Protected: APR August rewards catalog
Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon
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Aug 282020
Aug 262020
This set of models was recently sold on eBay. It depicts a proposed concept for extending the utility of Apollo hardware… in this case, the Command Module and the Ascent Stage of the Lunar Module, by using them in Earth or Lunar orbit in conjunction with a small space laboratory. The Lunar Module would be used as a little space lab of it’s own, with a bolted-on telescope… this idea transformed into the Apollo Telescope Mount on Skylab, which began life as a modified LM. This probably dates from 1965-66. The purpose of the lab was to provide living space for the crew of three, because missions were contemplated lasting several months, providing detailed examination of the Earth or moon. Scientifically useful to be sure, but were the crew packed solely into the CM and LM for that period they’d likely kick the walls out.
Aug 242020
Now here’s an odd thing…
Part of the collection of images from the Cradle of Aviation Museum, Garden City, NY, this depicts a Republic Aviation concept circa early 1960’s for putting a scramjet vehicle atop a Titan II first stage. Presumably this is meant to be… I dunno, a space launcher? No wings are in evidence, so cruise flight and a landing seem unlikely. But it would seem a hell of a thing to throw away, so *presumably* it was meant to be recovered somehow. Perhaps it shed the entire payload-containing nosecone and came back using the blunt forward dome of the propellant tank as a heat shield, followed by a splashdown. Dunno.
Also in the collection is the “AX-92 detailed drawing.” Clearly this is an entirely serious proposal, and not at all an example of an artist screwing around for giggles.
Aug 222020
A Convair illustration from a magazine article in 1959 depicting a solar powered spaceship. In this case, a spherical mylar “balloon” is used as a reflector. This would be light weight, but since it would need to maintain some level of internal pressurization to continue to hold its shape, it’s unclear just how long it would work before micrometeoroids turn it into leaky Swiss cheese. Additionally, a reflective hemisphere does not have a true optical focal point, rather a focal “line,” so a lot of the sunlight this thing would capture would be lost of inefficiently used. Presumably this design uses the sunlight to boil a working fluid such as mercury; the superheated pressurized gas blows past a turbine to generate electrical power. The gas then flows through a radiator to cool off and recondense back to a fluid. But given that there are no visible radiators, perhaps the idea was to use the sunlight to directly heat a fluid such as hydrogen to an extreme temperature to be used as a propellant. If your materials are up to it and your reflector is good enough, specific impulses in the area of 800 to 1200 seconds should not be unreasonable. But even here the illustration seems lacking… if hydrogen if the fuel, where are the huge tanks? In all likelihood, this illustration was never meant to depict a solid engineering study, but was merely propaganda art.
Protected: Aerospace goodies for sale: Ended
bomber, Dyna Soar, fighter, hi-rez, hypersonic, jetliner, launch vehicles, Monthly Historical Documents Program, nukes, Patreon, Recon, research, rockets, space shuttle, space station, spacecraft, spaceplane, transports, US Bomber Projects, US Fighter Projects, US Launcher Projects, US Recon & Research Projects, US Spacecraft Projects, US Transport Projects, US VTOL Projects, VTOL
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Aug 212020
Aug 172020
From 1965, two Boeing-Vertol Heavy Lift Helicopter concepts in model form, to scale with a Chinook (at far right). At far left is the Model 227 which carried loaded internally; in the middle is Model 237, designed as a flying crane. note, though, that even though the Model 237 is designed to carry payloads externally the vehicle is so large that the reduced fuselage still has room for a substantial passenger load, windows and all.
Aug 132020
One of the main purposes of the Monthly Historical Documents Program/APR Patreon is to get rare aerospace items from eBay. These items are then made available to subscribers/patrons via monthly votes and catalogs.
Below are some of the items I’ve recently paid for (though not as yet received). If you are interested in getting high-rez scans and/or helping me save these sort of things for future generations (as well as keeping my cats in food and litter), please consider signing up for the Monthly Historical Documents Program or the APR Patreon.
Aug 112020
A report I scored off ebay some time back had a number of conceptual Douglas designs for supersonic tanker aircraft. Gotta scan this in at some point…
Aug 082020
A trio of photos of the Convair XB-46, including a rare one in color. The much larger full-rez versions have been uploaded to the 2020-08 APR Extras folder on Dropbox, accessible to all $4 and up Patrons and subscribers.
Jul 312020
Rewards have just been posted for APR Patrons/Monthly Historical Documents Program subscribers. Included this time:
1) An early (1969) NASA study of possible Space Shuttle configurations
2) A 1991 Strategic Defense Initiative Office presentation/transcript on the SDI program
3) A good, clear general arrangement diagram of the North American F-107
4) A CAD diagram of the late 1950’s Convair “Landing boat” that often appeared in presentations (art and models) from Krafft Ehricke
If you are a paid-up Patron/Subscriber, you should by now have received a message with a link to your rewards. If you haven’t, let me know.