I hate the "Secret Project" books!

[Alvis 3.14159]

I bought three of the "Secret Projects books a while ago (Russian Jets, Flying Saucers and Space Projects) and have to say, I hate them!


Not that they aren't a fantastic resource for what-if...no, it's because there's so many good ideas in there! I now need to live another hundred years to do them!

And, to top it off, several ideas I had that I thought were unique and original* to my mind turned out to be actual concepts studied by various companies or designers over the years. I hate it when I'm scooped 50 years before I thought of it!  

Alvis Pi


*Example: Vickers Valiant carrying X-15 style plane. Yep, they thought of it! Blast!

[McColm]

That shouldn't put you off your builds. I have the same problem with the ideas I come up with, only thing is other whiffers on this site have already built my idea

[Thorvic]

I bought three of the "Secret Projects books a while ago (Russian Jets, Flying Saucers and Space Projects) and have to say, I hate them!

Alvis Pi

What do you mean only three, you have missed out the better ones covering British Jet Fighters/British Bombers/British WW2/US Fighters/US Bombers/Russian Bombers.....

Now those will really tempt you if you can still find them 

[Daryl J.]

I hear ya.     I'd thought of putting a delta wing on a Canberra-like 50's bomber with four jets tucked in close to the fuselage similar to the Vulcan.  Yep, it was studied.   In fact I think it was even by Martin.   
LoL.


Cheers,
Daryl J.

[Alvis 3.14159]

I bought three of the "Secret Projects books a while ago (Russian Jets, Flying Saucers and Space Projects) and have to say, I hate them!

Alvis Pi

What do you mean only three, you have missed out the better ones covering British Jet Fighters/British Bombers/British WW2/US Fighters/US Bombers/Russian Bombers.....

Now those will really tempt you if you can still find them 

That's exactly why I avoided them in the first place! I could remain happily ignorant of all those cool designs I assumed I had thought of...

Alvis Pi

[Supertom]

Plus they keep coming up with new ones, like I dunno, Secret Projects of Kazakhstan or something like that so you keep having to buy them.

[Mossie]

Then you'll hate the hypersonics book too, space planes piggybacking on massive mach 4 transports, grrrrr!

And, to top it off, several ideas I had that I thought were unique and original* to my mind turned out to be actual concepts studied by various companies or designers over the years. I hate it when I'm scooped 50 years before I thought of it!   

Look at it another way, you're having the same ideas as all these hot shot engineers up to their armpits in qualifications and experience, you're a genius!

[Alvis 3.14159]

Plus they keep coming up with new ones, like I dunno, Secret Projects of Kazakhstan or something like that so you keep having to buy them.

Oh great! I was working on an entire series of Khazaki secret planes, and now it's all for naught!

Poo.


Alvis 3.1

[Weaver]

I hear ya.     I'd thought of putting a delta wing on a Canberra-like 50's bomber with four jets tucked in close to the fuselage similar to the Vulcan.  Yep, it was studied.   In fact I think it was even by Martin.    
LoL.


Cheers,
Daryl J.

It was by Martin, but it was quite a bit bigger than a Canberra IIRC. There were also various schemes for a flying boat version of it with a retractable or jettisonable lower hull (the latter for a one-shot nuclear mission, landing back on a carrier afterwards..... )

It got me looking thoughtfully at a Lindberg 1/100th Vulcan and thinking scaleorama to 1/72nd......

[Gondor]

I bought three of the "Secret Projects books a while ago (Russian Jets, Flying Saucers and Space Projects) and have to say, I hate them!


Not that they aren't a fantastic resource for what-if...no, it's because there's so many good ideas in there! I now need to live another hundred years to do them!

And, to top it off, several ideas I had that I thought were unique and original* to my mind turned out to be actual concepts studied by various companies or designers over the years. I hate it when I'm scooped 50 years before I thought of it!  

Alvis Pi


*Example: Vickers Valiant carrying X-15 style plane. Yep, they thought of it! Blast!

so how much do you want for your books?

Gondor

[Alvis 3.14159]

Ha! Not a chance! They're mine mine mine!

Alvis Pi

[Captain Canada]

Well, you are in Lotusland so living another 100 years shouldn't be a problem.

[McColm]

I've got a water damaged copy of British missiles and hypersonic dreams. Some of the pages are stuck together, which is a pain as there is an article about the 'Stealth Canberra'.

[Weaver]

And, to top it off, several ideas I had that I thought were unique and original* to my mind turned out to be actual concepts studied by various companies or designers over the years. I hate it when I'm scooped 50 years before I thought of it!  

I've just had that with the P.1216 book: turns out my long-cherished twin-engined-but-safe-in-the-hover STOVL concept HAD been studied, if only briefly (P.1218 if anyone's interested). It gives you mixed feelings: on the one hand, it's nice to find out that your amateur theorising has been validated to an extent by the professionals, but on the other, your "original" idea has just fallen victim to "nothing new under the sun" syndrome...

Need more suns......

[Leading Observer]

The thing is they only visualised on paper - you intend to cut plastic and make it real, albeit at 1/72 or whatever scale you prefer!