transports – Page 9 – Aerospace Projects Review Blog

North American Rocket Transport

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

Apr 242020

In 1965 North American Aviation produced a study for NASA about reusable space launch vehicles to support forthcoming expected space stations. Included within that study was an alternate use of rocket vehicles… point-to-point hypersonic commercial passenger transportation. This concept goes back to the late 1940’s and has continued to the present day, with the Elon Musk suggesting that the SpaceX Starship could be used for that purpose. The idea is interesting and it certainly *could* work. But could it be commercially cost effective? History with craft such as the Concorde and the Shuttle argue strongly against an early vehicle like this doing anything but losing truckloads of cash every time it launches.

Lockheed BALLOS

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Apr 232020

Artwork circa 1964 depicting the Lockheed BALlistic LOgistics Spacecraft (BALLOS), a sort of super-sized Apollo capsule meant for the transportation of a dozen astronauts (10 passengers, 2 crew) at once to and from any one of the doubtless dozens of space stations that the United States would surely have in orbit by the mid 1970’s. Launch vehicle would be a Saturn Ib.

Mach Buster

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Apr 192020

The “Mach Buster” was an unfinished amateur-built prop plane that was optimistically planned (in the late 1980’s) to exceed the speed of sound. Sadly, I’ve long since lost the reference for where the below image came from, existing in my collection solely as a single photocopy.

A brief article on the Mach Buster was in the August, 1989, issue of Popular Mechanics.

Lockheed Atomic Airliner

jetliner, nukes, transports No Responses »

Apr 152020

The heyday of the “atomic powered airplane” was the late 50’s-early 60’s. By the mid ’60’s it was done. But there was a brief, kinda sad and halfhearted revival in the seventies when the price of fuel spiked. An atomic airplane would be able to fly without all that pesky and overpriced petroleum; it could fly without producing pollution; and it could fly really, really far. Whether it could fly without irradiating the passengers, and whether it could fly at all, are questions largely left unanswered. The art below depicts a Lockheed concept for an atomic jetliner. It has the wasp-waisted configuration favored in the ’70’s for transonic jetliner designs, but where the reactor was supposed to go is not clear. *Presumably* it was to be fitted in the fuselage under the wings, as that’s the only place where no passenger windows are visible.

Sikorsky VTOL jet transport

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Apr 082020

A design from 1963 that used four Bristol-Siddeley vectored-thrust Pegasus engines (same as used by the Harrier) and ten lift jets to give an otherwise fairly conventional cargo transport jet aircraft VTOL capability.

Hiller VTOL 1

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Apr 052020

A 1957 design for a flying crane quadcopter from Hiller.

Apr 052020

Once again Patreon seems to be becoming unstable. So I’ve got an alternate: The APR Monthly Historical Documents Program

For some years I have been operating the “Aerospace Projects Review Patreon” which provides monthly rewards in the form of high resolution scans of vintage aerospace diagrams, art and documents. This has worked pretty well, but it seems that perhaps some people might prefer to sign on more directly. Fortunately, PayPal provides the option not only for one-time purchases but also monthly subscriptions. By subscribing using the drop-down menu below, you will receive the same benefits as APR Patrons, but without going through Patreon itself.

Lockheed HC-130H Three View

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Mar 292020

The HC-130H is the designation of the Hercules cargo aircraft modified for Coast Guard search and rescue. The first one, shown in the diagram below, was given a number of modifications from the standard C-130. Most obvious was the radome fairing above the fuselage and the Fulton device on the nose. This meant that the aircraft was capable of snagging a balloon-lifted cable, and then snatching a payload – possibly a person – from the ground. See “The Dark Knight” for a demonstration…

“Super Hercules”

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Mar 182020

A 1960 Lockheed concept for a jet-powered “Super Hercules.” This would transform into the C-141 Starlifter.

A month of aerospace

bomber, fighter, hypersonic, jetliner, launch vehicles, nukes, Recon, research, rockets, ships, space shuttle, space station, spacecraft, spaceplane, stealth, transports, VTOL No Responses »

Mar 182020

Given the craziness going on, I decided that what the world clearly needs is something consistent. Like, say, me posting one piece of aerospace diagram or art every day for a month or so. So I’m going to do that. But in order to keep people from getting too complacent, I’m posting some of them on this blog, some on the other blog. Why? Because why not, that’s why. I’m slapping the posts together now and scheduling them to show up one at a time, one a day. Given the pandemic… who knows, this little project might well outlive *me.*

So, check back in (on this blog or the other) on a daily basis. Might be something interesting.

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