Patreon: November rewards

hi-rez, hypersonic, jetliner, launch vehicles, Patreon, rockets, transports, VTOL No Responses »

Nov 162014

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

PDF document: “The Air Turborocket Powerplant,” an Aerojet brochure from October 1955 describing an advanced airbreathing propulsion system for missiles, bombers, intercepts, etc.

PDF document: “VTOL Transport Aircraft Comparative Study,” a report from Vertol, 1956. Describes, with data, sketches and three-view diagrams, a range of different types of VTOL transports, including tilt-wings, lift jets, aerodyne, etc.

DIAGRAMS: two parter this month. First: layout, inboard and sectional views of the Lockheed L-2000 SST. Second: Douglas diagrams… “Plans for Scale Model Construction of the Long-Tank Thor Agena.” Good diagrams of the launch vehicle.

CAD diagram: NASA-Langley hypersonic transport.

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 the Comanche

Recon, VTOL No Responses »

Nov 132014

An ad from 1989 showing the Boeing-Sikosky competitor for the LHX program. This was the winning design and was built as the RAH-66 Comanche, though not without some notable design tinkering.

The CAT Scan Sale is now OVER

US Bomber Projects, US Transport Projects No Responses »

Nov 122014

Tomorrow (Thursday) morning I go in to get a CAT scan of my lungs. This is so the pulmonary specialist can get a better look at something he saw on an X-ray a week ago; it apparently looked like a more or less harmless granuloma (scar tissue from a bacterial or fungal infection), but the fact that it deserves more attention is a little disturbing. From the limited information available so far (including the fact it took an entire week to get the CAT scan… you’d think if the doc thought it was important they’d’ve put a move on), it seems most likely that this will show nothing of any real health importance. Nevertheless, this ain’t free; insurance leaves a pretty substantial bill. And therefore… I’m having a sale on all my downloadables. Aerospace Projects Reviews, US Bomber Projects, drawings, documents. I’m offering 10% off orders of more than $25, 20% off orders more than $50 and 25% off orders over $100. The easiest way to do this, since PayPal doesn’t (so far as I know) seem to offer any such “sale” option, is you order stuff, and I refund the difference. I’ll leave this up and running for a day or three.

SALE HAS ENDED

http://aerospaceprojectsreview.com/

The most recent items I’ve published, USBP11 and USTP01, haven’t been added to the main catalog pages yet, but they’re here:

http://www.aerospaceprojectsreview.com/blog/?p=1907

Of course, if the CAT scan finds something more interesting and energetic than a granuloma, I might have to have a somewhat more aggressive sale.

Aerion SST brochure

hi-rez, jetliner, Patreon, transports No Responses »

Nov 112014

I’ve scanned (at 300 dpi, full color) a brochure from the Aerion Corporation describing their supersonic business jet. It’s several years old… somewhere around 2005-07, I’d guess. I’ve posted the scan in PDF format over at yon Patreon, available to any and all patrons of Aerospace Projects Review.

Forthcoming

Dyna Soar, hypersonic, jetliner, launch vehicles, nukes, rockets, spacecraft, spaceplane, transports, US Transport Projects 1 Response »

Nov 062014

Two current projects…

X-37B and the Dyna Soar

bomber, Dyna Soar, hypersonic, nukes, Recon, research, rockets, spacecraft, spaceplane No Responses »

Oct 312014

I’ve written a short and illustrated piece on how the Dyna Soar can illustrate the possible capabilities of the X-37B over at War Is Boring:

Wondering What the U.S. Air Force’s Secretive Spaceplane Can Do? History Offers Clues

I am contemplating expanding this considerably for a separate release. It’d be a little different from the usual sort of thing I do, since the X-37B is a real flying vehicle, not just an unbuilt project.

PDF Review: A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes

launch vehicles, Patreon, PDF Review, research, rockets, spacecraft No Responses »

Oct 312014

This is the fourth of four “PDF Reviews” I plan to have in October, to make up for the lack of any in September. The idea is to present interesting online resources for those interested in the sort of aerospace oddities that you can find in the pages of Aerospace Projects Review. This little project is supported through my Patreon campaign; at current levels, I’ll post two such reviews per month. If you’d like to see more, or just want to contribute to help me along, please consider becoming a patron.

A work of no small importance in the history of spaceflight is “A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes” by Robert Goddard. Published in 1919 while his early rocketry work was being funded by the Smithsonian, “Method” is one of the major works of rocket engineering of the 20th century. At this time of writing, Goddard had experimented only with solid rockets; liquid rockets still being in the future. But in “Method” Goddard began to show what rockets could be capable of. In his last section he discussed what would be needed to launch a rocket not just to high altitude, but to escape velocity and beyond, with some discussion of how much flash powder would be needed to be detected impacting (and flashing) on the darkened surface of the moon.

It was that last bit that caused all the trouble.

