Jan 172014
 

On the back of one odd piece of Boeing propaganda for the 2707 SST were a few paintings depicting the wonders that the SST would bring. This one depicts the interior of the SST. It seems, by modern standards, quite empty and spartan… what happened to the overhead baggage stowage? There seems to be only a little of that here.

Also, notice that the stewardesses/flight attendants/whatever seem to be wearing bubble helmets. This is not doubt pure artistic license, meant to make it look more mid-1960s Future Cool. But having flown recently, and having spent those seven or eight hours cooped up right in front of someone who spent the whole trip coughing up their lungs (and, unsurprisingly, I came down with the plague within the next day or two), I know *I* would certainly want to wear an environment suit if I had to spend my days in a sealed aluminum tube with hundreds of random strangers. Hell, next time I fly I’m wearing a gas mask.

bubble

 Posted by at 1:17 pm
Dec 142013
 

For those of you following along with my email-listing updates regarding the Boeing 2707 eBay listing and how to get in on it… it has now closed. The package of proposal books, art & diagram showed up today, and now the process of scanning begins.

For those of y’all reading this going “WTF?” and wondering why you don’t know what I’m yapping about and why you’re not on the list to receive a gigabyte or so of SST stuff… probably has something to do with you not being on the emailing list.

 

 Posted by at 3:10 am
Dec 062013
 

Until December 18, the AIAA is selling 25 books for $25, and ten books for $10. Some good stuff here at some pretty substantial discount. You don’t have to be an AIAA member to get the discount.

NOTE: I have no relationship with the AIAA, and don’t make a nickel off these sales. So.. if you want to buy stuff and still feel like you are Supporting The Cause, feel free to navigate to Amazon.com through the “Search’ box that’s to the upper right of this page. i get a tiny fraction of the sales prices for items purchased via search & referral. I suggest buying stuff like laptops and computers and  cars and such. So long as I’m getting a small percentage, it might as well be a small percentage of a large dollar value…
The Aircraft Designers: A Grumman Historical Perspective
Michael V. Ciminera
$39.95
NOW $25!

Meeting the Challenge: The Hexagon KH-9 Reconnaissance Satellite
Phil Pressel
$39.95
NOW $25!

Space Shuttle Legacy: How We Did It and What We Learned
Roger D. Launius; John Krige; James I. Craig
$49.95
NOW $25!

Augustine’s Laws
Norman R. Augustine
$39.95
NOW $25!

100 years of Flight
Frank H. Winter and F. Robert van der Linden
$69.95
NOW $25!

Have Blue and the F-117A: Evolution of the “Stealth Fighter”
David C. Aronstein and Albert C. Piccirillo
$59.95
NOW $25!

Advanced Tactical Fighter to F-22 Raptor: Origins of the 21st Century Air Dominance Fighter
David C. Aronstein, Michael J. Hirschberg, and Albert C. Piccirillo
$49.95
NOW $25!

Aerodynamic Principles of Flight Vehicles
Argyris Panaras
$49.95
NOW $25!

Voyager Tales: Personal Views of the Grand Tour
David W. Swift
$74.95
NOW $25!

Hans Von Ohain
Margaret Conner
$54.95
NOW $25!

Road to Mach 10: Lessons Learned from the X-43A Flight Research Program
Curtis Peebles
$39.95
NOW $25!

Eleven Seconds into the Unknown
Curtis Peebles
$39.95
NOW $25!

Blazing the Trail: The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry
Mike Gruntman
$39.95
NOW $25!

The Rocket Company
Patrick Stiennon and David Hoerr
$34.95
NOW $25!

Rocketdyne: Powering Humans into Space
Vince Wheelcock
$39.95
NOW $25!

Space Exploration and Astronaut Safety
Joseph N. Pelton
$49.95
NOW $25!

Shades of Gray
L. Parker Temple III
$49.95
NOW $25!

Unmanned Aviation: A Brief History of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Laurence R. Newcome
$44.95
NOW $25!

Starting Something Big: The Commercial Emergence of GE Aircraft Engines
Robert V. Garvin
$39.95
NOW $25!

The Power to Fly: An Engineer’s Life
Martin Ducheny and Brian Rowe
$39.95
NOW $25!

