AvPro Projects

[GTX]

Hi folks,

Does anyone have detailed information upon the AVPRO Proteus Modular ulti-Role (MMR) standoff weapon?

Any detailed information on other AVPRO proposals would be appreciated as well.

Regards,

Greg

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

I believe Avpro was a concept company mainly consisting of Mike Ryan? I don't recall they produced anything except pretty oil paintings of impractical ideas...

 

[TinWing]

I believe Avpro was a concept company mainly consisting of Mike Ryan? I don't recall they produced anything except pretty oil paintings of impractical ideas...

Air International has occasionally used some to that interesting oil-on-canvas artwork.

 

[Golfus]

A long, long time ago, I found this conceptual artwork of a proposed "Super Harrier" in the excellent site navy-matters.beedall.com, It was, in fact, a faceted AV-8, but is a design that can boost one´s imagination. If anyone has more drawings/illustrations and data of this lost project, it would deserve a post.

 

[flateric]

That's UK company called AVPRO (RIP) concept. In common, practically all the company did were graphic concepts of what-ifs aircraft systems, some very pretty.

 

[Jemiba]

I know this picture from "Warplanes of the future", more or less an Avpro
public relations brochure. When I got this book, I tried to make a 3-view
of this design, but IIRC it was hardly metioned in the text, so I think, it
was more a designers phantasy ...

 

[Golfus]

Really cool drawing. Thanks a lot!

 

[Archibald]

Vraiment bien! Now I know what to do of this Airfix Harrier T-10 I bought three months ago ;D. Thanks again!!!

 

[elmayerle]

I'll have to do some digging, but I think that I've seen some similar concepts float out of St. Louis. More later after I get home and check the files.

 

[TinWing]

Back in early 2000, AVPRO released two CD-ROM discs containing artwork of various "design studies." AVPRO produced a number of very speculative oil-on-canvas paintings of UAVs, stealth and VSTOL aircraft.

Today, even the former www.avpro.co.uk domain name seems to have been sold on, and the company is apparently defunct?

Does anyone out there have AVPRO Volume 1 and Volume2 CD-roms?

 

[hesham]

Hi Tin Wing,

I don't have those CD,but for two projects to AVPRO see this;
http://www.aiaa.org/tc/vstol/unbuilt/index.htm

 

[GTX]

Hi folks,

I too am after these CDs and am willing to pay money for them if need be. I have a couple of the books with AVPRO's designs in them:

"Warplanes of the Future" by Mike Ryan (Former AVPRO CEO) and David Oliver; and
"X-Planes" by the same pair

Regards,

Greg

 

[Jemiba]

One of the CD's was completely about the Marauder concept, as I was told
via mail, when I asked about infos about this concept. But the price seemed
much to high for me then ... : All those concepts looked very interesting,
nevertheless, they all were quite far away from realisation .. so I invested in
other material. Nevertheless, I spent quite a time to try to make drawings
of the Avpro designs, but I regard most of this concepts mostly as "art" in
the meantime .

 

[Antonio]

Great drawings Jemiba, thanks for sharing :

 

[gammaslave]

I recently had a bash at modelling the FOAS-2. At the time I only had one pic to go on.

Here was the result of working from just the one pic.

Enjoy

 

[Jemiba]

Great !
In "Warplanes Of The Future" is a top and a front view, but even with
them, you couldn't have done much better, as both drawings seems
not to relate to the artist's impression in several respects.

 

[Archibald]

I saw this model in the whatif forum some weeks ago. A-WE-SOME !!! :-*

 

[Jemiba]

Some more Avpro drawings...
As the Ryan/Oliver book very often was quite avaricious with dimensions and
even with descritions, I mostly used the captions of the pictures in the book
and tried to get lenght/span from details like armament, often the missiles carried.
As a result, today I see this more as "what-If", than as real concepts.
- FOAS concepts, including one shown in a manned and unmanned variant
- Sea Harrier replacements

 

[Jemiba]

... and a design, described as "interceptor with forward swept wings",
- a stoppable rotor transport
- and three UCAV concepts, including one VTOL UCAV and the best known,
because shown in several publications, the Archangel, which was intended
for air-to-ground as well as for air-to-air missions

 

[Trident]

That FOAS model is great - looks exactly like the kind of thing you might get if you were careless enough to lock a YF-23 and Su-34 in the same hangar unattended Nevertheless, it has a rather pleasant shape.

