Protected: May 2021 APR rewards catalogs
Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, Patreon catalog
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May 282021
May 242021
Mortons has posted a preview “sampler” of my “Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird” bookazine. You can take a look and see if it’s for you.
It is available directly through the publisher for £8.99 (Approx $12.41 or €10.34). It is also available through Amazon for pre-order for $12.99. Direct from the publisher should be available sooner; from Amazon, lower mailing cost if you’re in the US.
May 202021
Mortons has announced my “bookazine” Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird – Origins & Evolution, now available for pre-order. This is my first published book. Woo! It covers the development of the SR-71 from well before the program started , including the “Suntan” concepts and several Convair high speed reconnaissance platforms, up through the development of the “Archangel” series that led to the CIA’s A-12, through the Mach 3 interceptor designs and the SR-71 itself. From there it also includes a number of proposed derivatives and unbuilt concepts… an A-12 used to launch satellites, the SR-71 as a carrier for a manned hypersonic scramjet vehicle, the use of the “SR-71C” as a flying wind tunnel, etc.
It is available directly through the publisher for £8.99 (Approx $12.41 or €10.34). It is also available through Amazon for pre-order for $12.99. Direct from the publisher should be available sooner; from Amazon, lower mailing cost if you’re in the US.
Here are some shots of a few pages to give you an idea of what’s in it. I created all the diagrams within, based on official sources and as accurate as I could make them. There are many, MANY diagrams here describing designs mundane and downright wacky, from tiny unmanned drones to truly gigantic hydrogen-fueled monsters.
Tell your friends!
May 142021
Another strange piece of 1970’s/early 1980’s Boeing art, this time depicting an “Intercity Transport.” What’s going on with that circular “inlet” on the rear upper fuselage? Damnfino. Just visible under the wing root is a low-set inlet, so that would seem to provide what’s needed for the propulsion system. If there was a vertical thrust system in the nose, and good low-speed control systems on the outer wings, then that circular inlet would be fore a VTOL system. But on its own? Hmmm.
The full rez scan of the artwork has been made available at 300 DPI to all $4/month patrons/subscribers in the 2021-05 APR Extras folder at Dropbox. If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, along with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.
May 082021
The art below is a Boeing concept from the late 70s or early 80’s depicting an almost certainly wholly conceptual “electric commuter jet” based on a rather dubious propulsion system: the ring-shaped aircraft would be equipped with massive counter-rotating flywheels which would be spun up to high speed on the ground (presumably with fixed electric motors). To fly, the flywheels would engage a compressor which would provide the jet thrust to fly. I haven’t done the math on this, but unless those flywheels are made of an adamantium-vibranium-uru alloy spun up to a few hundred thousand RPM, it seems unlikely to me that the wheels would store enough energy to provide for a meaningful flight. I doubt that this existed beyond the artists imagination… but if anyone has evidence to the contrary, I’d love to see it.
The full rez scan of the artwork has been made available at 300 DPI to all $4/month patrons/subscribers in the 2021-05 APR Extras folder at Dropbox. If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, along with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.
May 032021
A piece of artwork (almost certainly a negative, based on the shading and the national insignia) depicting the Kaman K-16 deflected slipstream tiltwing VTOL flying boat project. The K-16 was actually built in 1959, but never flew and was cancelled in 1962.
The airframe somehow managed to survive and is on display at the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. I visited there a couple times years ago and took a number of photos, posted HERE (2001 visit) and HERE (2007 visit). The full rez scan of the artwork has been made available at 300 DPI to all $4/month patrons/subscribers in the 2021-05 APR Extras folder at Dropbox. If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, along with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.
