Some NASA art from back in the day. Click to embiggen.
Oct 282017
Oct 192017
A rare piece of color art depicting an early Dyna Soar being dropped from a B-52. The Dyna Soar is equipped with two rocket engines used to boost it to higher altitude and higher speed (supersonic, though not very supersonic… think the test flights of the M2-F3 and the HL-10). Note that this shows the Dyna Soar having been tucked into a modified bomb bay in the B-52’s fuselage; planning would soon move the Dyna Soar to under the wing, using the same attachment point used by the B-52 to carry the X-15 and the lifting bodies.
Oct 122017
An apparently pre-Mercury “space capsule” design from Rocketdyne. I am somewhat dubious, though… I suspect it might be less “space capsule” than “high altitude capsule.” Nothing about it screams “re-entry vehicle;” rather it look like something that might have been hauled to the edge of space by a large balloon. The pressure suits worn by the occupants look like something to be worn by a U-2 pilot; there sure is a whole lot of wasted volume in there and it would be odd for a capsule meant to operate in zero-g to have a ladder in it.
Oct 092017
Posted to a NASA Flickr page is this illustration of a 1984 space station concept:
This would probably be a very heavy station for the volume and usable surface area provided. However, once that truss structure is in place, it seems like it would be possible to keep adding on to it without overly stressing the structure, with the possible result of a very capable station. It should also be possible to keep tacking on new truss elements.
The design would necessarily keep most of the station elements shadowed by the solar arrays.
Oct 082017
Got them done a little early this time, so here’s a review of what the APR Patrons will be receiving:
Patrons will receive:
A proposal brochure on the C-135A cargo transport
A brochure about the Shuttle-C
A well illustrated NASA-produced booklet from the mid 1980’s describing the space station as them conceived
A large format diagram showing a wind tunnel model of the Titan III/Dyna Soar
A CAD diagram of the ca. 2001 Russian TsAGI Integrated Wing Body large passenger transport jetliner
If these are of interest, please consider signing on to the APR Patreon.
Oct 062017
I have a number of new aerospace cyanotype blueprints available. Until I can repave the catalog page, I have slapped together a PDF catalog of the new items. Until Wednesday, I’m making these new 12X18 prints, as well as the earlier 12X18 prints, available. The earlier 12X18s are viewable HERE. The new items are in the following PDF file:
If any are of interest, Paypal to the email address in the PDF file, and add a note in the order which items you want…. AND what your mailing address is (PayPal doesn’t automatically add the address to payments like this).
After Wednesday the prints will be again unavailable for a little bit while I retool and work on some things.
UPDATE: over for now. After some retooling I hope to have all the cyanotypes, small and large old and new, available for regular sale.
Oct 042017
Some fellers are working on nano-satellite “kits,” and have set up a Kickstarter to fund the project. The end result will be Raspberry Pi computer powered little satellite simulators that will – at the upper end – apparently be launched atop sounding-type rockets. The people behind this project had the good sense to have me produce a 12X18 cyanotype blueprint of a diagram of the original Sputnik satellite to serve as one of the funding rewards.
The Kickstarter page is currently a bit lean on details, but I’m told they’re going to flesh it out in coming days. Take a look:
Sputnik CreatorSat – build your own satellite
