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Patreon: October 2014 rewards released

fighter, hi-rez, hypersonic, launch vehicles, Patreon, research, rockets, spacecraft, transports No Responses »

Oct 102014

The October rewards for the APR patrons have been released. They include:

PDF document: “A Recoverable Air Breathing Booster,” A Chrysler study from 1964 for a strap-on booster system for the Saturn Ib incorporating additional H-1 rocket engines and jet engines for recovery.

PDF Document: “XF-103 Descriptive Data,”a Lockheed collection of information on the then-current XF-103. This is from a Lockheed collection of information on competitors designs.

Large format diagram scan: the Boeing Advanced Theater Transport. A later version of the tilt-wing “Super Frog.”

And for the higher-end patrons, a CAD diagram of an early NACA-Langley design for what would become the X-15.

If you would like to access these items and support the cause of acquiring and sharing these pieces of aerospace history, please visit my Patreon page and consider contributing.

XCOR Lynx progress

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Oct 072014

While the going seems to be slow, it’s nice to see actual physical progress on a new spacecraft (suborbital, sure, but still…). Over HERE XCOR has released a few high-rez photos of their Lynx spaceplane being assembled. The cockpit is now attached to the fuselage. The aft of the pressurized cockpit is an odd looking structure, a very complex carbon fiber single-piece bulkhead. Usually such things are simple metal pressure vessels made from cylinders and spheroids, but this one features a more-or-less flat aft bulkhead (presumably for space-saving purposes) with a whole lot of ribs for strength. Must’ve been fun to mold…

I keep hearing ominous things about the hybrid rocket propulsion system on the Virgin Galactic SpaceShip Two. It’s getting to where I won’t be surprised if Lynx beats ’em into space with a paying customer. And if that does happen, I wonder at the possibility of VG switching out the hybrid for an XCOR liquid system…

Private manned mission to the Moon: 2018

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Oct 062014

I’ll believe it when I see it…

From 2018, Space Adventures flights will take members of the public on the first commercial journeys to the moon

Space Adventures is the company that has sent a handful of paying customers up to the ISS over the years. Their goal is to send two customers to the ISS for ten days, and then send them on to the moon for an Apollo 8-style flyby (no landing). SA has been pushing this concept for a number of years. Not really sure why they got this bit of press recently but… shrug. If they can pull it off, more power to ’em.

There’s no indication of price for this on the Space Adventures website. However, when SA first started sending people to the ISS, the ticket prices was, IIRC, $20 million. Today it’s $50 million. And when SA first announced their lunar mission idea some years ago, I recall the price being $100 million for each of the two passengers. So I would assume there’s been roughly similar price inflation. Gotta wonder what SpaceX could do it for…

Patreon: September 2014 rewards

fighter, hi-rez, hypersonic, launch vehicles, Patreon, research, rockets, spacecraft, spaceplane, stealth No Responses »

Sep 202014

After a bit of a delay, the September rewards have been released. These include a large-format inboard profile of the North American Aviation F-108 Rapier Mach 3+ interceptor:

And “Notes on Space Technology,” a compilation of notes by the Flight Research Division of the NACA Langley Research Center based on a space technology course given in the early part of 1958. A hefty 670+pages in length, this covered just about every aspect of space travel as understood in 1958. While I haven’t read the whole thing, it appears to be not only of historical interest, but also useful to get a pretty good general grasp of space travel science, principles and technologies.

Also included for the higher level patrons are three CAD diagrams:

Boeing Bird of Prey stealth, manufacturing and materials testing prototype aircraft from the 1990’s

Zenith Star experimental space based laser anti-missile system, 1988

Hypersonic Test Vehicle 2, a maneuverable hypersonic glider for missile-launched warheads

The September rewards are about a week and a half late in being released. Since I hope to get the October rewards out a little earlier than normal, that means that the September releases will probably be available for a short time.

If you would like to access these items and support the cause of acquiring and sharing these pieces of aerospace history, please visit my Patreon page and consider contributing.

Almost, but not quite, the final Dyna Soar/Titan III

Dyna Soar, launch vehicles, research, rockets, spacecraft, spaceplane No Responses »

Sep 152014

Artwork showing the major Dyna Soar/Titan III contractors. The Titan IIIc show here includes the large pitch stabilization fins (and small yaw fins) attached to the solid rocket boosters. Not depicted are the thrust vector control fluid tanks. At the time, the fins were thought needed to counteract the pitch moment that would be produced by the wings of the spaceplane way up front. In the end, it was concluded that thrust vector control would be more than adequate for the task; and while the Titan IIIC never launched a Dyan Soar, it retained the TVC capabilities that were produced to deal with the Dyna Soar.

