space shuttle – Page 16 – Aerospace Projects Review Blog

Shuttle-Derived Vehicle art

hi-rez, launch vehicles, Patreon, rockets, space shuttle, space station, spacecraft, US Launcher Projects No Responses »

Aug 012015

I have added the full-rez version of this to the 2015-07 sub-folder of the APR Patreon “Extras” folder on Dropbox. What is depicted is a 1985 Martin Marietta design for an Unmanned Launch Vehicle, a Shuttle derived vehicle that replaced the Orbiter hanging off the side with an inline payload shroud up top and a small propulsion/avionics module that would have three SSME and two OMS engines, in much the same positions as the Orbiter engines. This would allow the booster to lift off from existing Shuttle facilities with minimal modifications. The P/A module would be a biconic lifting body allowing recovery and re-use. Not only would the P/A module go into orbit, but so would the external tank. Each flight of this vehicle would have the potential to orbit the shell of a fantastic space station.

This vehicle was described in greater detail in US Launch Vehicle Projects #2.

If you are interested in the high-rez version of this, it and many more are available to all $4 and up patrons at the APR Patreon.

Early Shuttle Launch Artwork

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Jul 092015

Rockwell art of an early Shuttle configuration. The full-rez version has been made available for $10-level patrons at the APR Patreon.

While this is broadly much like the STS as actually built, there are a lot of important differences. The spine down the top of the cargo bay… that was to give room for the cargo manipulator arm without putting it actually in the cylindrical bay, taking up valuable cargo space. The booster rockets have teardrop ports on the cylindrical sections just aft of the nosecones… these are the thrust termination ports that, in the event of an abort, would blow out through the forward dome of the rocket motors. This would not only slash the chamber pressure in the motors, it would provide an escape route for the hot gas to go forward, cancelling the thrust from the aft nozzle. The ET is of a slightly simpler geometry; the small cylinder on the nosecone contained the de-orbit solid rocket motor (because the ET would either go into orbit with the Shuttle, or so close to orbit that the splashdown location would be somewhat randomized).

US Bomber Projects #15, Transports #04, Launchers #02 Now Available

bomber, Dyna Soar, hypersonic, jetliner, launch vehicles, nukes, rockets, space shuttle, spacecraft, spaceplane, stealth, transports, US Bomber Projects, US Launcher Projects, US Transport Projects, VTOL No Responses »

Jul 082015

Now available… three new additions to the US Aerospace Projects series.

US Bomber Projects #15

USBP#15 includes:

Bell D2001: A 1957 eight-engined Bell VTOL strike plane for the Navy
Lockheed “Harvey”: AKA the Hopeless Diamond, Lockheeds first design for what became the F-117
Convair Model 35: An early push-pull concept for the B-36
Rockwell D661-27: A nuclear powered strategic bomber
Boeing Model 464-49: The penultimate major design in the development of the B-52
Boeing Model 988-123: A highly agile stealthy strike fighter
Boeing Orbital Bomber: An early concept for a Dyna Soar derivative with eight nukes
Boeing Model 701-251: A twin engined concept on the road to the XB-59

USBP#15 can be purchased for downloading for the low, low price of $4.25.

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US Transport Projects #4

USTP#4 includes:

Boeing Model 473-13: An early twin-engine jetliner
ICARUS Troop Transport: 1,200 marines, anywhere, anytime
Republic Model 10 SST: A little known SST competitor
Lockheed CL-593: A giant, if slow, logistics transporter
Boeing 763-059 NLA: A whole lotta passengers in one place
Fairchild M-534: A B-36 converted into a vast cargo carrier
Lockheed CL-1201: Probably the largest aircraft ever designed
Oblique All-Wing Supersonic Airplane: A supersonic variable-orientation flying wing

USTP#4 can be purchased for downloading for the low, low price of $4.25.

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US Launch Vehicle Projects #2

USLP#2 includes:

Juno V, 4 stage: An early design that became the Saturn rocket
Boeing “Space Freighter”: a giant two-stage spaceplane for launching solar power satellites
Boeing NASP-D: A rare look at an operational National Aerospace Plane derivative
LLNL Mockingbird: The smallest SSTO ever designed
Boeing Model 922-101: A fully reusable Saturn V
NAR Phase B Space Shuttle: a fully reusable two-stage concept
Martin Marietta Inline SDV: A Shuttle-derived heavy lifter
Scaled Composites Model 351: The Stratolaunch carrier aircraft

USLP#2 can be purchased for downloading for the low, low price of $4.25.

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Jun 272015

(Post in progress…)

Click on the images to bring up a larger version…

“City in Space” and TAV art

bomber, hi-rez, hypersonic, launch vehicles, Patreon, space shuttle, spacecraft, spaceplane 3 Responses »

Jun 172015

I have just uploaded 300 dpi-high-rez scans of two things to the APR Patreon “Extras” folder (2015-06 sub-folder):

1) An article from the May, 1956, issue of Popular Science, “Now They’re Planning A City In Space.” This article, illustrated with full-color paintings, describes the gigantic artificial gravity space station proposed by Darrell Romick of Goodyear Aircraft Company as part of the METEOR project. This space station is forward-thinking by today’s standards, and is challenged in scale only by the likes of the O’Neill space colonies.

