Reusable Atlas model photos

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May 182018

In the 1960’s, prior to the Space Shuttle program, General Dynamics/Convair studied using the Atlas ICBM as a space launch system. no surprise there. But one concept called for a nearly fully reusable Atlas, equipped with wings, jet engines, landing gear and a cockpit to recover the booster in one reusable piece. It would be topped with either an expendable Centaur and satellite/space probe upper stage or a smallish manned lifting body spaceplane with its own built-in propulsive capability. At the time General Dynamics released sizable “educational” cards with information and photos of models of the reusable Atlas. Unlike the normal Atlas, this version did not drop the outboard “booster’ engines, but kept them throughout the mission. An inflatable, deployable afterbody was proposed to fair over the engines after burnout to reduce base drag.

I have uploaded righ-rez scans of both sides of this poster-sized card to the 2018-05 APR Extras folder on Dropbox for APR Patrons at the $4 level and up.

Additionally, a report on this concept is available as Space Doc 52.

If you are interested in these Reusable Atlas model images and a great many other “extras” and monthly aerospace history rewards, please sign up for the APR Patreon. What else are you going to spend $4 a month on?

Convair VL-3A model photos

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May 102018

The Convair VL-3A was a 1966 concept for a space station logistics spacecraft. It was a sleek, flat-bottomed lifting body featuring a twin tail and flip-out wings that would deploy shortly before landing to reduce the landing speed. It would be fitted with flip-out turbofan engines for range extension, self-ferry and control during landing. General Dynamics released sizable “educational” cards with information and photos of models of the spaceplane showing how the wings would deploy from within the lower fuselage.

I have uploaded righ-rez scans of both sides of this poster-sized card to the 2018-05 APR Extras folder on Dropbox for APR Patrons at the $4 level and up.

I also wrote about and illustrated the VL-3A in US Spacecraft Projects #2, showing the general arrangement of the design along with the disposable propulsion stage and the launch configuration atop the Titan III.

USSP #02 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $6:

If you are interested in thes VL-3A model images and a great many other “extras” and monthly aerospace history rewards, please sign up for the APR Patreon. What else are you going to spend $4 a month on?

Submersible Nuclear Ramjet art: launch

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May 012018

Artwork was created for USBP 21 by Rob Parthoens depicting the Convair Submersible Nuclear Ramjet launching vertically from the ocean. This is approximately the craziest design for a manned aircraft I’ve seen from the post-war period.

Be sure to check out US Bomber Projects issue 21 to read more about this design.

Submersible Nuclear Ramjet art: Downtown Moscow

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Apr 292018

Artwork was created for USBP 21 by Rob Parthoens depicting the Convair Submersible Nuclear Ramjet paying a visit to 1970’s-era Moscow. If you think that this looks like Project Pluto, you’re not far off; this was also a Mach 4, treetop-level nuclear ramjet powered bomber. But there were a few minor differences. Notice that little bump above the nose? That’s the cockpit, a necessary addition because this design was manned. It was also designed to operate as a submarine, cruising the oceans of the world faster than 100 knots before launching upwards and taking flight. Because the 1950’s were rather more optimistic when it came to technological advancement.

Be sure to check out US Bomber Projects issue 21 to read more about this design.

APR Patreon April 2018 rewards issued

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Apr 292018

Rewards have been issued to APR Patreon patrons for April, 2018. This month, the “Diagram” is a Sikorsky lithograph of a Heavy Lift Helicopter concept. The Documents include a US Army catalog of airborne weaponry; a paper describing possible additional missions for the Saturn launch vehicles, and BOAC brochure extolling the virtues of the Comet 4 jetliner. The CAD diagram is of the British Interplanetary Society’s “Deadalus” starship design.

If you are interested in helping to preserve (and get copies of) this sort of thing, consider signing up for the APR Patreon.

NEW: US Bomber Projects #21 and Spacecraft Projects #05

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Apr 262018

US Bomber Projects #21 and Spacecraft Projects #05 are now available.

US Bomber Projects #21

Cover art was provided by Rob Parthoens, www.baroba.be

US Bomber Projects #21 is now available (see HERE for the entire series). Issue #21 includes:

Convair Submersible Nuclear Ramjet: a Mach 4 manned nuclear powered flying submarine
Bell MX-776: an early post-war pilotless airplane
Convair Manned Flyback Atlas: an unconventional recoverable ICBM
DTNSRDC PAR-WIG Strategic Deterrent: a low-flying aircraft packing 4 Trident ballistic missiles
Boeing Model 464-197: a supersonic B-52
Martin Model 151-K: a pre-war twin-engined medium bomber
Boeing Cruise Ballistic Missile: an entire aircraft packed into a silo, carrying an ICBM
MC-747 Air Mobile System: a 1973 concept for carrying up to seven ICBMs in a modified cargo jet

USBP #21 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4.25:

——–

US Spacecraft Projects #5

US Spacecraft Projects #05 is now available (see HERE for the entire series). Issue #05 includes:

Project HORIZON Lunar Lander: a late 1950’s US Army concept for a manned Lunar lander
Lockheed-Martin Mars Ascent/Descent Vehicle: A very recent concept for a future manned Mars vehicle
JPL Interstellar Precursor: a 970’s design for a space probe to interstellar space
Lockheed Modular Rotating Space Station: a truly gigantic design circa 1970
Lockheed Payload Carrier: an early 1960’s spaceplane for space station logistics
Martin-Marietta Winged NIMF: a nuclear powered “hopper”
Lockheed CL-414: a capsule for Man in Space Soonest
NASA HAVOC: High Altitude Venus Operational Concept, a 2015 project for manned exploration of the atmosphere of Venus

USSP #05 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $5.25:

——–

The previous releases of US Aerospace Projects:

