AMSCI/ALSV - Air-launched mini shuttles from early 1980s

That looks like a badly-faded color slide or transparency. It could probably be color-corrected and cleaned up.

Looking back at this thread, there's an odd six-year gap between 2014 and 2020. Some missing posts. Dunno what they were.

Anyway, this article from 2021 remains the most comprehensive discussion of the topic. I might have to revisit it again. I don't have new information, but I just think it's neat.

https://thespacereview.com/article/4161/1
 
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Tuomasn said:
Looks like this could be General Dynamics "G1" entry for the TAV Phase I study of 1983 ("G2" is clearly GD's AMSC proposal).
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Actually looks more like G2, except with two engines. The lower wings don't have that LERX-like wing root seen in G1, and the aft fuselage seems to have a straight-sided segment that matches G2 but not G1.
 
Here. I took a couple of shots at the faded GD artwork. For one, I went with a classic black & white look. And for the other attempt, I tried kind of washed-out, 80's Tequila Sunrise look. Sort of a "we fly dawn!" kinda vibe. Eh, I tried. Lol
 

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XP67_Moonbat said:
Here. I took a couple of shots at the faded GD artwork. For one, I went with a classic black & white look. And for the other attempt, I tried kind of washed-out, 80's Tequila Sunrise look. Sort of a "we fly dawn!" kinda vibe. Eh, I tried. Lol
Click to expand...
Reasonably assuming a straight (if somewhat inclined) flight path for vehicle separation, the 747 fuselage shadow on the right wing is *way* too short for a sunlit dawn or dusk scene (so definitely no "we fly [sic/at] dawn!"), indicating the sun is at least about 40 geometric degrees or so above the local horizon. Consequently, the color spectrum, especially above cloud level, should tilt towards the vibrant, crisp white/blue hue side, rather than those lame, lazy, tired old beige sepia tones that ad nauseam dominate way too many tv shows these days. Eh, you tried. Lol.
 
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Here's another try. I went for balancing the sky to something realistic for mid-morning or mid-afternoon. Oddly, the highlights on the RV red-shifted. I really don't know what's going on with that; they should be blue. The RV can be pushed blue, but this is all I want to do tonight.

1760769293471.jpeg
 
aim9xray said:
Here's another try. I went for balancing the sky to something realistic for mid-morning or mid-afternoon. Oddly, the highlights on the RV red-shifted. I really don't know what's going on with that; they should be blue. The RV can be pushed blue, but this is all I want to do tonight.

View attachment 788538
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Definitely a step in the right direction :). I think some more overall brightening may still help though. Keep in mind that the 747 as a known entity is supposed to be flying in broad daylight, so I'd use that as the adjustment calibration point. Both vehicles are clearly shown to be flying *above* the clouds, so in basically unfiltered sunlight. YMMV.
 
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martinbayer said:
Reasonably assuming a straight (if somewhat inclined) flight path for vehicle separation, the 747 fuselage shadow on the right wing is *way* too short for a sunlit dawn or dusk scene (so definitely no "we fly [sic/at] dawn!"), indicating the sun is at least about 40 geometric degrees or so above the local horizon. Consequently, the color spectrum, especially above cloud level, should tilt towards the vibrant, crisp white/blue hue side, rather than those lame, lazy, tired old beige sepia tones that ad nauseam dominate way too many tv shows these days. Eh, you tried. Lol.
Click to expand...
Eh. It's the best I could do on my POS phone. Lol.
 
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aim9xray said:
Here's another try. I went for balancing the sky to something realistic for mid-morning or mid-afternoon. Oddly, the highlights on the RV red-shifted. I really don't know what's going on with that; they should be blue. The RV can be pushed blue, but this is all I want to do tonight.

View attachment 788538
Click to expand...
On second thought, the red hue might have been influenced by the original artist having seen pictures of the X-15 in an attention getting pink ablative TPS coating, see e.g. https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/x-15-8/.
 

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