Aerospace Engineering Education During the First Century of Flight
Barnes McCormick; Eric Jumper; Conrad Newberry
$89.95
NOW $25!

The History of North American Small Gas Turbine Aircraft Engines
Richard Leyes II; William Fleming
$49.95
NOW $25!

Methods to Extend Mechanical Component Life: Lessons Learned with Space Vehicle and Rocket Engine Components
Dieter Huzel
$44.95
NOW $25!

The Engines of Pratt & Whitney: A Technical History
Jack Connors
$49.95
NOW $25!

From Rainbow to Gusto
Paul A. Suhler
$39.95
NOW $25!

Experiments in Aerodynamics
S. Langley
$29.95
NOW $10!

Skycrane: Igor Sikorsky’s Last Vision
John A. McKenna
$39.95
NOW $10!

Hired Minds
Bryan Gardner
$19.95
NOW $10!

Terminal Chaos: Why U.S. Air Travel Is Broken and How to Fix It
George L. Donohue; Russell D. Shaver II
$29.95
NOW $10!

Space: The Fragile Frontier
Mark Williamson
$39.95
NOW $10!

Rocketeers and Gentlemen Engineers
Tom Crouch; Buzz Aldrin
$39.95
NOW $10!

The Superpower Odyssey: A Russian Perspective on Space Cooperation
Yuri Karash
$49.95
NOW $10!

Centennial of Powered Flight
Gerard Faeth
$24.95
NOW $10!

When the Airlines Went to War
Robert Serling
$24.95
NOW $10!

Advice to Rocket Scientists
Jim Longuski
$19.95
NOW $10!

 Posted by at 5:33 pm
Nov 212013
 

The complete rework of APR from the original release a decade ago is going a lot slower than I’d planned. A lot of people have asked for the original versions of the as-yet-unreleased issues of APR to be made available. I’ve been hesitant to do so, but… it’s just taking too long. So, I’ve taken the original Word files for the six issues of Volume 4 and the six issues of Volume 5, and made two PDF files from them. I’m making them temporarily available as two bulk sets. When the issues are re-released, these full-volume sets will be withdrawn. So, Volume 5 might remain available till the sun explodes, I dunno…

If you’re dying to get hold of the old-school APRs, here’s your chance. Remember, these are the *original* files from around 2002-2004, without any updates, edits or other changes. Errors, crappy formatting and all. A bunch of the individual old articles remain available as well.

APR Original Run Volume 4 downloadable PDF: $30

 

———

APR Original Run Volume 5 downloadable PDF: $30

 

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Here are the contents:

 

Volume 4:

The X-15 Research Airplane Competition: The Bell Aircraft Proposal by Dennis R. Jenkins
First in a series of articles describing the competitors for the X-15

Lockheed Model L-153 Part 2 by Bill Slayton
Immediately post-war M-wing jet fighter designs

Cobras Of The Field by Scott Lowther
Modified helicopters for ag duty

Lockheed Model L-153 Part 3 by Bill Slayton
Immediately post-war swept-wing jet fighter designs

The X-15 Research Airplane Competition: The Douglas Aircraft Proposal by Dennis R. Jenkins
The Douglas competitor for the X-15

The Martin “Spacemaster” by Scott Lowther
An unconventional design competitor for the Shuttle

Radial Engine P-51 Mustang by Scott Lowther
A little-known modification to the supreme WWII fighter

The X-15 Research Airplane Competition: The Republic Aviation Proposal by Dennis R. Jenkins
The Republic competitor for the X-15

Boeing Super Clippers, then and Now by Scott Lowther
Truly grand aircraft

The X-15 Research Airplane Competition: The North American Proposal by Dennis R. Jenkins
The winning competitor for the X-15

The HFB 530 Ranger by Mike Hirschberg A German VTOL strike/recon design

Lockheed Model L-153 Part 4 by Bill Slayton
Early Post-war variable geometry fighters

Sonic Cruiser Update by Scott Lowther
New drawings of a new aircraft

LARA Craft: COIN Raiders by Scott Lowther
A long way to go for a bad pun for some tough aircraft

English MUSTARD by Scott Lowther
An early 1960’s British fully reusable Space Shuttle

The NACA’s First Jet by Scott Lowther
The last gasp for ducted fans prior to the turbojet

Addendum to Issue V4N5
Ooops.

