Remarkably low stall speed as well.
[youtube HiFIw8OkTWk]
Appears to be the mockup/radar test model of the British Aerospace “Replica” concept from the late 1990s, which in turns seems to have been based on the McDonnell-Douglas JAST (Joint Advanced Strike Technology) concept which competed and lost against the Boeing X-32 and Lockheed X-35.
Until December 18, the AIAA is selling 25 books for $25, and ten books for $10. Some good stuff here at some pretty substantial discount. You don’t have to be an AIAA member to get the discount.
NOTE: I have no relationship with the AIAA, and don’t make a nickel off these sales. So.. if you want to buy stuff and still feel like you are Supporting The Cause, feel free to navigate to Amazon.com through the “Search’ box that’s to the upper right of this page. i get a tiny fraction of the sales prices for items purchased via search & referral. I suggest buying stuff like laptops and computers and cars and such. So long as I’m getting a small percentage, it might as well be a small percentage of a large dollar value…
The Aircraft Designers: A Grumman Historical Perspective
Michael V. Ciminera
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Meeting the Challenge: The Hexagon KH-9 Reconnaissance Satellite
Phil Pressel
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Space Shuttle Legacy: How We Did It and What We Learned
Roger D. Launius; John Krige; James I. Craig
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Augustine’s Laws
Norman R. Augustine
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100 years of Flight
Frank H. Winter and F. Robert van der Linden
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Have Blue and the F-117A: Evolution of the “Stealth Fighter”
David C. Aronstein and Albert C. Piccirillo
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Advanced Tactical Fighter to F-22 Raptor: Origins of the 21st Century Air Dominance Fighter
David C. Aronstein, Michael J. Hirschberg, and Albert C. Piccirillo
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Aerodynamic Principles of Flight Vehicles
Argyris Panaras
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Voyager Tales: Personal Views of the Grand Tour
David W. Swift
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Hans Von Ohain
Margaret Conner
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Road to Mach 10: Lessons Learned from the X-43A Flight Research Program
Curtis Peebles
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Eleven Seconds into the Unknown
Curtis Peebles
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Blazing the Trail: The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry
Mike Gruntman
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The Rocket Company
Patrick Stiennon and David Hoerr
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Rocketdyne: Powering Humans into Space
Vince Wheelcock
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Space Exploration and Astronaut Safety
Joseph N. Pelton
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Shades of Gray
L. Parker Temple III
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Unmanned Aviation: A Brief History of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Laurence R. Newcome
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Starting Something Big: The Commercial Emergence of GE Aircraft Engines
Robert V. Garvin
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The Power to Fly: An Engineer’s Life
Martin Ducheny and Brian Rowe
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Aerospace Engineering Education During the First Century of Flight
Barnes McCormick; Eric Jumper; Conrad Newberry
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The History of North American Small Gas Turbine Aircraft Engines
Richard Leyes II; William Fleming
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Methods to Extend Mechanical Component Life: Lessons Learned with Space Vehicle and Rocket Engine Components
Dieter Huzel
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The Engines of Pratt & Whitney: A Technical History
Jack Connors
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From Rainbow to Gusto
Paul A. Suhler
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Experiments in Aerodynamics
S. Langley
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Skycrane: Igor Sikorsky’s Last Vision
John A. McKenna
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Hired Minds
Bryan Gardner
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Terminal Chaos: Why U.S. Air Travel Is Broken and How to Fix It
George L. Donohue; Russell D. Shaver II
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Space: The Fragile Frontier
Mark Williamson
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Rocketeers and Gentlemen Engineers
Tom Crouch; Buzz Aldrin
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The Superpower Odyssey: A Russian Perspective on Space Cooperation
Yuri Karash
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Centennial of Powered Flight
Gerard Faeth
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When the Airlines Went to War
Robert Serling
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Advice to Rocket Scientists
Jim Longuski
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UPDATE: Always GIS interesting photos first. it’s a Chinese test model that has been shown online for several years. Well, at least I guessed China might be involved…
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This photo has been floating around Ye Olde Interwebs for the last day or so.
It appears to show a radar cross section model of a fighter plane on a (presumably radar-absorbent) pylon. Nothing else is known, other than:
Appears to have a single engine… one round hole for an exhaust, wing-root inlets. Exhaust is optimzed to reduce IR signature as seen from below.
SR-71-kinda-like inward-canted vertical tails
SR-71-like chines on the forward fuselage
Seriously non-stealthy carriage of four air-to-air missiles below underwing pylons. Outboard missiles look like AIM-9’s, inner missiles look different, perhaps Python 3’s (note the swept trailing edge of the rear stabilizers and the larger body diameter). If true, this is odd… it might indicate that this is an Israeli project, as I don’t know as that the US would put Pythons on US aircraft. However, the Python was licensed to the Chinese, who built it as the PL-8, so maybe… a Chinese stealth fighter project? But they don’t carry Sidewinders… Python 3 would indicate probably late 70’s, early 80’s.
