The Flying Jeep

From the Military Vehicles Division

The V-1 Jeep was a concept created by McDonnell Aircraft Corporation in the late 50's. The idea was to have an open fuselage helicopter that you could easily switch out the cargo space with whatever you wanted. It was to be compact, and maneuverable. The design even had ramjet powered rotor which kept the engine compact and low maintenance.

This thing looks like a G.I.Joe toy from the 80's. I love it's utilitarian design. A concept artist I follow online, but forget who it was now, noted that sometimes no thought for aesthetics in engineering actually produces some of the most appealing designs.

More info here: LINK​

and here: LINK​

-Jake

The Globus INK, Soviet Gearpunk Tech

From the Department of Space Exploration

The Soviet space program used completely different controls and instruments from American spacecraft. One of the coolest of these instruments is the GLOBUS. This showed the cosmonauts their spacecrafts location above earth and it used some astonishingly sophisticated engineering do its job.

You see this isn't a digital computer here, "this navigation instrument was an electromechanical analog computer that used an elaborate system of gears, cams, and differentials to compute the spacecraft's position."

Wow.

this stuff just fires up my imagination. Who says digital computers are the way of the future? I imagine this thing is solar flare proof, doesn't lose information if the power goes out, and just looks sturdy as heck. Makes me rethink what kind of tech I want to use in my sci-fi comics.

More photos and information here: LINK​

(Kind of cool: Scroll to the bottom to see a comment by "Unknown" who says he has a working Globus in his collection with a link to a photo. Followed the link to find out it's Steve Jurvetson's Flickr account. Jurvetson is on the board of Spacex and is a huge space nut.)

-Jake

Soviet Cold War Era Drone

From the Air and Space Division

The La-17 looks like something out of an alternate history sci-fi video game. But apparently these things were developed, manufactured, and remained in service for 30 years.

I love the hodge-podeyness of their design with no concern for aesthetics. Looks like they just slapped a massive jet engine on the bottom and called it good. 10/10.

Tons more photos here: LINK​

Related: LINK​

-Jake

Good night moon

From the Department of Space Exploration

Andrew McCarthy, a fellow Arizonian, is an astrophotographer who does some incredible image work of the Moon. In that first one he actually captured the ISS transiting the moon.

I've been following his work for a couple years now and am always impressed with his captures.

I'm consistently blown away by his images.

Follow Andrew here:

Instagram: LINK​

Twitter: LINK​

Website: LINK​

Here's a nice blog post on how he does it: LINK

-Jake​

Stargazing in Style

Department of Space Exploration in cooperation with the Architecture Desk

Out in The-Middle-of-Nowhere, France, nestled in the rocky grasslands is a tiny village of telescope buildings specifically designed for stargazing.

This is like the perfect mix of everything I love: weird bubble architecture, elaborate machines, scientists hiding out in the wastelands, and space.

Chefs kiss!

(Via: Messy Nessy Chic)

Related: Pascal Hausermann​

-Jake

Filper Beta 200

From the Office of Aerial Design

If history had charted a slightly different course we might be flying these to work today. I love this unconventional design and the optimism of this project from the 60s. Unfortunately, a flight test resulted in a fatality of a pilot and the project was scrapped. The company making these went into making peach-pitting machines. I guess that's important too.

You can read more here: LINK​

-Jake

GO INCREDIBLY FAST

From the Air and Space Division

This short 5 min video is the perfect mix of science and fiction. It's all about how we will travel to other planets in the future and shows just how hard it will be to get there with the technology we have now. It's meant to inspire people to "dig deeper and learn more."

Beautiful images and maybe the coolest depiction of warp drive travel I've seen.

Watch it here: LINK​

By Erik Wernquist​

-Jake