 

[amsci99]

First saw their illustrations of their concept fighters, WIGs and VTOLs with RAF roundels in David Oliver's book, 'Warplanes of the Future'. They later had a website hawking their wares (CD-R) containing illustrations and concepts on their website. Now that their website is gone for good, I wondered what happended to them. Strangely Stavatti of the F-26 Stalma fame is still in business or at least has a web presence.

 

[flateric]

Don't know...last traces I've seen are these
AVPRO Limited
PO BOX 9128 ACTON London W3 6GE UK
TEL 44 (0) 207 495 6565
FAX 44 (0) 207 394 5349

Email: mikeryan@avpro.co.uk

Farnborough Office

Avpro Limited
Farnborough Innovation Centre
Northgate Road
Farnborough, Hampshire, GU14 6TW

Tel: +44 (0)1252 550040
Fax: +44 (0)1252 550101

U.S. Office

AVPRO Aerospace Inc.
PO Box 15680
Long Beach
CA 90815 USA

Tel: +1 (562) 420-7488
Fax: +1 (562) 420-7644

Email: avproaerospace@mindspring.com

 

[GTX]

I think they died. Mind you, if anyone has any of their CDs, I'd be very interested in getting a copy.

Regards,

Greg

 

[Barrington Bond]

Ditto to the CD,s ;D

 

[hesham]

Hi,

http://www.first-to-fly.com/Programs/Centennial%20Flyer/giving_workshop.htm
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread81363/pg1

 

[dragon72]

The first 4 are old Avpro designs and the helicopter is from a Popsci article.

 

[Triton]

While were atsrayed from the path, why not give it some more thought. Instead of LCAC or LCU, the ship could also house Manta or Marauder WIG designs (images from "Warplanes of the Future"):

So, what do you guys think of it.

What would be the maximum operational ceiling of a WIG vehicle such as the Avpro Manta or Marauder? I have seen photographs of WIG vehicles operating over water, but can they operate over land as well? Do they require open terrain? Is there any serious interest in WIG vehicles?

 

[XP67_Moonbat]

I used to love those AvPro artworks back in the day. ;D

 

[hole in the ground]

WIG aircraft mostly I believe can 'fly' out of WIG'E' but it is more efficient for them to stay in it. I would imagine that flying over level ground would be more effective and produce a higher maximum WIGE height as there will be some displacement of water. WIGE is however limited to around 0.1 of the wingspan (that is a value off the top of my head, i stand by to be corrected on that). So operation over land that is not a desert of some description (or siberian esk plains) is probably going to have to be above the height of WIGE.

 

[Jemiba]

At least the Marauder wasn't intended as a pure WIG, but as a kind of
Jack-of-all-trades. It was shown as a long range interceptor and an
AEW-aircraft, too
(see http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,1492.0/highlight,avpro.html)

 

[dragon72]

For those who don't know Avpro was a British company that for the most part produced pretty pictures. There was also a book - "Warplanes of the Future" which - besides an badly orientated picture and some 3-view drawings which didn't match up - was a pretty good read. As far as I know the only product they produced was a mock-up for their EXINT pod.

Since the company is now defunct I don't see any reason not to share these images. The order is the same as on the disks, so here we go.

 

[dragon72]

And more

 

[dragon72]

And more

 

[dragon72]

And more

 

[dragon72]

And more

 

[dragon72]

Some of these are actually very interesting. The transport plane landing is one of my favourites.

 

[Orionblamblam]

So just the hell *was* the story with AvPro, anyway? They cranked out a bucketload of art... but is that all they were? Or were they a serious company with serious people?

 

[dragon72]

If anyone has any idea what is stopping the FSW attack helicopter from spinning let me know. I can't see any tail rotor or other anti-torque device.

 

[dragon72]

As far as I know they were a serious company. They had funding from somewhere. The ideas were good but there were no real products.

 

[dragon72]

And more