Patreon: August rewards released

fighter, nukes, Patreon, rockets, space shuttle, spacecraft, stealth 1 Response »

Aug 102014

The rewards for my Patreon patrons have now been released. This months selections include:

Diagram: a very large, very nice layout of the Avro Arrow. This was voted on by the top-level patrons.

Document: a report on the Vought Regulus II cruise missile which includes some very nice layout and inboard diagrams of both the operational and test missiles. This was voted for by the top-level patrons.

Document: “Introduction to Kistler Aerospace Corporation,” a full-color brochure from 1995 describing the K-0 sorta-SSTO launch vehicle (which would use an “launch platform”).

Additionally, for the higher-level patrons ($5 and up) there are three all-new CAD diagrams:

1) The Boeing “Big Onion” SSTO from the 1970s, meant to launch Solar Power Satellite components

2) The Space Shuttle Main Engine

3) The Northrop Tacit Blue stealth testbed. This is, so far as I’m aware, the first time that a clear and accurate three-view of this aircraft has been released publicly.

I’ve changed things a little bit from last month. At each patronage level, there are different levels of rewards. Each level has its own message under the “Creations” tab just above the APR logo at my Patreon page. And in the upper righthand corner of each message is a little gray rectangle with “Zip” in it. This is the link to the ZIP archive containing the files for that specific patronage level. If you are a higher-level patron, this may not include all the files you are entitled to. You should be able to download everything from the lower-level patron messages.

Last chance for July Rewards

bomber, Dyna Soar, hi-rez, launch vehicles, Patreon, rockets, space shuttle, space station, spacecraft, spaceplane No Responses »

Aug 072014

I’ve got the August rewards just about ready to go. When I make them available for the current Patreon supporters, the July rewards will be replaced. So if you are interested in the July items, time runs real, real short.

1) A large format diagram of the B/J-58, a Convair concept for a two-engine tactical B-58

2) A PDF document, “Manned Space Stations and Alternatives” which covers Gemini and Dyna Soar-based small MOL-like station concepts, and includes info on the Gemini satellite inspector/interceptor

3) Two CAD diagrams, one of the McDonnell-Douglas Model 192 ISINGLASS hypersonic rocket-powered recon platform, the other comparing the Titan IIIC with the Titan IIIC/Dyna Soar and the Titan IIIM/MOL.

If you’d be interested in helping me dig up and release this sort of obscure aerospace historical material, or if you want to get in on the rewards, please consider joining my Patreon.

Power Module Construction

space shuttle, space station, spacecraft No Responses »

Aug 052014

A NASA artists concept from 1977 showing the construction in low Earth orbit of a Power Module. This would be one of a *vast* number to be assembled; when finished they would be hauled up to geosynchronous orbit there to be assembled together into very large Solar Power Satellites. This design is shaped like a trough, with the bottom of the trough covered in photovoltaic cells; the sides of the trough would probably be extremely thin aluminum foil. The foil would reflect more sunlight onto the cells. This was done because thin aluminum is a whole lot cheaper *and* lighter weight than solar cells; additionally, these cells tend to operate slightly more efficiently at higher insolation levels (i.e. the more sunlight they get, the better they work).

This painting shows a Shuttle External Tank being used as the backbone of a Power Module construction base. At the nose of the ET is a small “Space Lab” for crew (with possibly more crew space within the LOX tank), and a large solar panel for power. Further down the side of the ET is a movable manipulator arm; at the end of the arm is what appears to be a manned pod which serves as the “hand.” The arm appears to have rails that run the length of the ET, allowing it to slide back as forth as needed. Further down the ET is the “beam builder,” a self-contained little factory that takes rolls of aluminum “tape” (the two “Mickey Mouse ears” on the back of the device) and forms and spot-welds the tape into large structural elements.

AeroBits: Shuttle Landing Passes

hi-rez, launch vehicles, Patreon, rockets, space shuttle, spacecraft, spaceplane No Responses »

Jul 302014

Two passes – Public and Press – for parking to witness the landing of the first Space Shuttle orbital flight, STS-1. The government threat/verbiage on the back is a little creepifyin’ but I’m pretty sure it’s expired by now (probably expired the moment it landed). These passes were scanned at 300 DPI and are presented half-rez.