What looks like a sensor over the exhaust (probably not IR as it’d be looking right at the hot exhaust plume). Perhaps a small radar unit, or even just a radar detector.
Can almost maybe kinda see what might be the front part of a canopy up front.
Compound delta wings.
There are a few designs that vaguely resemble this:
Lockheed A-6-5 from the late 1950’s, one of the “Archangel” series. Clearly, this plane is *not* one of the Archangel designs, but there might be a faint family resemblance.
The Grumman Advanced Stealthy Penetrator from roughly the mid 80’s. Clearly the pole-plane is NOT the GASP… too small, inlets all wrong, etc. But it *might* be related.
McDonnell-Douglas’ 1982 ATF concept. Again, clearly not the pole-plane, but there is a faint resemblance, and the mission is at least right.
If anyone has any ideas… nows the time!
The complete rework of APR from the original release a decade ago is going a lot slower than I’d planned. A lot of people have asked for the original versions of the as-yet-unreleased issues of APR to be made available. I’ve been hesitant to do so, but… it’s just taking too long. So, I’ve taken the original Word files for the six issues of Volume 4 and the six issues of Volume 5, and made two PDF files from them. I’m making them temporarily available as two bulk sets. When the issues are re-released, these full-volume sets will be withdrawn. So, Volume 5 might remain available till the sun explodes, I dunno…
If you’re dying to get hold of the old-school APRs, here’s your chance. Remember, these are the *original* files from around 2002-2004, without any updates, edits or other changes. Errors, crappy formatting and all. A bunch of the individual old articles remain available as well.
APR Original Run Volume 4 downloadable PDF: $30
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APR Original Run Volume 5 downloadable PDF: $30
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Here are the contents:
Volume 4:
The X-15 Research Airplane Competition: The Bell Aircraft Proposal by Dennis R. Jenkins
First in a series of articles describing the competitors for the X-15
Lockheed Model L-153 Part 2 by Bill Slayton
Immediately post-war M-wing jet fighter designs
Cobras Of The Field by Scott Lowther
Modified helicopters for ag duty
Lockheed Model L-153 Part 3 by Bill Slayton
Immediately post-war swept-wing jet fighter designs
The X-15 Research Airplane Competition: The Douglas Aircraft Proposal by Dennis R. Jenkins
The Douglas competitor for the X-15
The Martin “Spacemaster” by Scott Lowther
An unconventional design competitor for the Shuttle
Radial Engine P-51 Mustang by Scott Lowther
A little-known modification to the supreme WWII fighter
The X-15 Research Airplane Competition: The Republic Aviation Proposal by Dennis R. Jenkins
The Republic competitor for the X-15
Boeing Super Clippers, then and Now by Scott Lowther
Truly grand aircraft
The X-15 Research Airplane Competition: The North American Proposal by Dennis R. Jenkins
The winning competitor for the X-15
The HFB 530 Ranger by Mike Hirschberg A German VTOL strike/recon design
Lockheed Model L-153 Part 4 by Bill Slayton
Early Post-war variable geometry fighters
Sonic Cruiser Update by Scott Lowther
New drawings of a new aircraft
LARA Craft: COIN Raiders by Scott Lowther
A long way to go for a bad pun for some tough aircraft
English MUSTARD by Scott Lowther
An early 1960’s British fully reusable Space Shuttle
The NACA’s First Jet by Scott Lowther
The last gasp for ducted fans prior to the turbojet
Addendum to Issue V4N5
Ooops.
The Hopeless Diamond by Scott Lowther
The first cut of the stealth fighter
Sea Dragon by Scott Lowther
A giant, dirt-cheap launch vehicle
North American NA-116 by Scott Lowther
A long-range bomber
Multibody Designs From Lockheed by Scott Lowther
Unconventional yet fuel efficient designs
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Volume 5:
Editor’s Gratuitous Additions: Republic XF-103
A little bit of extra info.
Republic XF-103 by Dennis R. Jenkins
About as sleek as an aircraft can get.
Boeing’s Advanced Multipurpose Large Launch Vehicle by Scott Lowther
Perhaps the most powerful space launcher ever seriously conceived.
McDonnell Douglas GRM-29A by Scott Lowther
Just about the coolest spaceplane ever… but would it have worked???
