This weekend I spent the day at Worcester Polytechnic Institute's Gordon Library digging up some additional resources.  One of the most fruitful was their collection of Aviation Week & Space Technology on microfiche dating back to 1977.  This allowed me to view unbiased reporting on the development of the numerous projects involved in my design in 'real time'.  I came across several articles about the development of the RD-701 engine and that Britain was contemplating using the An-225 as a launch vehicle for their HOTOL (Horizontal Takeoff and Landing) orbiter.  These articles were from the early 1990s, and retrospect Britain never built their HOTOL obiter and to date the An-225 has not been used as a space launch platform.  Britain, however, noticed the limitations of the An-225's engines, and retrofitted the vehicle to use 8 engines instead of 6.  However, since I plan to replace each of the six original engines with a GE90 engine with 140% additional thrust in my An-225e design, the two additional engines will not be necessary.

I also began work on my PowerPoint presentation, which is at this stage very text-heavy.  There will be numerous revisions of the presentation between now and April, and making the presentation in outline format is beneficial since it allows me to think through the presentation from start to finish.

In the coming week or two I plan to add the docking module to the orbiter CAD, revise and complete my Subsystem Reports, and work on my presentation.  It almost sounds easy...