2) A McDonnell-Douglas painting depicting a Trans Atmospheric Vehicle in orbit.

These items are available to all $4+ APR Patreon patrons, and were made possible by the support of APR patrons and customers. If you’d like to access these and many other extras, please check out the APR Patreon page.

Recent Acquisitions

fighter, hi-rez, launch vehicles, Patreon, rockets, space shuttle, space station, spacecraft, spaceplane, VTOL 2 Responses »

May 192015

Photos of some of the aerospace history I’ve been able to purchase lately thanks to the APR Patreon. If you’d like to help out and get in on this action, please check out the APR Patreon page.

And then there’s this. While I haven’t managed to get hold of the actual item, I have gotten full-color scans of this, in chunks. I am now piecing it together into one gigantic whole.

Japanese Mini-Shuttle

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May 142015

A brief article on a Japanese mini-shuttle, photographed from an issue of “Space World” magazine a few months back (sadly, I didn’t catch the date of the article, but it would have been sometime in the early/mid 1980’s). This is, I believe, an early design of the “HOPE” spaceplane which was more or less Japans answer to the French Hermes spaceplane. This mini-shuttle would have been a little bigger than the Dyna Soar from twenty years earlier, but equipped not only with its own onboard rocket propulsion system but also a pair of turbojets of atmospheric propulsion.

Shuttle tile maps

launch vehicles, rockets, space shuttle, spacecraft, spaceplane 1 Response »

Apr 242015

I’m currently working on a series of Shuttle Orbiter tile “maps” to massage them into a form where they’d look good as cyanotype blueprints. Two are shown below; what I have on hand are about a dozen, covering every surface of the Orbiter. The centerline diagram is sized for 40 inches wide by 160 inches long; this is *way* beyond reasonable size for cyanotyping. But at 18 inches wide, it’d be 72 inches long… just about what I can handle.

Another option might be to stitch the separate views together, rather than two wings and a centerline. Printed out B&W on paper, it’d be pretty durned impressive.

US Bomber Projects #14, Transport Projects #03 Now Available

bomber, Dyna Soar, hypersonic, jetliner, launch vehicles, nukes, rockets, space shuttle, spacecraft, spaceplane, transports, US Bomber Projects, US Transport Projects No Responses »

Apr 062015

Now available… two new additions to the US Aerospace Projects series.

US Bomber Projects #14: System 464L Special

USBP#14 brings together the competitors to Weapon System 464L, the first major effort in the Dyna Soar program. These designs were previously shown individually in prior issues of USBP; here they are brought together, with some updates, as well as a few extra diagrams and a section of diagrams formatted for 11X17 printing. This issue includes info and diagrams of the Lockheed, Republic, General Dynamics, McDonnell, Boeing, Douglas, Northrop, North American and Martin-Bell entries as well as their various booster systems. Also included are detailed diagrams of the ultimate Dyna Soar design, the 2050E.

USBP#14 can be purchased for downloading for the low, low price of $6.25.

Also available:US Transport Projects #03.

Included in this issue:

Lockheed “Environmentally Responsible Aviation” box-wing jetliner
Martin Commercial Twin-Hull concept from 1942
North American Aviation NAC-60 SST competitor
McDonnell-Douglas Cargo Spanloader
Boeing Model 763-058 “New Large Airplane”
BoMi Passenger Transport Rocket
Lockheed L-152-1 early jet transport with unusual inlets
Aerial Relay System: for when crazy is preferred

USTP #03 can be purchased for download for only $4.25:

Mar 272015

I have made some adjustments to the Aerospace Projects Review Patreon campaign. The first is that I’ve reduced the number of rewards levels, which I was informed was previously Too Many. More importantly, I have added some new rewards: if you become a patron at $5 or more per month, you receive 10% off all future purchases of APR, US Aerospace Projects and downloadable Documents and Drawings. If you become a patron at $10 per month, you will receive 20% off any such purchases. Check of the APR Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=197906

Additionally, the campaign has reached the point where the rewards are now *three* aerospace documents, one high-rez historical diagram and one all-new CAD diagram per month. This is in addition to the random “Extras” I throw in for $4 and up patrons. The most recent extra is a full-rez restoration of a three-view diagram of a 1978 McDonnell-Douglas concept for modifying Skylab to be serviced by the Space Shuttle. You can see a smaller-rez version of that here: http://www.aerospaceprojectsreview.com/blog/?p=2153

If you sign up now you will get the latest rewards which include:

A Bell Aircraft presentation on the SR-126 Bomber Missile, a manned ICBM predecessor of the Dyna Soar
A Lockheed paper on the history of the Polaris to Trident Fleet Ballistic Missile
A large poster illustrating the missiles and rockets of the Orbital Sciences Corporation
An all-new CAD diagram detailing the 10-meter Orion nuclear pulse propulsion vehicle designed by General Atomic for the USAF

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