Tanker concept art

 hi-rez, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, transports  No Responses »
May 212024
 

Procured from ebay, this piece of concept art sadly comes without context. It shows a tanker aircraft (pretty much a McDonnell-Douglas YC-15, though the engines appear a bit different… perhaps higher bypass turbofans) topping up an F-15.

The full-rez scan of the art has been made available as a thank-you to APR Patreon and Historical Documents Program patrons at the $4 and above level, placed in the 2024-05 APR Extras Dropbox folder. If interested in this or if you are interested in helping to fund the preservation of aerospace history, please consider becoming a patron, either through the APR Patreon or the Monthly Historical Document Program.

 

 Posted by at 5:08 am

Ballpoint Pen Bombers

 bomber, hi-rez, launch vehicles, Monthly Historical Documents Program, nukes, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Apr 232024
 

This is a little outside the usual for APR, as it is satire rather than actual aerospace design. But I thought it appropriate nonetheless; I remember dreaming up just about the exact same ideas when I was twelve. There was something about the design of those pens that just *screamed* for them to be envisioned as spaceships and missiles and whatnot.

The full-rez scan of the article, and a few more bits, been made available as a thank-you to APR Patreon and Historical Documents Program patrons at the $4 and above level, placed in the 2024-04 APR Extras Dropbox folder. If interested in this or if you are interested in helping to fund the preservation of aerospace histgory, please consider becoming a patron, either through the APR Patreon or the Monthly Historical Document Program.

 Posted by at 12:36 am

Bell-Boeing LHX Tiltrotor art

 VTOL  1 Response »
Apr 072024
 

Artwork circa 1983 depicting a one-man combat tiltrotor tearing up a column of Soviet armor. At this time the Light Helicopter – eXperimental program included the possibility of tiltrotors as well as conventional choppers. In the end the RAH-66 won… and was then cancelled before series production. Tiltrotors showed promise, but also promised to be incredibly challenging for a single pilot to manage.

 Posted by at 9:21 pm

Rockwell Space Station: 1982

 space shuttle, space station, spacecraft  No Responses »
Mar 072024
 

Published in a magazine in 1983, this artist depiction shows a concept for a 1982 space station by Rockwell. Clearly of the same *kind* of station as the eventual ISS, this is a simpler, smaller construct. However, it also includes a “cargo bay” modeled aft that of the Space Shuttle, allowing payloads (what appear to be temporary science modules) to be readily transferred back and forth.

 

 Posted by at 10:32 am

“Midgetman” article

 Monthly Historical Documents Program, nukes, Patreon, rockets  No Responses »
Mar 052024
 

I’ve just uploaded a 1986 article on the “Midgetman” road-mobile Small ICBM developed but not deployed by the US at the end of the Cold War to Dropbox for above-$10 APR Patrons/Subscribers.

 

 

This is of course on top of the monthly rewards packages and the “Extras” posted rather irregularly. If you’d be interested, consider subscribing:

https://www.aerospaceprojectsreview.com/monthly.htm

 Posted by at 7:17 am

First Lunar Outpost artwork

 hi-rez, launch vehicles, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Feb 202024
 

In 1992 NASA had a flurry of PR about the “First Lunar Outpost” concept which would see the US return to the moon using large lunar landers launched by a single Saturn V derived heavy lifter. A fair deal of concept art was released; much of it used the relatively new technology of computer generated imagery. Five of these images recently appeared on ebay as 16X20 prints; what the heck, I went ahead and bought them. They arrived today and I was pleasantly surprised at the production quality. They weren’t simply printouts glued to cheap foamcore, but instead are very glossy, hard plastic bonded to higher quality foamcore.

I believe I’ll have these professionally scanned and made available to APR Patrons/subscribers.

 Posted by at 3:45 pm

Dual-fuselage DC-9

 jetliner, transports  No Responses »
Feb 182024
 

NASA artwork (probably 1970s/early 80’s) of a dual-fuselage DC-9. This would double the capacity while not doubling the weight; drag would go up, but so would aerodynamic efficiency due to increased effective aspect ratio of the wing, as well as being more structurally sound for the weight. The need for a pretty wide runway is something of a concept-killer, though.

 

 Posted by at 10:01 pm
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