PDF Review: 1973 Senate testimony on Agile

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Feb 262015

A PDF pieced together from scans found on the Secret Projects forum of Senate testimony on the AIM-95 Agile air-to-air missile. Agile was, as the name might suggest, a close-in “dogfighting” missile, an attempt to incorporate the hard lessons learned by the USAF and USN getting their tails kicked in the skies over Viet Nam by scrappy Russian dogfighters pilots by scrappy Vietnamese pilots. The main advantage that the Agile provided over the Sidewinder was that the infra-red seeker was capable of looking further off boresight… in other words, you didn’t need to point the plane at the enemy before the missile could get a lock-on. While the AIM-95 Agile apparently worked just fine, it was simply cheaper to upgrade the Sidewinder.

The AIM-95 would be steered via vectoring the nozzle rather than aerodynamic control fins. Initial targeting was planned to be done by having a sight integrated into the pilots helmet.. where he looked, the missile looked. The AIM-95 was intended for use by the F-14 and then the F-15 as well, but it never entered service.

The PDF file is HERE.

Much more aerospace stuff is available via the APR Patreon.

February 2015 APR Patreon rewards are available

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Feb 232015

I have made available for APR Patrons the following:

1) “Titan III B-C-D-E Propulsion Handbook,” from Aerojet, explaing and diagramming just about everything you want to know about the Titan III propulsion systems, from the SRMs to the Transstage. I originally got this via ebay.

(This shows just a small portion of the ~300 page handbook)

2) “Aircraft Descriptive Data for Northrop F-89F.” A collection of then-current data on the projected (and unbuilt) F-89F. This was from a collection gathered by Lockheed to keep tabs on their competitors. Has some “Secret” markings on it. I originally got this via ebay.

3) Skylab diagram. This very large format illustration was found in the NASA HQ and photographed piecemeal and painstakingly reassembled, using text scanned from another copy of the illustration (with a far smaller diagram, but good text).

4) An original layout diagram of the XB-70. It took several years to get this diagram into this shape. It seems pretty good to me.

You can gain access to these by becoming an APR Patron for as little as $1.50 a month. That’s not so very much, is it? Check out the APR Patreon page for more details.

APR Patreon “extras” moving to Dropbox

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Feb 232015

I’m moving the occasional “extras” to a Dropbox folder where these items will stay, and remain available, indefinitely. The Dropbox “extras” folder is being made available to all APR Patrons at the $4 level and above. I have also added a few new SST images to the folder to help get things going. If you would like access to these high-rez images and documents, wander on over to the APR Patreon and sign up. It’s cheap!

PDF Review: Unconventional Submarine Propulsion Systems

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Feb 212015

Modern submarines (like the Seawolf and Virgina classes) are often propelled not by propellers, but by pumpjets. These are shrouded turbines with a number of blades, looking much like the inlets and compressors of modern high bypass turbofans. They provide propulsive improvement, but apparently more importantly they are quieter than exposed propellers. However, the details of their designs are often obscure, for the obvious fact that they make submarines stealthier vehicles.

One of the few pumpjets I’ve seen shown in any detail comes from a 1963 General Dynamics report covering unusual propulsion system options for submarines. At this early date it’s safe to assume that the resemblance to a modern pumpjet is probably fairly minimal beyond the overall concept and configuration, but it’s still an interesting look at a rarely seen technology Additionally, the pumpjet is about the *least* unconventional of the concepts shown in detail, which include props that are fitted to a ring at the maximum diameter of the hull and separate, podded propulsion systems (a common enough design feature on many surface vessels today) and cycloidal propulsion systems. All of the systems are compared by assuming they are applied to SSB(N)-616 USS Lafayette, a ballistic missile sub.

DESIGN STUDY REPORT: A SURVEY OF CONVENTIONAL AND UNCONVENTIONAL SUBMARINE PROPULSION SYSTEMS

This report can be downloaded from the Defense Technical Information Center website.

The link to the abstract is here.

The direct link to the PDF file is here.

Support the APR Patreon to help bring more of this sort of thing to light!

Boeing 733 SST artwork

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Feb 212015

A B&W version of a Boeing artists concept of their 733 Supersonic Transport.

I’ve made a high-rez version of this available at the APR Patreon, available to all patrons.

All prior APR Patreon Rewards

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Feb 192015

I’ve been pondering how to go about making the APR Patreon rewards available in a reasonably fair way. What I’ve come up with… patrons can now purchase the rewards bundled by the month they were made available. in other words… if you want the diagram from October, 2014, it comes with the documents and CAD diagram made available in October 2014, all in a single ZIP archive.

The documents and diagrams are available in the full-rez 300 (or better) dpi format. The CAD diagram is included in the 18X24 format. All bundles are $10 each. I’m not making the web address of the order form publicly known, but for simplicity it’s not being password protected. If you are interested in any of the prior APR Patreon rewards, either because you signed up several months in or because you were signed in for lower-rez rewards, you can now access the full-rez items.

The link to the order form is now available on the APR Patreon page for all patrons (as low as $0.75/month).

XB-70 Cutaway

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Feb 182015

I have been busy with a number of things recently (some good, some bad), which has clearly reduced my Aerospace History blogification substantially. So… here’s a cutaway of the XB-70:

Granted, it’s tiny. However, a far bigger version of this illustration, created Way Back When for “Flight” magazine, is available on the Flight archives, right HERE. From back when such bits of beauty were created by hand.

Bell VTOL Artwork

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Feb 062015

Last night I went to upload the monthly catalogs of diagrams & documents for the $10-level Patreon patrons to choose from… and found that something screwy is going on with the file attachment system. After much useless flailing I determined that the system, which has worked fine until now, is just plain broken. However, an alternate system seems to have presented itself which should work just fine. And additionally I wound up adding two pieces of high-rez artwork for $4-and-up-level patrons… an X-14C VTOL ground attack plan weapons loadout display, and the Bell “Mighty Mouse” small assault transport tiltrotor. If you would like to become a patron and get occasional bonus goodies like these (as well as the regular monthly rewards), please consider signing up to become a patron. For a pittance per month, you get all kinds of aerospace history goodies.

The full-size versions (available to $4 patrons under the “Creations” tab) are much bigger:

My diagrams…

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Feb 042015

I’ve started posting my diagrams created for APR, USBP, etc. over on “Deviantart.” Unless I get bored and wander away (gosh, what are the chances of *that*), the plan is to eventually post virtually *all* of my diagrams, at a rate of about one a day.

Check it out:

scott-lowther.deviantart.com

Feel free to tell anyone you care to tell.

Saturn I Booster Parawing (Paraglider) Recovery System Test 1961

launch vehicles No Responses »

Feb 042015

A Ryan concept for recovery of the Saturn I first stage. Somewhere around here I have a report on using such a system to recover a Saturn I used to launch a Dyna Soar…

The idea was that the stage could glide back to a runway landing in Florida. As memory serves, in order to pull that off some propulsive capability was needed, such as restarting the engines and doing a retro-burn while still above the sensible atmosphere. The stage would return unmanned.