Much, much more on the Dyna Soar, including the final few Titan III variants, can be found in Aerospace Projects Review issue V3N4.

SNAP 8 Reactor photo

nukes, research, spacecraft No Responses »

Sep 112014

Spotted on ebay a while back. The writeups suggested that this was the actual SNAP 8 #2 reactor, but it sure looks like a mockup to me. The SNAP-8 reactor could generate a healthy 1 megawatt of thermal energy using 18 pounds of nuclear fuel.

Instant Aerospace Archive

launch vehicles, rockets, space shuttle, spacecraft, spaceplane No Responses »

Sep 092014

Well, here’s a new one. I’ve been put in touch with a guy who has an entire aerospace archive he’s selling off. He wants $4000 for the complete set of stuff, a catalog of which is included here as a PDF (the items actually available in the collection are bounded in red). There’s some undeniably interesting stuff in there that I really want, but $4K is well beyond what I can pony up. But I think this stuff might be of interest to a whole lot of other folks. So what I’m thinking… crowdsource this purchase.

There are two groups of documents that I think would be of most interest, so I will provide high-rez scans of the docs for $150 for group A, $100 for group B, or $225 for both).

Group A: shown on page 3, “Space Shuttle Systems Handbook” and “Hubble Space Telescope Systems Description Handbook.” These are fairly enormous collections of diagrams; the original sales price of these two items back in 1993 was $558. I’ve seen a much more recent version of the Shuttle Handbook,” and it was fairly spectacular.

Group B: shown on page 6, a number of “Shuttle Systems Data Reports” which would seem to illustrate just about everything on the Shuttle program. These I have *not* seen personally, so I’m kinda guessing here. The total sales price in 1993 was $258.

As for all the other stuff: I think the best approach would be to auction them off – after scanning, of course – to those who have bought in for either Group A or B. Right now I’m not asking for cash. There are some details I need to confirm first (such as getting photos of the collection… not that I don’t trust the guy, but I don’t trust anybody). But I *do* want to gauge interest, to see if I will actually be able to afford the full $4K. So if you’d like to get in on this, please send an email to scottlowther@ix.netcom.com letting me know if you wants Group A, Group B or both. If I go ahead with this, I’ll need the funds up front.

WSN catalog

NASA Space Colonization… 1970’s style

space station, spacecraft No Responses »

Sep 082014

A 1970’s (and boy does it show) film by NASA that *briefly* depicts O’Neill cylinder colonies, but mostly deals with the Stanford Torus:

[youtube EgrdAUFFMrA]

US Bomber Projects #09 and 10 Now Available

bomber, Dyna Soar, hypersonic, launch vehicles, nukes, rockets, spacecraft, spaceplane, US Bomber Projects, VTOL No Responses »

Sep 042014

Issues 09 and 10 of US Bomber Projects is now available (see HERE for the entire series). Issue #09 includes:

Boeing Model 464-33-0: A turboprop B-52 predecessor
Consolidated Army Bombardment Flying Wing: A ground attacker with an extreme mode of attack
GE Supersonic System 6X: A Mach 3 nuclear-powered bomber
Convair B/J-58: A supercuising version of the Hustler
Boeing model 484-2-2: AB-58 competitor
Northrop 464L: A blended wing/body spaceplane
Martin Model 223-9: a 1944 step on the road to the XB-48
Boeing Model 800-15A: A Mach 3.5 hydrogen fueled design of incredible range

USBP#09 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4.25:

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Issue #10 includes:

Boeing Model 464-34-3: A turboprop B-52 predecessor
Martin Model 192-5: A medium-sized flying wing
Republic Mach 7: a relatively small high-speed design
Convair WS-125A: A large nuclear powered supersonic design
Boeing model 484-415: A jet-powered supersonic flying boat
Boeing 464L: Boeings first Dyna Soar
Martin Model 223-10: a 1944 step on the road to the XB-48
Lockheed CL-1301-1: A very small VTOL ground attacker

USBP#10 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4.25:

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US Launch vehicles: Nova art

launch vehicles, rockets, spacecraft No Responses »

Sep 012014

A piece of NASA art (a photo from eBay, with an attempt at correcting parallax error), likely from 1962-63, depicting current and forthcoming space launch vehicles. Of note, rather obviously, is the “Nova” launcher at far right. But also noteworthy are the “Thor Agena B” and the “Atlas Agena B,” both of which are depicted with the Agena upper stage & payloads blacked out. This could be due to security concerns over the Agena configuration… or perhaps the Agena was not yet well defined, and by blacking them out, the artist would not have to depict them (and yet they could be given an air of mystery). It would not surprise me if there is another version of this artwork with the Agenas shown clearly.

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