The Rockwell XFV-12A V/STOL Prototype by Dana E. Lubich
It came close…
XFV-12A Followons by Scott Lowther
The end of the program wasn’t the end of the concept
Hawker Siddeley HS 141 by Scott Lowther
VTOL jetliner concept
Bell/Boeing Armed XV-15 by Scott Lowther
A tilt rotor with a mission
Lockheed Sea Sitter by Scott Lowther
A seaplane to conquer the oceans
Early Atlas Missile Designs by Scott Lowther
Evolution of America’s first ICBM
Boeing’s Air-Launched Micro-Fighters by Scott Lowther
The fighter needed for a flying aircraft carrier
Chrysler SERV by Scott Lowther
An SSTO Space Shuttle design
Soviet Seaplane Jet Bombers by Thomas Mueller and Jens Baganz
A counterpoint to American efforts
4,000 Ton Orion by Scott Lowther
Recently declassified data on a large nuclear pulse propulsion craft
Mart Model 262 by Scott Lowther
A mysteriously delayed article on VTOL fighters…
NASA Langley High Speed Civil Transport by Scott Lowther
Mach 3 and Mach 4 transports from the late 1980’s
Convair/Canadair Tilt-Wing Close Support Aircraft by Scott Lowther
VTOL gunship
Spacejet by Scott Lowther
Spaceplanes with dropable jet engines
Handley Page All-Wing Airbus by Scott Lowther
A British flying-wing transport from the 1960’s
Convair NX-2 Nuclear Powered Bomber by Scott Lowther
A well known but – until now – poorly documented nuclear powered aircraft project
Technology Needs for High Speed Rotorcraft Part 1 Sikorsky and Bell by Scott Lowther
Tiltrotos, tiltwings, fan-in-body designs
Lockheed-Martin ICE by Scott Lowther
An experimental tailless stealth fighter design
Raumwaffe, 1946
Boeing WS-110A
X-Wings
Dash-On-Warning
I’ve put a few sets of 11X17 diagrams on eBay:
Issue number 4 of US Bomber Projects is now available (for background, see HERE). This issue includes:
McDonnell System 464L: McDonnell’s entry into the initial Dyna Soar contest, 1958
Lockheed-Martin Falcon: A recent design for an unmanned hypersonic global range bomber
Lockheed Senior Peg: Lockheed’s competitor to the Northrop B-2
Boeing Mobile Missile Carrier: A giant hydrogen fueled amphibian
Boeing Model 701-273-4: A very asymmetrical supersonic predecessor to the B-59
Lockheed Cruise Missile Carrier: A large nuclear-powered cargo plane converted to carry 90 cruise missiles
Boeing Model 462-5: A six-turboprop B-52 ancestor
Martin Model 223-4: A twin-fuselage design on the road to the B-48
USBP#04 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4.25:
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Issue number 2 of US Bomber Projects is now available (for background, see HERE). This issue includes:
USBP#02 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4:
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Issue number 1 of US Bomber Projects is now available (for background, see HERE). This issue includes:
USBP#01 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4:
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You can now purchase a printed version of Aerospace Projects Review issue V3N3 through MagCloud. Two options: just the printed version, and the printed version with a digital download (PDF).
See:
At last: issue V3N3 of APR is now available. The first article covers the proposed use of bombers, specifically the B-52 and B-70, as launch platforms for the Dyna Soar manned military spaceplane.
The second article is on the Martin Astrorocket, a series of early-sixties design studies of reusable low-cost manned launch systems for the USAF.
The next article covers the development of the Douglas XC-132 turboprop transport/tanker plane throughout much of the 1950’s. This would have been by far the biggest turboprop plane the us would have built… had it been built. Article contains a number of good photos of the full-scale mockup.
Next is an article on the A-12 Avenger II stealthy strike plane for the US Navy. This article includes info and drawings on the Northrop competitor, as well as a number of rarely seen and all-new detailed diagrams of the A-12.
A brief article on a trio of Grumman designs from the 1989-1993 time period, VTOL lift-fan combat aircraft, including the Future Attack Air Vehicle (FAAV).
Last but not least, an article describing a trio of seemingly unrelated – yet possibly related – designs: a “landing boat” for Project Orion, a lifting body design for the Apollo program, and a fighter jet designed to be launched via booster rockets. Included is information on the logistics Landing Vehicle, General Dynamics’ equivalent of the Douglas ICARUS/Ithacus troop transport rocket.
And two “Aerospace History Nuggets,” a Ryan concept for a VTOL jetliner and a concept from Bell for linking two helicopters together to forma single heavy lifter.
Here’s the complete issue V3N3 layout:
It is available in three formats. Firstly, it can be downloaded directly from me for the low, low price of $8.50. Second, it can be purchased as a professionally printed volume through Magcloud; third, it can be procured in both formats. To get the download, simply pay for it here through paypal.
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To get the printed version (or print + PDF version), visit my MagCloud page:
http://scottlowther.magcloud.com/
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Also available: the V3N3 Addendum. This contains 30 pages formatted for 11X17. Includes larger and improved versions of all the CAD diagrams produced for V3N3, including:
The V3N3 Addendum can be downloaded for only $3.00!
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