Goddard was not by nature a publicity hound. And the press of the time, once they got hold of the report, savaged him for what they – incorrectly – saw as a sensational proposal to actually build a moon rocket, coupled with a flawed understanding of physics on the part of some reporters and editorial writers. The resulting firestorm in the press served to popularize Goddards work and inspire rocketeers around the world… but it also inspired Goddard to be even more of a recluse. Had this not been published, or had it escaped the notice of the press, it’s interesting to speculate how history might have been different. Many German rocket scientists might not have been as inspired, while Goddard might have been less reclusive and thus more open to accepting assistance. The result *might* have been that WWII would have ended not with German rocketeers being sought all over the world, but American rockeeters in the same position… but victorious. The result of *that* would have been to potentially move the march to space forward by five to ten years, while denying to the Soviets much of the expertise of the Germans.

The Internet Archive has a scan of a Smithsonian copy of the report. Their copy has a number of hand-written corrections and notations, and appears to be a proof copy rather than one of the final published versions.

Link to the abstract page:

https://archive.org/details/methodreachinge00Godd

And directly to the PDF:

https://archive.org/download/methodreachinge00Godd/methodreachinge00Godd.pdf

Flying Panzer

VTOL No Responses »

Oct 312014

All I have on this: a 1970 design by the German aircraft firm HFB (Hamburger Flugzeugbau) for a “flying panzer.” Clearly it’s an armored car with jet propulsion and vertical lift capability; I would assume that this is only capable of extremely limited flight for such things as hopping rivers, trenches, minefields, battlefield debris and other such tasks. Basically, the vehicular equivalent of the Bell “flying belts” or “jetpacks” which were popularized in the 1960;s, but which were too cumbersome, expensive and far too short-duration to be of any real practical value.

Still: “Flying Panzer.”

The vehicle is depicted in the foreground hopping over anti-tank obstacles and in the background crossing a river. Note that it appears to have a rudimentary skirt system; if those wheels could be drawn up above the skirt, this would make it capable of operating as a hovercraft. This would allow it to “fly” over the surface of a river much more economically than on pure jet lift. I have no idea if this was a serious design effort or just artistic doodling.

US Bomber Projects 1-5 now at Amazon

bomber, future projects, hypersonic, jetliner, launch vehicles, nukes, rockets, spacecraft, spaceplane, stealth, US Bomber Projects No Responses »

Oct 292014

The first five issues of US Bomber Projects are now available as ebooks at Amazon. The links below not only take you to the Amazon listings, if you then buy something (*anything*, so fee free to splurge on laptops and cars and jewelry and such), I get a small commission.

I would appreciate feedback… everything from constructive criticism to reviews posted over at Amazon.

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If you dowloaded an early version of USBO01, it seems that you *can* download the latest version without re-buying it.

PDF Bonus: Docking an XF-85 Goblin

bomber, fighter, Patreon, PDF Review, research No Responses »

Oct 232014

This is the third of four “PDF Reviews” I plan to have in October, to make up for the lack of any in September. The idea is to present interesting online resources for those interested in the sort of aerospace oddities that you can find in the pages of Aerospace Projects Review. This little project is supported through my Patreon campaign; at current levels, I’ll post two such reviews per month. If you’d like to see more, or just want to contribute to help me along, please consider becoming a patron.

One of the odder American aircraft in the immediate post-war period was the McDonnell XP-85 “Goblin.” This was essentially the smallest jet fighter possible to build with the technology of the time… small so that it could be carried within the bomb bay of the Convair B-36. The B-36 could reach far, far beyond the range of any conceivable escort fighter, leaving it at the mercy of defending Soviet fighters; if it could carry a fighter jet with it, it might stand a chance. of course the idea was fairly ridiculous; the Goblin was the biggest plane that could be carried internally, yet would almost certainly stand little chance against a conventional fighter.

Dropping the fighter from the bomb bay would be fairly easy and straightforward. But getting it back was understood to be a challenge. The Goblin would rendezvous with a “trapeze” projected well below the bomb bay, outside of the turbulent airflow around the bombers fuselage. Once docked to the trapeze, it would be mechanically stabilized, the wings would fold up and the trapeze would retract, safely drawing the fighter into the bomb bay. That, at least, was the plan; actual testing with a B-29 showed that the docking rendezvous was far more difficult than envisioned.

This difficulty was not wholly unforeseen. In 1947, the Langley Aeronautical Lab ran a series of wind tunnel tests of a 1/10 scale model of the Goblin and the forward fuselage of a B-36. Tests were conducted with both “power off” and “power on” models; the power off models were well behaved when docked to the trapeze, but the power on models quickly underwent violent flailing. The tests were filmed, with small still images included in the test report; the power-on model response is dramatic, to say the least.

Stability and Control Characteristics of a 1/10-Scale Model of the McDonnell XP-85 Airplane While Attached to the Trapeze

Here’s the link to the NASA-NTRS abstract of the report.

And here’s the DIRECT LINK TO THE PDF.

The wooden model of the FP-85 used. Note the hinged wings and the rudimentary landing gear, used to protect the model if it falls free.

Diagram of the XP-85 model.

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