The Hopeless Diamond by Scott Lowther
The first cut of the stealth fighter

Sea Dragon by Scott Lowther
A giant, dirt-cheap launch vehicle

North American NA-116 by Scott Lowther
A long-range bomber

Multibody Designs From Lockheed by Scott Lowther
Unconventional yet fuel efficient designs

————————–

Volume 5:

Editor’s Gratuitous Additions: Republic XF-103
A little bit of extra info.

Republic XF-103 by Dennis R. Jenkins
About as sleek as an aircraft can get.

Boeing’s Advanced Multipurpose Large Launch Vehicle by Scott Lowther
Perhaps the most powerful space launcher ever seriously conceived.

McDonnell Douglas GRM-29A by Scott Lowther
Just about the coolest spaceplane ever… but would it have worked???

The Rockwell XFV-12A V/STOL Prototype by Dana E. Lubich
It came close…

XFV-12A Followons by Scott Lowther
The end of the program wasn’t the end of the concept

Hawker Siddeley HS 141 by Scott Lowther
VTOL jetliner concept

Bell/Boeing Armed XV-15 by Scott Lowther
A tilt rotor with a mission

Lockheed Sea Sitter by Scott Lowther
A seaplane to conquer the oceans

Early Atlas Missile Designs by Scott Lowther
Evolution of America’s first ICBM

Boeing’s Air-Launched Micro-Fighters by Scott Lowther
The fighter needed for a flying aircraft carrier

Chrysler SERV by Scott Lowther
An SSTO Space Shuttle design

Soviet Seaplane Jet Bombers by Thomas Mueller and Jens Baganz
A counterpoint to American efforts

4,000 Ton Orion by Scott Lowther
Recently declassified data on a large nuclear pulse propulsion craft

Mart Model 262 by Scott Lowther
A mysteriously delayed article on VTOL fighters…

NASA Langley High Speed Civil Transport by Scott Lowther
Mach 3 and Mach 4 transports from the late 1980’s

Convair/Canadair Tilt-Wing Close Support Aircraft by Scott Lowther
VTOL gunship

Spacejet by Scott Lowther
Spaceplanes with dropable jet engines

Handley Page All-Wing Airbus by Scott Lowther
A British flying-wing transport from the 1960’s

Convair NX-2 Nuclear Powered Bomber by Scott Lowther
A well known but – until now – poorly documented nuclear powered aircraft project

Technology Needs for High Speed Rotorcraft Part 1 Sikorsky and Bell by Scott Lowther
Tiltrotos, tiltwings, fan-in-body designs

Lockheed-Martin ICE by Scott Lowther
An experimental tailless stealth fighter design

Raumwaffe, 1946

Boeing WS-110A

X-Wings

Dash-On-Warning

 Posted by at 3:23 pm
Sep 112013
 

Issue number 3 of US Bomber Projects is now available (for background, see HERE). This issue includes:

  • Rockwell D 645-4A: A compact stealthy flying wing
  • Lockheed System 464L: Lockheed’s entry into the initial Dyna Soar program, 1958
  • Convair Mach 4 “Rollover:” A Mach 4 seaplane with a unique approach
  • Boeing Model 701-273-3: An asymmetrical supersonic precursor to the B-59
  • Boeing HSCT Model 1080-854: A late 1980’s missile carrier derivative of a commercial supersonic transport
  • Martin Model 223-3: A canard antecedent to the B-48
  • Boeing Model 462: A large six-turboprop ancestor of the B-52

USBP#03 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4.25:

——–

———

usbp03ad

 Posted by at 8:29 pm
Sep 112013
 

A Boeing artists impression of a 747 modified to launch ICBMs (probably Minuteman IIIs). Dates from 1974. Missile load appears to be at least 4. Given how far aft the missiles are dropped, there would likely be an impressive pitch even upon drop.

From an old ebay auction.

mc-747 a

mc-747 b

 Posted by at 7:35 pm