Here are selections from each US Bomber Project issue released so far, plus one from the next issue (#8). Remember, full issues are only four bucks a pop…
Feb 112014
Jan 192014
Now available:
Issue number 06 of US Bomber Projects is now available (for background, see HERE). This issue includes:
- Boeing Model 464-18: a reduced-size version of the 464-17 turboprop strategic bomber
- Convair WS-125A: A supersonic seaplane powered by nuclear reactors
- Martin MX-2092: a subsonic jet bomber that towed a large missile
- GD AMPSS: A 1963 variable geometry design leading towards the B-1
- Republic System 464L: a lifting body spaceplane with a nuclear bomb on its back
- Martin Model 223-6: a 1944 step on the road to the XB-48
- Boeing Model 701-273-6: A supersonic bomber composed of two linked aircraft
- Martin Water-Based Attack Aircraft: a single-seat strike plane capable of water takeoffs & landings
USBP#06 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4.25:
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US Bomber Projects #07 is also now available. This issue includes:
- Boeing Model 464-25: a modification of the 464-17 turboprop bomber with slightly swept wings, among other changes
- Boeing Model 828-2: a giant and incredibly slow long-endurance plane with a formidable payload
- Fairchild N-12: an early nuclear powered turboprop design
- Rockwell D645-3: a supersonic treetop-level bomber capable of completely stowing its wing
- Boeing model 701-273-7: last in the study, a design with a large wing, a small fuselage and canards
- Bell MX-Carrying Hovercraft: a large armored hovercraft complete with an MX missile and self-defense interceptor missiles
- Convair System 464L: Dyna Soar I and Dyna Soar III spaceplanes
- Martin Model 223-7: A 1944 ancestor to the XB-48 with vertically stacked engines
USBP#07 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4.25:
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Dec 062013
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
$39.95
NOW $25!
Meeting the Challenge: The Hexagon KH-9 Reconnaissance Satellite
Phil Pressel
$39.95
NOW $25!
Space Shuttle Legacy: How We Did It and What We Learned
Roger D. Launius; John Krige; James I. Craig
$49.95
NOW $25!
Augustine’s Laws
Norman R. Augustine
$39.95
NOW $25!
100 years of Flight
Frank H. Winter and F. Robert van der Linden
$69.95
NOW $25!
Have Blue and the F-117A: Evolution of the “Stealth Fighter”
David C. Aronstein and Albert C. Piccirillo
$59.95
NOW $25!
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
$49.95
NOW $25!
Aerodynamic Principles of Flight Vehicles
Argyris Panaras
$49.95
NOW $25!
Voyager Tales: Personal Views of the Grand Tour
David W. Swift
$74.95
NOW $25!
Hans Von Ohain
Margaret Conner
$54.95
NOW $25!
Road to Mach 10: Lessons Learned from the X-43A Flight Research Program
Curtis Peebles
$39.95
NOW $25!
Eleven Seconds into the Unknown
Curtis Peebles
$39.95
NOW $25!
Blazing the Trail: The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry
Mike Gruntman
$39.95
NOW $25!
The Rocket Company
Patrick Stiennon and David Hoerr
$34.95
NOW $25!
Rocketdyne: Powering Humans into Space
Vince Wheelcock
$39.95
NOW $25!
Space Exploration and Astronaut Safety
Joseph N. Pelton
$49.95
NOW $25!
Shades of Gray
L. Parker Temple III
$49.95
NOW $25!
Unmanned Aviation: A Brief History of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Laurence R. Newcome
$44.95
NOW $25!
Starting Something Big: The Commercial Emergence of GE Aircraft Engines
Robert V. Garvin
$39.95
NOW $25!
The Power to Fly: An Engineer’s Life
Martin Ducheny and Brian Rowe
$39.95
NOW $25!
Aerospace Engineering Education During the First Century of Flight
Barnes McCormick; Eric Jumper; Conrad Newberry
$89.95
NOW $25!
The History of North American Small Gas Turbine Aircraft Engines
Richard Leyes II; William Fleming
$49.95
NOW $25!
Methods to Extend Mechanical Component Life: Lessons Learned with Space Vehicle and Rocket Engine Components
Dieter Huzel
$44.95
NOW $25!
The Engines of Pratt & Whitney: A Technical History
Jack Connors
$49.95
NOW $25!
From Rainbow to Gusto
Paul A. Suhler
$39.95
NOW $25!
Experiments in Aerodynamics
S. Langley
$29.95
NOW $10!
Skycrane: Igor Sikorsky’s Last Vision
John A. McKenna
$39.95
NOW $10!
Hired Minds
Bryan Gardner
$19.95
NOW $10!
Terminal Chaos: Why U.S. Air Travel Is Broken and How to Fix It
George L. Donohue; Russell D. Shaver II
$29.95
NOW $10!
Space: The Fragile Frontier
Mark Williamson
$39.95
NOW $10!
Rocketeers and Gentlemen Engineers
Tom Crouch; Buzz Aldrin
$39.95
NOW $10!
