PDF Review: L’Aeronautique, post-Great War

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Jan 282019

The Internet Archive has a *lot* of stuff. One thing there is a scan of the French-language aeronautical magazine “L’Aeronautique” covering 1919-1921. It is available in a number of formats, including PDF, here:

https://archive.org/details/la02b9eronautiqu03pari/page/n2

Included in this is a design for a truly gigantic aircraft with a wingspan of 110 meters, produced by Professor Junkers, presumably Hugo Junkers of Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke AG.Hugo was an innovator in the field of all-metal aircraft construction, including the first practical all-metal aircraft the Junkers J 1 from 1915. The giant aircraft would have a wing area of 1,400 square meters and a gross weight of 60 tonnes; 12 engines would produce 4,000 horsepower and drive six propellers. Two tractor props would have a diameter of 6 meters, while four pusher props would have a diameter of 3.7 meters. No performance data seems to be given, but it can be assumed that it was meant to be a long range passenger or cargo transport.

Support the APR Patreon to help bring more of this sort of thing to light! Alternatively, you can support through the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.

Bonus: A helicopter design from one Douglas Shaw. This would have failed entertainingly.

Sperry Lifting Body Ad

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Jan 272019

A magazine ad from 1966 depicting a lifting body in space. The design seems reasonable (sort of a cross between the M2 and the HL-10) but could very well be a product not of engineers but of the art department. The angle is not the most informative, but it appears that this design has something of a squared-off nose. Note that the cockpit canopy is exposed, something that very few small lifting body re-entry vehicle designs had… for the simple reason that the windows would likely melt during re-entry, and that would defeat the purpose in making the thing recoverable (along with likely damaging pilot morale). As vehicles get bigger, such as the space shuttle, the windows get further away from the nose and can be made survivable. But little designs like this? Not very likely with 1960’s tech. Otherwise, though, it is an attractive illustration.

Three Radial Module Space Station

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Jan 212019

Around 1963-64 a fair amount of effort went into the concept of a single-launch space station with artificial gravity. These stations would be launched atop a Saturn V and would deploy either toroidal or radial structures for the crew to inhabit. The design below (probably Lockheed) is reasonably representative of the radial-arm configuration. During launch the three arms would fold down “behind” the station core, and would deploy out 90 degrees once in orbit.

GE Nuclear Powered Aircraft

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Jan 192019

A magazine ad from 1958, extolling the nuclear aircraft project and seeking employees. The aircraft shown should probably be considered hypothetical, rather than the result of a concerted engineering design. Still… I am looking for more information on it. And what’s frustrating is that some 30+ years ago I *did* see more on it. I recall poking around in the basement of a library in Iowa, digging through their musty collection of magazines, when I saw something else on this, showing a top view of this design. But at the time, the ten cents required to make a photocopy was a cause for concern, especially as I had many other copies to make. I didn’t copy it, and I’ve been beating myself up about it ever since. Is it familiar to anyone?

X-22 Derivative Artwork

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Jan 142019

An advertisement from 1963 depicting a Bell concept for an operational derivative of the X-22 VTOL. This was designed as a naval anti-submarine aircraft; it looks like it might be a little bit bigger than the surprisingly small X-22. The configuration is much the same as the X-22, but the fuselage is much rounder, especially around the cockpit.

Bell VTOL”Taxi”

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Jan 082019

Bell has unveiled their idea of what an electric intra-city VTOL “taxi” would be, in the form of the “Nexus” AirTaxi. one wonders if it’s more human than human?

Bell reveals the ‘Nexus’ VTOL

On one hand, it bears more than a passing resemblance to the Bell X-22. On the other hand, there are some design choices there that make me scratch my head. The thrust from forward ducts would be bisected by the main wings at forward thrust and then blast right into the rear fans. During transition, the forward thrust would be disrupted by the main wings, which would seem to lead to some fantastic turbulence.

Space Station concept art

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Jan 042019

Two pieces of NASA-marked (but likely not NASA-produced) concept art from the 1960’s depicted artificial-G space stations.

The first station (previously presented here in black and white not so long ago) depicts a substantial three-armed station witha multi-segment spine and three habitats. At one end of the spine is a nuclear reactor and its radiator; at the other end is a presumably rotationally0decoupled docking section. There is also an external “track” with two cars seemingly to provide transport from one habitat to another; it doesn’t really seem like this would provide a substantial improvement in transport over simply taking an elevator from one hab up to the spine and then down another elevator to the destination hab.

This space station, which appears from the art style to be a Grumman design, is a single-launch space station to be launched atop a Saturn V. The two arms would fold back for storage on the launch vehicle and would deploy once in orbit. An Apollo CSM is shown approaching for docking along the centerline; it’s not clear if the docking cone was rotationally decoupled. if it was not, the two Apollo-like capsules hanging off the sides of the cone are a bit of a head scratcher.

Both renderings have been uploaded in their full resolution to the 2019-01 APR Extras dropbox folder. This folder is available to APR Patreon Patrons and APR Monthly Historical Documents Program subscribers at the $4 per month level and above.

Raider, the early days

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Dec 292018

Sikorsky is currently flying the S-97 “Raider” helicopter featuring the ABC (Advancing Blade Concept) rotor. ABC rotors look like conventional coaxial rotors, but differ in being structurally stiff and inflexible. The idea is that ABC rotors allow faster flight: in a conventional single-rotor helicopter, the faster airflow means that on one side of the rotor disk, the “advancing blade” slams into the air at a very high speed, potentially generating a lot of lift. But on the other side of the disk, the “trailing rotor,” which is moving aft at a speed not far off from the airflow, generates very little lift. This of course imbalances the aircraft and limits forward speed. The ABC system, by having coaxial rotors, make sure that there is always balanced lift. The S-97 is not the first helicopter that Sikorsky has built with ABC rotors; the S-69 flew in the 1970s, reaching a top speed of 260 knots. But it suffered from serious vibration issues and did not lead to a production aircraft. The S-97 seems to have fixed most of the issues, and it is hoped that a production contract may eventually come.

The ABC concept dates back *at* *least* 52 years. Below is an illustration from 1966. Interestingly this design more closely resembles – at least superficially – the S-97 than the S-67. The S-69 used two turbofan engines to provide forward thrust, while the S-97 used, like this illustration, a pusher propeller.

Northrop artificial-g space station art

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Dec 262018

A piece of concept art circa 1960 depicting a Northrop concept for a space station. Not much to say about it as there are no good scale references, nor do I think I have anything else depicting the station. It is, however, not dissimilar from a lot of other space station concepts of the time… replace the four “habitat” cylinders with a single torus, and this would be pretty much every space station from the Colliers series until the Manned Orbital Space Station concept from the early 60’s.

APR Historical Documents: December 2018

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Dec 242018

2018-12 Rewards are now available for downloading for APR Historical Documents subscribers. This month the rewards include:

1: A large document: “Sea Launch and Recovery of Very Large Rocket Vehicles,” a 1962 Aerojet report on the sea Dragon concept

2: “Ryan Aeronautical Company Plane Portraits,” information, photos and three-views of a sizable range of Ryan aircraft, manned and unmanned

3: “Nova,” a blueprint of the NASA “Saturn C-8” launch vehicle with 8 F-1 engines

4: CAD diagrams: Star Raker scrap views

If you are interested in signing up, you can do so either at Patreon or directly through PayPal. Signing up now makes you eligible for rewards starting with the *next* months rewards. The directly-through-PayPal system is new; it would probably be best to sign up after the first of the month.

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