A trio of photos of the Convair XB-46, including a rare one in color. The much larger full-rez versions have been uploaded to the 2020-08 APR Extras folder on Dropbox, accessible to all $4 and up Patrons and subscribers.
Aug 082020
Jul 312020
Rewards have just been posted for APR Patrons/Monthly Historical Documents Program subscribers. Included this time:
1) An early (1969) NASA study of possible Space Shuttle configurations
2) A 1991 Strategic Defense Initiative Office presentation/transcript on the SDI program
3) A good, clear general arrangement diagram of the North American F-107
4) A CAD diagram of the late 1950’s Convair “Landing boat” that often appeared in presentations (art and models) from Krafft Ehricke
If you are a paid-up Patron/Subscriber, you should by now have received a message with a link to your rewards. If you haven’t, let me know.
Protected: GE Interplanetary Spacecraft Concept crowdfund
hi-rez, Monthly Historical Documents Program, nukes, Patreon, rockets, spacecraft
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Jun 262020
Jun 122020
Just in from ebay, a vintage black & white cutaway illustration of the Apollo CSM. The original has been scanned at 600 dpi (it’s clear enough for that high of a resolution) and made available to subscribers of the APR Patreon and the Monthly Historical Documents Program at above $10/month as an “extra.”
If this sort of thing is of interest, sign up either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.
Apr 302020
I’m terrible at posting updates on the latest rewards, but I do get every rewards package out on time. That said, APR Patrons and Monthly Historical Documents Program subscribers have just been sent the rewards for April, 202. This package includes:
1) “Flying Carpet Feasibility Study Submarine Carrier,” a full scan of the 1958 Boeing report on a series of submarines design to carrying Mach3+ VTOL strike fighters
2) “F10F Descriptive Data,” a full scan of a 1953 Lockheed document describing this competitors design
3) Diagram 35-17610, B-52 airdrop carrier aircraft for the Model 844-2050 X-20 Dyna Soar
4) A CAD diagram of a two-stage Rockwell Trans Atmospheric Vehicle using a ground effect machine first stage
If this sort of thing is of interest and you’d like to get in on it and make sure you don’t miss any of the forthcoming releases, sign up either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.
All prior “back issues” are available for purchase by subscribers.
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.
Mar 232020
I’m slowly stitching together a series of scans of a very, very large paint guide for the B-1B. The first sheet of six shows the port side of the fuselage.
This first sheet is in the catalog of the APR Patreon and the Monthly Historical Document Program for patrons/subscribers to vote for. As the other sheets are completed, they will be added to the catalog.
Mar 172020
Cutaway artwork of the Douglas D-558-I Skystreak, a transonic research plane designed and built in the mid 1940’s for the US Navy. Like the contemporary Bell X-1 rocket plane, it had straight wings; but unlike the X-1, it had a turbojet engine and could take off under its own power. It could only get supersonic in a dive. Douglas followed the D-558-I with the D-558-II Skyrocket, a very different and much more advanced aircraft that could fly much faster.
The full-rez scan of this cutaway has been made available to all $4 and up APR Patreons and Monthly Historical Document Program subscribers. It has been uploaded to the 2020-03 APR Extras folder on Dropbox for Patreons and subscribers. If interested in this piece or if you are interested in helping to fund the preservation of this sort of thing, please consider becoming a patron, either through the APR Patreon or the Monthly Historical Document Program.
Feb 282020
If you like the aircraft that applied atomic boot to Imperial Japanese ass – and who doesn’t – then the Smithsonian institution can hook you up. Not only do they have the famed Enola Gay on display, they also have a bunch of photos from 1945 up to more recent restorations available on their website in the form of a couple PDF collections. If you are building a B-29 model or are jsut interested in the B-29 in general or the Enola Gay in particular, this is a heck of a trove.
The first one is 419 pages (313 megabytes), with a lot of photos from what looks like the fifties to the nineties as the Enola Gay was trucked around and variously restored:
https://airandspace.si.edu/webimages/collections/full/A19500100000DOC20.pdf
The second is 318 pages (77 meg) and seems to be detail photos (mostly of pretty much individual components) from a restoration:
https://airandspace.si.edu/webimages/collections/full/A19500100000DOC06.pdf
A number of the photos can be viewed – thought not readily downloaded – here:
Support the APR Patreon to help bring more of this sort of thing to light! Alternatively, you can support through the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.
Dec 072019
Some years ago I scored some aerospace concept art off ebay. This is not an unusual occurrence; I’ve procured a great many lithographs there. But this one was different… it was the *actual* original painting created in the mid-60’s. At the time I couldn’t really get a good scan of it, but a change in scanners a while back, coupled with the recent move and revival of the “scan everything” project allowed me to finally digitize the thing.
The image depicted a composite aircraft that used stowable rotors for VTOL and hover like a helicopter, and turbofan engines for efficient fast forward speed. As shown here it is operating in Viet Nam in a combat search and rescue role, something the Lockheed CL-945 (a very similar design) was intended for.
The full image is far bigger (a bit bigger than 10X the linear dimensions than the version above) and has been made available as a thank-you to APR Patreon and Historical Documents Program patrons at the above-$10-per-month level. If interested in this piece or if you are interested in helping to fund the preservation of this sort of thing, please consider becoming a patron, either through the APR Patreon or the Monthly Historical Document Program.