HERE. Or it can be directly downloaded as a 33 meg PDF HERE.
Note: my original plan for this writeup was to include verbiage along the lines of “Sorry that the two-bit black-and-white scan quality is so poor, but whatcha gonna do.” But in looking it up, I found that the original bleah-quality scan has been replaced with a higher quality full-color scan. This is a good thing!
Much more aerospace stuff is available via the APR Patreon.
Mar 122015
A recent ebay auction was for a display model of the early 1970’s McDonnell-Douglas Incremental Growth Vehicle. This was a proposed manned hypersonic “X-Plane,” designed from the ground up to be capable of having major components replaced. This would allow a simple rocket vehicle to be tested first, and then the fuselage could stretch, or new rocket engines tested, or new wings, or new wings, a fuselage stretch and airbreathing engines, whatever the experiment called for.
Mar 022015
Two new publications in the US Aerospace Projects series are now available.
Now available: US Bomber Projects #13. This issue includes:
- Ryan Model 162: A VTOL strike/recon plane
- Boeing Orbital Bomb: a nuclear-tipped re-entry glider
- Northrop Atomic Wing: an asymetric nuclear powered design
- Consolidated Vultee High Speed Flying Boat: an early post-war Skate design
- Martin Model 189: a canard version of the B-26 Marauder
- Boeing Model 464-046: A six-engined B-52 predecessor
- Curtis F-87C: a night fighter with bomber abilities
- Boeing Model 701-247: a supersonic antecedent of the B-59
USBP #13 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4.25:
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Also available: US Launch Vehicle Projects #01. The premiere issue of this new series includes:
- Pre-Saturn Phase III Vehicles: 1958 concpet for clustered Atlas boosters
- Boeing “Big Onion”: an SSTO to launch SPS
- Northrop TAV: an in-flight propellant transfer spaceplane
- Martin Orbit Project: A 1946 concept for a hydrogen fueled SSTO
- Saturn V derived HLLV for FLO: A brief Saturn V revival in the early 1990s
- MSC Orbiter 020: An early Shuttle with straight wings and a single SRB
- Hammerhead ET: a way for the Shuttle to transport outsized payloads
- Loral Aquarius: A way to make space launch cheap
USLP #01 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4.25:
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Jan 272015
Coming soon to a sky near you, hopefully: