After a delay of several years, I’m back to working on my own little publications. Since the delay was caused by working on actual published *books,* I like to think that I’ve gotten a bit better. Thus the next issue of US VTOL projects has about twice the text of the prior issue, and the…
Circa 1980 Lockheed jumped on board the “X-Wing” bandwagon. For those unfortunate enough not to have been graced to grow up in the 80’s, the X-Wing was a concept for a four-bladed helicopter where the rotors were rigid and could be stopped in flight, turning into two forward swept and two aft-swept wings (see Aerospace…
My preference with the cyanotype diagrams is to not tinker with the actual image other than the needs of cleaning them up. However, in a few cases the diagrams are such that they make inconvenient fits, or could be made into convenient sizes… or need additional stuff added to them to flesh them out. One…
I will be posting some more cyanotype blueprints to ebay in the coming days. These were made from old transparencies I’d had made prior to the move from Utah. But I also hope to have some “brand new” cyanotypes in the near-ish future. The transparent film remains astonishingly elusive; two separate companies are trying to…
An interesting CGI video depicting three sizes of folding rotor tiltrotor High Speed VTOL from Bell. The concept is not new; actually building and flying one, though, would be. The designs shown are also not new; Bell has been floating them for a few years at least since late 2021. https://view.ceros.com/bell-helicopter/hsvtol/p/1 Bell's High-Speed Vertical Takeoff…
A program progress film from 1959 describing the US Army’s “Saturn” rocket. This would soon be transferred to NASA, eventually becoming the Saturn I (then Ib). The basic layout of the first stage would remain, but the upper stages would change utterly; as shown here, they are derivatives of the Titan ICBM. Note that the…
I have a *pile* of books to sell; the first of them are now on ebay. More will be added as I get around to it… An Illustrated Guide to Space Warfare by David Hobbs, 1986 TC-188 Aviator’s Recognition Manual March 1977 FM-1-88 Aviator’s Recognition Manual July 1980 The Evolution of the Cruise Missile by…
It’s time to post my first batch of cyanotypes to ebay. But I ran into a conundrum… how should I categorize them? I started entering the first one, the Sat Ib, as “collectible-historical memorabilia-astronauts & space travel-etc” but then I realized that these were made by me over the last few weeks. The *sources* for…
A concept illustration of a an attack bomber by Bell Aircraft. No further info than the picture; this would seem to date from the very late 1930’s or early 40’s. As illustrated it’s lopsided… radial engine (Wright R-2600) on the starboard wing, inline (Allison V-1710-F-2) in the port wing. This would indicate engine possibilities, not…