US VTOL Projects #2

SOS Interceptor: A US Navy Mach 3 aircraft with jettisonable wings
Lockheed GL-224-3: A small battlefield surveillance and ground attack plane
Phalanx Dragon MP-18: An unconventional small civilian transport
Lockheed L-161-1: An early concept for a variable geometry roadable helicopter
GE Supersonic V/STOL: A supersonic strike fighter with flip-out lift fans
Convair ANP-VTOL: A nuclear-powered ground-effect craft of the Navy of unusual configuration
Piasecki 16H-3: A compound helicopter for high speed passenger transport
Boeing Vertol Model 147: A tilt-wing close support fire support design for the US Army

USVP #2 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4.25:

——–

US Research & Recon Projects #2

Lockheed A-1: The first true design leading to the SR-71
Bell MX-2147 Model 105: The high altitude “X-16”
Boeing/CRC/AMROC X-34 Reference Configuration: A reusable launcher test vehicle
Martin Model 159: A scout/observation float plane
NASA-Langley Low-Boom Demonstrator: a recent design to demonstrate quiet SST tech
McDonnell-Douglas DC-9 Super 80 Propfan Configuration 1: A fuel efficient transport demo
Convair “HAZEL” MC-10: An inflatable Mach 3 plane for the Navy
Republic Manned Hypersonic Reconnaissance Vehicle: an early scramjet concept

USRP #2 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4.25:

——–

Lunar Exploration Systems for Apollo

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Apr 192018

For the APR Patreon I try to acquire as much interesting aerospace documentation as I can, and these items fall into two categories:

Stuff that I can afford. This stuff winds up in the APR Patreon catalog of potential monthly rewards for patrons.
Stuff I can’t hope to afford.

There’s a lot of the latter category of stuff. Sometimes it’s because the item has a ridiculously high Buy It Now price or starting bid, or because the item will be popular among bidders, or because it’s *really* good/big and thus worth every penny. But unaffordable is unaffordable.

However, there is an option for “stuff I can’t afford:” crowdfunding. I’ve done this a number of times with considerable success, and I’ve just done so again, winning a trio of General Dynamics documents describing a 1965 program to develop a logistics system for extending the Apollo lunar exploration program:

This set of documents was just much too expensive for an individual (well, I’m sure Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk wouldn’t have flinched), but with a group of like-mined funders it came in at $30 per person. So what happens now:

1: I wait for it to show up in the mail.

2: I make a complete set of scans in 300 DPI grayscale (and color, where appropriate) and convert to PDFs

3: I make the scans and PDFs available to funders, generally via Dropbox

4: I find an appropriate archive for the documents, and then donate the originals to them.

5: And that’s it. The files are shared with the funders, but do not appear on future APR Patreon catalogs or as purchasable, downloadable “Diagrams and Documents.” What the funders choose to do with their scans & PDFs is up to them.

APR Patrons get alerted to each of these occasional “crowdfunding opportunities.” So if you’d like to participate, please considered signing up for the APR Patreon.

HL-20

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Mar 292018

An old NASA video describing the HL-20 lifting body. In the 90’s NASA spent a lot of time and trouble trying to get an HL-20 built for a Personnel Launch System, a vehicle smaller than the Space Shuttle but capable of carrying as many passengers and riding a much smaller launch vehicle. For transporting passengers to and from the Space Station, it would have been much more economical and sensible than the Shuttle. And while the HL-20 was never built, the basic geometry has survived in the form of Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser, which *might* actually fly to space someday.

Solar Powered Spacecraft

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Mar 272018

A piece of late 1950’s promo art from Rocketdyne illustrating a spacecraft with a solar thermodynamic powerplant. This should not be assumed to be an actual design, but much more likely just more or less pure illustrative art.

The craft is shown with a great parabolic solar reflector, the sunlight heating an element at the focus. In an actual design, most likely a working fluid would be pumped through this and boiled, the resulting high pressure gas blowing past a turbogenerator and then into a heat exchanger or directly into a relatively vast radiator. The gas would be cooled back to liquid and recirculated. Note that no such radiator is in evidence. Sometimes early designs utilized radiators built onto the shadow side of the reflectors. The craft appears to be over Mars, based on the hints of canals that are kinda visible. The ship has a parabolic radio dish on a boom below; the upper boom would seem to hold a trough, likely a launching platform for a small probe rocket (another cliche in early spacecraft art). At the rear is a boom that appears to hold two banks of ion engines or some other electrical propulsion system. Oddly, the thrusters would seem to be held off well to the side of the craft, rather than actually firing through the centerline (unless that boom is supposed to be projected straight aft and mounted at one end of the bar holding the thrusters, thus putting the centerline of thrust back through the CG of the craft).

APR Patreon rewards, February, 2018

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Feb 272018

Rewards have been issued to APR Patreon patrons for February, 2018. This month, the diagram is a 1/40 scale B-52B diagram. Normally the diagrams are sent out at full 300 dpi (with 125 dpi for the $1.25 patrons), but at 300 dpi the diagram is simply Way Too Big at over 40,000 pixels wide. Most image viewing programs will simply go “nope”and refuse to even try to display such images. so this month the image is sent out at 200 dpi (still slightly over 30,000 pixels wide), and 83 dpi for the $1.25 patrons. The 83 dpi version is also included for the higher level patrons for easier viewing.

Also: the documents this month include a United Aircraft paper on advanced future space propulsion systems as seen from 1969, and a January 1953 Douglas Aircraft design study for the DC-8. The CAD diagram this month is the Ganswindt Weltenfahrzeug… a truly terrible design for a spaceship from 1899. Terrible though it may be, it one of the first designs that is clearly in the Project Orion family tree…

If you are interested in helping to preserve (and get copies of) this sort of thing, consider signing up for the APR Patreon.

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