Scott Lowther, the creator of APR (Aerospace Projects Review), has released a 39 page preview PDF of his forthcoming “magnum opus” on US Bomber Projects.
Documented are 15 designs:
Submarine-launched “Project Pluto” (small nuclear ramjet vehicle)
Douglas Model 1064 flying wing (strategic bomber)
Douglas Model 1186A multi-stage aircraft (X-3-derived bomber)
The “NASA logo bomber” (the source of the “swoop”)
12-meter Orion Nuclear Pulse Vehicle (cis-lunar doomsday weapon)
Orbital Sciences X-42 (modern “reusable ICBM” first stage)
Boeing Model 448 (early stage in B-47 development)
Douglas MX-2091 (subsonic small missile carrier)
Martin Model 329 C-1 (supersonic seaplane)
Convair WS-110A Two-Stage Aircraft (subsonic tow plane, Mach 3 bomber)
Lockheed NEPA (early giant nuclear-powered design)
North American D436-21 (early AMSA/ B-1 design)
Boeing Model 813 (two stage hypersonic cruise bomber)
Lockheed CL-292-6 (nuclear-powered missile carrier/airborne DEW line/aircraft carrier)
Northrop Quiet Supersonic Platform (low sonic boom strike plane)
Scott’s only asking $8, and any proceeds will go towards the costs of additional research on the Bombers Book.
I’ve bought a copy, and its very interesting stuff.
By: Vahe.D - 11th May 2024 at 22:03
I purchased a copy of this document a few years ago and while the Boeing Model 448 was already included in a lot of books on the B-47 with respect to the history of design and development of the B-47, many of the bomber designs in this publications had only been previously covered in news journals or otherwise remained cloaked in secrecy until researchers got the chance to take notes on those proposals after the archives were opened. The inclusion of the Vought SLAM nuclear-powered cruise missile in the document is problematic because the SLAM wasn’t a bomber but instead a cruise missile despite carrying a nuclear weapons payload. With respect to the D-436 proposals that constituted the first phase of North American’s design studies for the AMSA competition won by the B-1A, research by the late Robert Bradley in the 2010s confirmed that North American Aviation had a D-series design number sequence separate from the company’s NA-series company designation sequence, in which case the D-436 designation was part of the company’s D-series company designation sequence (the X-15 bore the internal designation D-250 whereas the delta-wing X-15 project was internally called D-435-1-4).
As a side note, the first issue of US Bomber Projects notes in the preface that Scott Lowther shelved his planned “magnum opus” on post-World War II US bomber projects, US Bomber Projects Since WWII, long ago after he realized that such a book would not be a financially cost-effective publishing project due to several authors coming out with books covering many aspects of the scope of his planned book US Bomber Projects Since WWII, including the initial and revised editions of Tony Buttler’s American Secret Projects volume about bomber, attack, and ASW aircraft as well as Jared Zichek’s book on carrier-based strategic bomber designs for the OS-111 and OS-115 requirements by the Navy (the Douglas D-593 won the OS-111 contest and became the A3D, but the Navy shelved the OS-115 requirement before it could evaluate the Douglas Model 1186 or any other OS-115 design submissions and decide which one should be selected).
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February 5, 2007 at 9:24 pm