Below is a piece of Convair art from the SDASM Flickr account showing an early (1959) concept for a space booster with a glideback manned first stage. It’s a little unclear what’s going on with the second stage… the cutaway *seems* to show a space station-like payload where you’d expect to find the second stage engine.
See the SDASM Flickr page for a higher rez version.
Just sold on EBay (not to me, sadly) is a kinda rough Topping display model of a little known proposed variant of the Atlas space launcher, the SLV-3X. This design had a widened body, from ten feet to 12 feet, 7 inches. This allowed for more propellant to be carried without lengthening the vehicle, meaning that the existing launch infrastructure could be used. Additionally, the MA-5 sustainer rocket engine would be replaced with a higher thrust H-1D engine. See HERE for stats.
The SDASM Flickr account has a nice illustration of the SLV-3X/Centaur. See their site for the higher rez image.
Here’s an interesting illustration of the Polaris sea launched ballistic missile, taken from a technical manual. I’ve uploaded the full-rez version to the APR Patreon Extras Dropbox folder for 2017-01, so if you are interested, consider signing up for the APR Patreon.
Currently for sale on EBay is a presumably-vintage model of a Lockheed C-141 in civilian livery. While the C-141 wound up solely a military transport, it would not be surprising that Lockheed would try to sell it on the civilian market. The model doesn’t depict passenger windows, so this was, presumably, still a cargo carrier.
The Aerospace Projects Review Patreon rewards for January will include a reasonably massive Douglas report on the Saturn V-launched pre-Skylab “Early Orbital Space Station” and a scan of a reasonably gigantic diagram of the Boeing 2707-300 SST. These will be released before the end of January and will be available to all then-current Patrons. So if these items interest you, and/or if you are interested in helping the effort to find and preserve this sort of aerospace history, be sure to check out the APR Patreon.
And…
Currently on EBay is a vintage piece of artwork that depicts – apparently – a robotic Mars lander probe. it looks a lot like a cross between Surveyor and Viking; it *might* be an advanced Voyager design (from when Voyager was a Saturn V-launched Mars mission, before it was a Titan III-launched outer solar system mission) from the late 1960’s.
A meeting of giants at Edwards Air Force Base in the late 1960’s. It’s interesting to compare the size of the “fighter” with the “bomber…” the bomber, as anyone who has ever stood underneath the sole example in Dayton, is Really Big, but the YF-12 is just not that much smaller. Sustained Mach 3 flight is not for the faint hearted… or the small-engined or those with dainty fuel tanks.
I have made the full-rez version of this photo available for APR Patrons at the $4 level and up in the 2017-01 folder of the APR Extras Dropbox site. If interested in getting this and the previous years worth of Extras, consider signing up for the APR Patreon.
Currently nearing its end is an auction for a vintage NASA 8X10 glossy, an artists impression of the Lunar Module separating from the Apollo Command and Service Module. It’s a bit interesting in that it shows an early version of the LEM “bug,” with a number of important differences from the as-built LEM. Note the extended “snout” on the Apollo Command Module for docking with the LEM.
What makes this auction “inexplicable?” At this point, with ten hours to go, there are 14 bids so far with a top price of $115. I’ve seen larger format lithographs go that high, but I’ve never seen a single 8X10 glossy get anywhere near that expensive before, with that many bids.
The same seller has a number of other NASA glossies, most pretty standard. But there’s another early LEM artist concept, currently going for $15. The LEM shown is even earlier than the one above, so I’m a little stumped why it’s currently selling for a small fraction of the price.
This display model was sold on EBay some months back:
Without a display stand it’s difficult to determine exactly who made this, but all indications are that it was an “official” model, made by Boeing, Lockheed or NASA. The design was given some small amount of study around 1973, though the available documentation on it is lean.
Lockheed studied the same idea with the C-5 Galaxy. Of course the C-5 would have been easier to modify since it already had shoulder-mounted wings.
I’d posted this YouTube video a few years ago, but I’ve found that not only was the video yanked, the whole account associated with it was nuked. Hmmmph.
A film about NERVA (Nuclear Energy for Rocket Vehicle Applications), 1968.
Provides a basic description of nuclear rockets, plus some art, animation and diagrams of nuclear propelled space vehicles along with footage of test firings.
