The most recently finished diagram took several days. The references were clear and detailed… and difficult to suss out in some ways, a common issue with aircraft that had deployable bits.
Oct 262022
Oct 252022
Bell artwork circa 1983 depicting the proposed JVX tiltrotor, which would become the V-22 Osprey. The cockpit and the sponsons display the greatest obvious differences from the aircraft that would eventually be built, but the design seems to be largely just about there.
Oct 182022
Here’s a look at Book 4. Some of the diagrams I do are completed in just a few hours. Some take considerably longer… several to many man-days, sometimes spread out over months as I dial in details. This one was sort of mid-range. The most complex and time consuming are typically the diagrams of aircraft that were actually built… those have to be accurate, and more details are available. This one is of an unbuilt aircraft that is reasonably well documented, but was a configuration that was in a constant state of design flux.
Oct 142022
A circa 1983 illustration of the Bell JVX tiltrotor concept, folded for storage aboard an aircraft carrier. The JVX would be developed into the V-22 Osprey. The differences between this concept and the final vehicle are relatively minor, with the sponsons on the side, shape of the nose and apparently less-lifted tail being the most obvious.
Oct 122022
I’m at work on a new series of CAD diagrams (see HERE for the first run) to be released as PDFs formatted for printing at 18X24. For example, here are first drafts of a few:
- Boeing Space Sortie (3 sheets)
- Saturn C-8/Nova
- Jules Verne’s “Columbiad”
- A-12 Avenger II (2 sheets)
- Lockheed CL-400 “Suntan”
All of these require a bit more dressing-up, as well as explanatory text. But I think they’re starting to look pretty good.
I’ve selected a fair number more to work on. If any of these are of particular interest, or if any of the many, many diagrams I’ve made over the years would be of interest, let me know.
- BIS “Daedalus” straship
- Rockwell MRCC
- Northrop Tacit Blue
- Space Shuttle Main Engine
- Boeing Bird of Prey
- General Atomic 86-foot Orion
- General Atomic Orion battleship
- General Atomic 10-meter Orion
- Martin SeaMistress
- Space Launch System
- Have Sting orbital railgun
- Casaba Howitzer
- X-20 Dyna Soar
- B-47E
- DB-47E/Bold Orion
- DB-47E/RASCAL
- B-52G
- B-52H
- B-52H/Skybolt
- Boeing Space Freighter
- Boeing Big Onion
- Shuttle C
- Rockwell Star Raker
- Lockheed STAR Clipper
- Lockheed SR-71
- Lockheed A-12 (early canards)
- Lockheed A-12
- Lockheed A-12 (honeycomb panels)
- Lockheed A-12 “Titanium Goose”
- Lockheed YF-12A
- Lockheed M-21/D-21
- Lockheed AP-12
- Republic YF-103
- North American XF-108
- Bell MX-2147
- Convair Kingfish
Oct 092022
Found in ridiculously low resolution online, this chart purports to provide data on a number of early-2000’s unmanned air vehicles. If it’s accurate, it provides good dimensional data for the Northrop and Lockheed UCAR programs, data I’ve not seen elsewhere. But I can’t confirm the accuracy of this. it appears to have been scanned from a physical original… perhaps a brochure, a meeting paper, a magazine article. Anyone?
Sep 302022
Interesting:
Sep 182022
A mid-1960’s North American Aviation concept for a sorta-lifting body spacecraft that would use deployable rotors for landing. Functioning as an autogyro, these rotors would be a more controllable alternative to a parachute, in principle allowing fairly pinpoint runway touchdowns. I had cause to go looking for information on this recently; i was fairly certain that I had a few reports on the subject, but could not find them. Grrr.
A few photos I found online a few years ago of a display model, presumably originating from an auction website such as ebay:
Sep 062022
I looked through a small fraction of my surprisingly vast pile of CAD diagrams for some I thought might look good in really large format. Some I’ve gone some distance towards formatting them that way already; some are still formatted for small sheets. There are more, of course. In no particular order.
Lockheed CL-400 “Suntan”
Lockheed M-21/D-21:
Lockheed A-12:
Lockheed SR-71A:
Lockheed YF-12A:
X-20 Dyna Soar/Titan III:
A number of 10-Meter Orion vehicles/sub-vehicles:
USAF 10-meter Orion:
General Dynamics “Kingfish:”
North American XF-108:
Lockheed A-12 concept w/canards:
Boeing B-47E:
Boeing B-52G:
Boeing B-52H:
Boeing B-52H + Skybolt:
Boeing DB-47E + Bold Orion:
Rockwell Star Raker:
Boeing “Big Onion” SSTO:
Boeing Space Freighter:
NASA Saturn C-8:
Lockheed STAR Clipper:
Interest in new CAD diagrams?
B-47 and B-52 Origins and Evolution, bomber, Dyna Soar, fighter, future projects, hi-rez, hypersonic, jetliner, launch vehicles, Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Origins and Evolution, nukes, Recon, research, rockets, ships, space shuttle, space station, spacecraft, spaceplane, stealth, transports, VTOL
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Sep 052022
Back in 2016 I released seven PDFs of CAD diagrams formatted for printing at 24X36 inches (those are shown after the break). This was another product line that didn’t exactly blow up the market, and no further diagrams were released. But now that I have two books of CAD diagrams released, and two more coming (and potentially more after that), I’m considering trying again. The Lockheed CL-400 Suntan, A-11, A-12, SR-71, YF-12, along with several B-47 and B-52 related designs are possible, as well as designs that aren’t from those books (X-20 Dyna Soar, several Orion vehicles, etc.). If this sounds interesting, let me know; if there is something specific you might be interested in, let me know.