These passes were obtained via an eBay purchase, and were “extras” to the items I was actually after (detailed large format diagrams of the Shuttle flight instrumentation). This purchase was made possible by my Patreon contributors. So if you like this sort of thing, please consider contributing to my Patreon campaign. Every little bit helps! The full-rez scans are available to all Patreon contributors.

Prices cut on aerospace cyanotype blueprints

bomber, Dyna Soar, fighter, hi-rez, hypersonic, launch vehicles, nukes, Recon, research, rockets, space shuttle, spacecraft, spaceplane, transports, VTOL No Responses »

Jul 262014

I’ve cut the prices on all my cyanotypes by at least 25%, up to 40%. I’ve also gotten rid of the watercolor versions; it’s all vellum paper now (not only is it more historically accurate, it’s also a lot easier to process and ship).

So… take a look.

Cyanotype Blueprints

An unlikely Shuttle design

launch vehicles, rockets, space shuttle, spacecraft, spaceplane No Responses »

Jul 252014

A lithograph found on eBay presents a rather unlikely design for a Space Shuttle:

Dating from 1970, the craft shown here in a NASA PR glossy appears to be wholly fanciful.

Jul 212014

For $10 patrons on my Patreon campaign, a new message should appear there asking you to vote on what I’ll release in August (two documents and one large format diagram). For those who are $10 patrons, here’s a partial list anyway… if you see something there and you really want to make sure it becomes available, well, the obvious thing to do is sign on and vote!

———————-

Drawing: fairly detailed 3-view of Lunar Roving Vehicle (as actually flown to the moon)

Drawing: “Plans for Scale Model Construction of the Honest John Surface-to-Surface Missile” by McDonnell-Douglas, 1971 (does anyone know of more of these???)

Document: “Douglas Aircraft Company: An Overview,” 60+ page brochure showing existing and proposed jetliners, by McDonnell-Douglas, ca. 1980

Art: a vintage lithograph of the Lockheed L-2000 SST in flight, w/3 view on the back.

Document: “CT-39 International Sabreliner,” a Rockwell International booklet/brochure describing the multipurpose utility jet

Document: “Air Force Expeditionary Catapult,” a truly massive billet of paper serving as a proposal from the All American Engineering Company for the System 300 Catapult, 1955. This was to be a turbojet-powered cable launching system for jet fighters which could be easily transported and set up in the field. (NOTE: this one counts as two reports, as it’s fairly gigantic)

Document: Aeroassisted Flight Experiment Nonadvocate Review, 1989, NASA

Document: Pocket Data for Rocket Engines, 1953, Bell

Document: SAM-D Air Defense Weapon System, 1973, US Army

Document: Pilots Handbook of Operation XLR11-RM-3 & XLR11-RM-5, liquid Rocket Engines, 1950, Reaction Motors

Art: X-15 lithograph (date unknown)

Document: The Centaur Program, 1961, Convair

Document: Orbiter Vehicle Structures, Rockwell

Document: An integrated Moonmobile-Spacesuit Concept, 1961, Aerojet

Document: The Intercontinental Stratoliner 707-320, 1955, Boeing

Document: Douglas DC-8 Design Study, 1953, Douglas

Document: Transport Weight Comparison Based on Lockheed 49-10, 1943, Lockheed

Document: ETR Launch Operations Plan for Cenaur on Shuttle, 1979, General Dynamics

Diagram: MD-11 wing diagram, six-feet long: McDonnel-Douglas, 1995

Document: A Lockheed presentation on the GL-224 Turbo-Jet VTOL Aircraft, 1958

Document: A Project RAND report on the GG-2 all-wing bomber, 1949

Document: A small Rockwell brochure on the “common core” concept for a fixed-wing subsonic B-1 variant, 1979 4) A presentation on the Douglas “Skybus,” 1944

Document: A NAA report on a turboprop-powered F-82E for ground attack, 1949

Document: A Curtis report on the twin engined F-87C, 1948

Document: A Vertol report on VTOL transport aircraft, showing several very different configurations, 1956

Document: A Lockheed presentation to the AIAA on the history of the Fleet Ballistic Missile, 1978

Document: A collection of Manned Spacecraft Center Space Shuttle orbiter concepts, 1972

Document: A Convair collection of design drawings of an Assault Seaplane, 1948 (NOTE: this one counts as two reports, as it’s fairly gigantic)

Document: A Vought report on the Regulus II missile with detailed diagrams, 1955

Jul 202014

I’m about $21 short of the next milestone, which will result in two “PDF reviews” per month of little-known online aerospace history resources. So if that idea appeals… consider signing up (and telling all your friends who have a few dimes to rub together).

