Jay Miller archives

[Orionblamblam]

One of the A-12 photos (reduced a *lot* in size, of course...)

 

[Orionblamblam]

Yeah...

 

[Orionblamblam]

More:

 

[XP67_Moonbat]

Any chance we'lll see the early X-33 stuff?

 

[Orionblamblam]

Well, that was more fun than it needed to be. I flew from Little Rock to Dallas, delayed by 40 minutes, just in time to get off the plane right as the Dallas-Salt Lake flight should have been closing its door. Fortunately, though, that flight was delayed by half an hour, so I was able to make it home.

My luggage, on the other hand, is on a whirlwind tour of the United States. Went from Little Rock to Dallas to Los Angeles, and tomorrow it's supposed to go to Minneapolis to Salt Lake to a truck to my house.

We'll see.

If it disappears, that'll be seriously annoying, but won't affect the important stuff: the laptop stayed with me the whole time. No chance in hell I'm letting those goons *near* this thing...

 

[Orionblamblam]

Woo! All the data has been successfully copied from laptop to PC, and from there to DVDs to be sent to underwriters, put into storage, locked in vaults, etc.

 

[Sferrin]

What resolution did you scan these docs at (dpi)?

 

[Orionblamblam]

What resolution did you scan these docs at (dpi)?

300 dpi. Selected images were scanned up to 600 dpi. Most were scanned grayscale, because most were either B&W line drawings or grayscale art. All color art was scanned in full color. All blueprints that were actually *blue* prints were scanned in full color.


Some documents that were voluminous, largely text or I simply didn't have time to tackle with the scanner (about 40 seconds/page) were photograped with my new 8 megapixel camera. I tinkered a bit with the resolution from time to time. This obviously produced results less spectacular than scanning or photocopying... but photocopying would have been *real* slow (one photocopier, quite distant), and scanning was also slow. In the time I could scan a handful of detailed drawings I could photograph hundreds of pages of text.

Examples of photography below, all reduced to 1/4 their original size....

 

[Orionblamblam]

Here are some examples of large-format blueprints I scanned (again, shown one-quarter original size). One issue was that many of these have been folded for *decades,* and flattening them out perfectly would be impossible. One could argue, though, that it lends a bit of charm...

 

[flateric]

Hmm...seems this is one that Scott needs...up to 42” paper roll width))

Colortrac SmartLF Gx 42e scanner (separate block)...49 kg

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

Hard to fit on a plane though.

 

[flateric]

There could be local rental services though...but it costs about 800-900 USD per month...

 

[Orionblamblam]

Hard to fit on a plane though.

And given that my clothes and, as it happens, the flatbed scanner I took are currently luxuriating on the West Coast rather than in my house indicates that dragging this thing hither and yon might not be such a good idea.

Also, to use one of these items *outside* the archive in question would require removing blueprints from the archive. This is often not possible. While I suspect I might have been able to talk Jay into allowing this on a limited basis while I was there, Boeing's archive, for example, would have me shot if I tried something like that.

So, scanning in pieces and stitching back together is time consuming and labor intensive and a serious pain in the ass, but it's generally the only option. For now, at any rate.

 

[Sferrin]

Hard to fit on a plane though.

And given that my clothes and, as it happens, the flatbed scanner I took are currently luxuriating on the West Coast rather than in my house indicates that dragging this thing hither and yon might not be such a good idea.

Also, to use one of these items *outside* the archive in question would require removing blueprints from the archive. This is often not possible. While I suspect I might have been able to talk Jay into allowing this on a limited basis while I was there, Boeing's archive, for example, would have me shot if I tried something like that.

So, scanning in pieces and stitching back together is time consuming and labor intensive and a serious pain in the ass, but it's generally the only option. For now, at any rate.

Does Jay happen to know the classifications status of that Convair Fish report?

 

[Orionblamblam]

Does Jay happen to know the classifications status of that Convair Fish report?

It still has "SECRET" stamped on every page and the bright red secret-level cover sheet. That's all we know.

 

[Orionblamblam]

A preview (1/10 full size) of a result of the digging and some reconstruction...

