The major American space programs that carried crews are well known. From Mercury, Gemini and Apollo in the 1960s and into the 1970s, through to the 1980s Space Shuttle, which made its final flight in 2011, they have all made their mark – even the North American X-15 rocket plane that earned many of its pilots their Astronaut Wings, owing to its high-altitude capability. All these involved a lot of new hardware, including the Saturn rockets, the Apollo craft and the Shuttle Orbiter with its solid-fuel rocket boosters and giant external tank. During this time of actual missions, space scientists and engineers were also looking at how all these new techniques and hardware could be put to even greater use. Many plans were devised, artwork drawn and technical models produced to illustrate the proposals. However, none were ever built and certainly none ever flew. This book looks at what could have been and how they can be built as models to display alongside those that did actually fly.

It includes detailed step-by-step guides for the following builds in scales ranging from 1:12 to 1:144:

• Mercury Space Telescope

• Gemini on the Moon

• Apollo – looking somewhat different

• Gemini joins the military

• The X-15 – in orbit via the XB-70

• Upgrading the Saturn IB

• Upgrading the Saturn V

• Shuttle launched by Saturn

• Shuttle with fly-back boosters

• Shuttle as a heavy lifter

• Alternative uses for the SRBs and ET

• Before Artemis - Project Constellation

Lost American Projects: A Spacecraft Modeller’s Guide is a follow-on to Mat Irvine’s earlier book, Scale Spacecraft Modelling.