The Superpower Odyssey: A Russian Perspective on Space Cooperation
Yuri Karash
$49.95
NOW $10!
Centennial of Powered Flight
Gerard Faeth
$24.95
NOW $10!
When the Airlines Went to War
Robert Serling
$24.95
NOW $10!
Advice to Rocket Scientists
Jim Longuski
$19.95
NOW $10!
Dec 052013
Just a reminder…
After hiatus, I am again offering cyanotype blueprints of various aerospace subjects on paper. These include the V-2, the Saturn Ib and V, the NERVA nuclear rocket, the Super Hustler, and many more.What says “Merry Christmas” better than a gift of a hand-made, awesome-looking large format cyanotype blueprint of a launch vehicle or nuclear bombardment system?
See the complete list here:
http://www.aerospaceprojectsreview.com/catalog/cyan.htm
And while I’m not at liberty to go into the specifics, I recently provided a number of these to a certain ongoing major TV series to be used as set dressing/props. The episodes will air sometime early next spring, I believe. They should look marvelous…
Dec 022013
A photo of dubious quality showing Phil Bono of Douglas standing next to a surprisingly large display model of the ICARUS/Ithacus intercontinental transport rocket. The photo was taken at the “Travel ’67 Show” at the Cow Palace convention center in San Fransisco. According to poster art found on eBay, this was held Feb 24 – Mar 5 of 1967. I haven’t been able to find out more about it, though it would seem that it must have been a convention about the future of transport. One can speculate that the facility was filled with representations of supersonic transports, monorails, high-speed trains, sleek cars with ridiculous fins…
More on the ICARUS/Ithacus, along with the related ROMBUS space launch booster, can be found in Aerospace Projects Review issue V2N6.
Nov 212013
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
Sep 182013
Experimental Spaceplane Shooting for “Aircraft-Like” Operations in Orbit
To help address these challenges, DARPA has established the Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) program. The program aims to develop a fully reusable unmanned vehicle that would provide aircraft-like access to space. The vehicle is envisioned to operate from a “clean pad” with a small ground crew and no need for expensive specialized infrastructure. This setup would enable routine daily operations and flights from a wide range of locations. XS-1 seeks to deploy small satellites faster and more affordably, while demonstrating technology for next-generation space and hypersonic flight for both government and commercial users.
“We want to build off of proven technologies to create a reliable, cost-effective space delivery system with one-day turnaround,” said Jess Sponable, DARPA program manager heading XS-1. “How it’s configured, how it gets up and how it gets back are pretty much all on the table—we’re looking for the most creative yet practical solutions possible.”
DARPA seeks ideas and technical proposals for how to best develop and implement the XS-1 program. The agency has scheduled an XS-1 Proposers’ Day for Monday, October 7, 2013. The agency also plans to hold 1-on-1 discussions with potential proposers on the following day, October 8, 2013. Advance registration is required; more information is available at http://www.sa-meetings.com/XS1ProposersDay. Registration closes on Tuesday, October 1,2013, at 12:00 PM EDT. For more information, please email DARPA-SN-14-01@darpa.mil.
The DARPA Special Notice describing the specific capabilities the program seeks is available at http://go.usa.gov/DNkF. A Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for XS-1 is forthcoming and will be posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website.
Note that the DARPA artwork depicts the XS-1 here in a global strike configuration, equipped with an upper stage and a warhead, either a conical MIRV_style, or perhaps a lifting HTV-type. In either event, the basic layout sure seems familiar… hmmm…
Sep 152013
DARPA To Start Reusable Launch Vehicle Program
Short form: a spaceplane to fly 10 times in 10 days (which would necessitate a system that is reliable, rugged and needs relatively little and cheap maintenance) that can fly up to Mach 10 (ouch… harsh) and carry a payload that could eventually translate into an upper stage capable of putting 1,800 kilograms into orbit for no more than $5M per launch.
DARPA released a few bits of concept art showing winged vehicles, but the XS-1 need not be winged… a DC-X clone might do the job. Illustrations taken from the presentation HERE.
The Mach 10 requirement is odd and confusing. The math on launch vehicle design rarely requires that a multistage launcher stage off the first stage much faster than Mach 5.
An Industry Day is coming in early October.
Sep 112013
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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Sep 112013
Issue number 3 of US Bomber Projects is now available (for background, see HERE). This issue includes:
- Rockwell D 645-4A: A compact stealthy flying wing
- Lockheed System 464L: Lockheed’s entry into the initial Dyna Soar program, 1958
- Convair Mach 4 “Rollover:” A Mach 4 seaplane with a unique approach
- Boeing Model 701-273-3: An asymmetrical supersonic precursor to the B-59
- Boeing HSCT Model 1080-854: A late 1980’s missile carrier derivative of a commercial supersonic transport
- Martin Model 223-3: A canard antecedent to the B-48
- Boeing Model 462: A large six-turboprop ancestor of the B-52
USBP#03 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4.25:
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