 

[BAROBA]

I am also interessed in the A-12 stuff.
I still have plans to upgrade my A-12 (3d model) to the next level, and ANY plans of it would help alot
Do you plan on a digital release of the images?
(Is alot easier for me, so I don't have to rescan them again)

cheers

 

[flateric]

SR-71 inboard profile - Scott, are these scans or photos of giant blueprints roll?
And - if that's all Blackbird graphics of such quality that was there?

 

[Antonio]

B-733, F3H, MX-775. ..hope to see that files available for sale at your web someday...

 

[Orionblamblam]

SR-71 inboard profile

Minor detail: it's actually a single-seat A-12, not an SR-71. Ooops.

- Scott, are these scans or photos of giant blueprints roll?

Scans, cleaned up and stitched back together.

if that's all Blackbird graphics of such quality that was there?

See the "lockheedlist.jpg" image up-thread for some other Blackbird stuff. For comparative purposes, the A-12 drawing was put together from the chunks found in "lockheedlist2.jpg," Image253.jpg to Image260.jpg.

 

[XP67_Moonbat]

Awesome stuff. Lookin forward to getting some one day.

 

[Sundog]

Hmmm...what was that reverse "underwriter" terminology used? I've been working on a 3D model of the A-12 for Flight Simulator, but could never get the subtle curves correct. I. MUST.GET.MY.HANDS.ON.THOSE.IMAGES.

It also looked like you found some good blueprints for the XP-83. I've been looking for good prints of that forever.

I hope the Boeing trip turns out as lucrative as this one was. Speaking of which, are the North American archives at the Boeing archives? I can't recall.

 

[Orionblamblam]

Hmmm...what was that reverse "underwriter" terminology used?

Send me a PM if interested.

It also looked like you found some good blueprints for the XP-83.

Yes, indeedy.

Speaking of which, are the North American archives at the Boeing archives?

*Some* of it. Most apparently is not. Stories conflict as to whether the NAR archive is still in California, has been trashed, or some combo of the two.

 

[flateric]

Will be A-12 Avenger II drawings offered as a spare set for sale as were YF-12/A-12 ones? Friend's asking, and I think many here are interested too...

 

[jstar]

The Arkansas Aerospace Education Center, home of the Jay Miller Collection, has apparently closed for good.

Does anyone know the fate of the Miller Collection? Any why am I always too damn late to find these things out?

 

[aim9xray]

Hmmm. Some background:

http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2318#

http://www.examiner.com/general-aviation-in-little-rock/the-demise-of-the-arkansas-aerospace-education-center

This probably didn't help things along:
http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-3132363/Claims-against-Aerospace-Center-return.html

And it looks like the books are going somewhere else:
http://www.examiner.com/general-aviation-in-little-rock/aviation-library-closing-update-at-the-arkansas-aerospace-education-center

 

[Sferrin]

The Arkansas Aerospace Education Center, home of the Jay Miller Collection, has apparently closed for good.

Does anyone know the fate of the Miller Collection? Any why am I always too damn late to find these things out?

Maybe they let Scott Lowther make a second visit with a U-Haul this time. ;D

 

[Orionblamblam]

Maybe they let Scott Lowther make a second visit with a U-Haul this time. ;D

I *wish.* It'd take substantially more than a U-Haul to truck that stuff outta there. There's a *lot.*

 

[bercr]

Do you know were are now the photos, negatives, slides, and other transparencies of the Miller collection ? Thanks

 

[papacavy]

What ever happened to Jay Miller? Did he pass away? I used to work for him decades ago and haven't heard anything from him since.

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

He's still going strong. Mostly photography these days.

 

[bercr]

What happened to the collection of photos ? Was it sold ?

 

[bercr]

The Jay Miller Aviation Collection is now housed in the San Diego Air and Space Museum (SDASM) :

http://sandiegoairandspace.org/blog/article/nations-largest-aerospace-library-and-archives

 

[Sferrin]

Didn't Orion BB make a raid on the place at one point? (I seem to recall there being a one-time offer at the time.) ???