A double-page spread from Aviation Week in 1967 showing models of various designs leading to the final 747 configuration.
Oct 212018
Oct 062018
A photo found for sale on ebay a while back shows a display model (circa 1973) of a Rockwell International concept for a Grumman Gulfstream 2 corporate jet modified for VTOL capability. This was not meant to be an operational concept, but a research vehicle to demonstrate VTOL technologies and operations in a jetliner-like aircraft, with the potential to be implemented into larger passenger-carrying jetliners such as the DC-9. This would allow such airliners to operate from smaller airfields. But the fuel-hungry nature of VTOL aircraft put an end to such notions in the 1970s. This aircraft would have used lift fans in flattened pods on the wings (each pod containing two YJ97 GE-100 gas generating turbojets) and vectorable-nozzle forward-thrust fans (again with two gas generators), for a total of six jet engines.
Oct 052018
A glimpse at the first draft of the diagrams for US Transport Projects #8. The careful observer will note that there have been a number of “Forthcoming” posts over the last several months with no followup of a final product. There will be, at some point, a mass release of a larger than usual number of USxP issues.
Oct 022018
Patrons of the Aerospace Projects Review Patreon received last month:
Diagram: A foldout diagram of an Apollo-derived logistics spacecraft
Document: “The Piasecki Story,” an illustrated history of the company and its products
Document: “The N.S. Savannah,” a brochure about the sole nuclear powered merchant vessel
Document: “Lunar Spacecraft Design” A paper describing the evolution of the General Electric Apollo design, quite similar to the later Soyuz spacecraft
CAD diagram: 1985 design of the British HOTOL spaceplane
If this sort of thing is of interest, please consider signing up for the APR Patreon.
Sep 292018
The video quality is poor, but the content is interesting. A mid-1960’s promotional film for the US SST program (Boeing 2707), focusing on the economic benefits. A lot more reference to *gold* than you would see these days, and a lot more worry about the economic dominance of Concorde than reality would end up providing.
That first generation of SST’s almost certainly never stood a chance of being economically successful. The Boeing 2707 would very probably not have been the economic disaster that the Concorde was, but the oil crisis of the 1970’s and inability to fly overland routes almost certainly would have wrecked its ability to be profitable. However… a *next* generation of SST built on the lessons of the 2707? *Possibly* quite successful.
Sep 252018
An ad for Thompson Products from 1958. The cargo rocket shown here is pure artistic license, with almost certainly no actual engineering behind it. It’s pure science fiction for the purpose of advertising razzmatazz. And yet… the similarity to the latest design of the SpaceX BFS is pretty remarkable.
“Thompson Products” may not be immediately familiar. But in October 1958 (about two months before this ad was published in Av Week, so… shrug) Thompson Products merged with the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation, forming Thompson Ramo Wooldridge Inc. … TRW. So… huh, how about that.
Sep 252018
The Lockheed L-2000 was a Mach 3 SST designed to compete against the Boeing 2707 in the mid 1960’s. It was an elegant and classy looking design, but was passed over by the US Government in favor of the Boeing design. Lockheed built a full scale and reasonably convincing mockup of the craft, using it for both study and PR purposes.
The L-2000 looked like nothing quite so much as a cross between the Concorde and the SR-71.
A full rez scan of the 8X10 glossy has been uploaded to the 2018-09 APR Extras folder on Dropbox for APR Patreon patrons at the $4 level and above. If this sort of thing is of interest, please consider signing up for the APR Patreon.
Sep 022018
From ebay a while back, a B&W PR image of a Sikorsky Skycrane operating as a commercial passenger transport. Sikorsky wanted this to happen in the 60’s, and several attempts to do just this were tried, but it just didn’t really come together. Inter- and Intra-urban commercial passenger helicopters operating as a flying “bus,” often to take people from city centers to nearby airports, were tried but due to cost, noise and safety issues, it never… ah, took off. In contrast, smaller helicopters have done a fair business flying rich folks (and injured folks) round cities, but larger helicopters like this are a thing of the distant past.
Aug 182018
Another ebay find depicting the Boeing Heavy Lift Helicopter, this time carrying a heavy truck of some kind. Perhaps as a bit of a dig at Sikorsky, in the background another HLH is shown carrying a CH-54 Skycrane.
Aug 162018
Another ebay find, this one depicts the HLH transporting cargo from a ship to shore. It appears to be constructing storage tanks, presumably for oil or water, from prefabricated sections.