Also: in August there will be three documents/large format diagrams released, along with three CAD diagrams. The documents/LFD’s are yet to be chosen (the $10 patron will get to vote on this in the next week or so), but the CAD diagrams are underway. One is already basically complete: the first accurate and clean, large 3-view diagram of the Northrop Tacit Blue demonstrator. The second will be of a proposed launch vehicle. The third is still up in the air.

Patreon rewards for July are out now

bomber, Dyna Soar, hi-rez, launch vehicles, Patreon, Recon, rockets, space shuttle, space station, spacecraft, spaceplane No Responses »

Jul 102014

The first month of my Patreon thingie is up and running now. Available – until next month, when they’ll be replaced by the next set of stuff – are the following:

1) A large format diagram of the B/J-58, a Convair concept for a two-engine tactical B-58

If you’d be interested in helping me dig up and release this sort of obscure aerospace historical material, or if you want to get in on the rewards, please consider joining my Patreon.

More old press photos on eBay

hypersonic, jetliner, launch vehicles, nukes, rockets, space shuttle, spacecraft, transports No Responses »

Jul 062014

I thought these might interest some, even with the heavy-duty watermarks:

This one shows a Max Faget “DC-3”-type orbiter serving as the base of operations for some sort of repair or resupply using teleoperated robots. There was a lot of expectation of such devices being used with Shuttle in the early days, but they (so far) just haven’t proved to be as capable as a guy in a suit.

————-

This one shows a nuclear rocket-powered manned Mars vehicle. It’s called a “nuclear powered space station” in the caption…

———-

This image shows two “DC-3” type orbiters (they look like North American Rockwell designs to me) meeting up to build a single interplanetary probe mission. Neither shuttle was capable of lofting both the deep space booster and the payload, so two launches are required. Of course, this sort of thing never happened.

—————–

This one shows another telerobot in action. The caption on the back says that it’s being used to check over the shuttle prior to re-entry, which doesn’t match the image… but might have been of interest for the crew of Columbia.

————-

This shows a Boeing/Grumman TSTO Shuttle concept. The orbiter uses external propellant tanks; in these sort of designs, the tanks were usually all hydrogen. The much smaller volume of liquid oxygen would be kept in tanks that fit within the orbiter, and would of course come back. The reusable booster was necessarily gigantic.

—————-

This one is kinda different: a plan for how astronaut David Scott was supposed to test the Astronaut Maneuvering Unit on Gemini VIII. This test was not carried out, since the spacecraft suffered a stuck valve on a thruster, went into a rapid tumble, nearly killed the crew and the mission was promptly aborted. The same sort of test was attempted on Gemini IX, and proved nearly as disastrous. Eugene Cernans space suit was specially made for the test, with an outer layer of woven steel “pants.” This was due to the fact that the AMU used hydrogen peroxide for propellant, exhausting superheated steam and oxygen exhaust. But the woven steel made the pressurized pants almost totally rigid, making the spacewalk back to the AMU a serious chore. As a result, his faceplate fogged up and he was nearly blind. He never got into the AMU, and it was never launched again. The Manned Maneuvering Unit tested on the Shuttle used cool pressurized nitrogen, negating the need for steel pants.

—————–

This one is, I believe, from the late 1970s and depicts a jetliner with a multitude of small turbofan engines along the trailing edge of the wing. The engines would deflect with the control surfaces, providing thrust vectoring for STOL flight.

——-

Finally, everyone’s favorite… a hypersonic transport. Designs like this one from 1968 tended to be powered by scramjets which, forty-plus years later we still haven’t gotten to work in any really meaningful way. Whoopee.

Older Entries Newer Entries

Aerospace Projects Review Blog