... promo for a version of the 'Stinger' man-mounted anti-aircraft missile.
(does anyone else have recurring nightmares like this?)
Showing posts with label world war 3. Show all posts
Showing posts with label world war 3. Show all posts
1951 ... F-7U "Cutlass" Navy fighter
... looking cool was about the only thing this early US Navy jet fighter did right. Jet engines were still not very powerful or reliable and earned this plane the nicknmae of 'The Gut-less Cutlass'
all images- Right click- open in New Window or Tab = super colossal size!
1950 ... Atomic Attack!
... three pages from the book "Atomic Attack: How to Survive". It is important to keep in mind the military and historical context. 1950 is only five years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and only one year since the Soviets have tested their first atomic bomb. At this point Russian nuclear weapons are in the 20 kiloton range ( the same size as the Hiroshima "Fat-Man" bomb). Much of the Civil Defense instructions concentrate on avoiding the type of injuries that occurred in Japan. Atomic weapons are not magical and most of the casualties were of the same types suffered in conventional bombing.
The Cold War is still in it's very early phases and much of the technology and strategy we take for granted were not in place yet. The irony is that many feared a surprise attack by Russia more during this period; than later when bombs and stockpiles were much larger and "Mutual Assured Destruction" wad a well known factor of deterrence. Stalin ruled the Soviet juggernaut and a common theory was that Russia would strike as soon as they were capable!
ABM site- Grand Forks- 1975
Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) systems have always been controversial. Expensive, prone to technical glitches. They seemed to motivate the opposing cold-war side to just build more missiles. Early systems relied on atomic warheads to zap the incoming missiles and only had to get close for a kill. Later and present day technology pushes for a 'hit and kill' non-nuclear defense. The defensive missile must hit or get very close to the incoming warhead.
... downwind
The Dream of Atomic Powered Flight !
A study of the effects of the "direct" heating method of putting air straight thru the reactor which would produce a radioactive exhaust contrail was codenamed "Project Halitosis".
concept cover Convair B-58
This 1956 Popular Mechanics gives a hint to one of our favorite bombers- the B-58 "Hustler"
This was a Mach 2 medium bomber that pushed 1950's technology to the limit and beyond.
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Looks like that Delta Dart is taking "fighter cover" under the sheets!
North American "Savage"
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The Navy was desperate to get into the atomic bomb business. In the early years of the Cold War the newly formed Air Force and it's big bombers were getting all the funding. Atomic bombs were still big and very heavy- over 5 tons. This aircraft is as big as could be fit onto a carrier of the times. The "Savage" has two piston engines, plus a turbojet in the tail.
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Robert McCall
Speaking of science fiction movie props...
already tried writing to the address- sold out 45 years ago.
1962 ...deep beneath Silver Lake grade school.
Where I'd spend my eighth birthday fighting off Atomic Zombies.
This was the cafeteria under my grade school. I have no doubt that it also doubled as a bomb and fallout shelter. If we could pan to the right a little there'd be Rod Serling "Little Jimmy Vaughan thought this was going to be just another day in second grade..."
in a glacier. They're always so cranky when they get thawed out!
At the movies finale the pesky insectoid is cornered in the Lincoln Tunnel and killed with big hand grenades filled with Raid. [No kidding.] In which case these guys are well protected because these are not radiation suits. These are 1950s chemical protection suits, used by hapless rocketeers who got to fuel primitive missiles with fun stuff like nitric acid, benzene and anything else that was super-corrosive and explosive.
As far as I can find there never has been a garment that will protect it's wearer from hard radiation- nasty gamma rays handed out by pulsing glowing reactors and such.
An effective anti-radiation suit would need to be lined with lead and lots of it. Think of that half a bullet proof vest the dentist plops over you when he's going to shoot you full of x-rays. Now imagine a whole set of pajamas of the stuff. Can't even move in the thing, let alone fight monsters with a flame thrower!
But these, hope there's no leaks or I'll dissolve, freeze and burn-up, suits look just great and made appearences in many of the sci-fi movies of the era.
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Nasty stuff that radiation. Can't see it, taste it, smell it or rely on B grade science fiction movies to tell you what to do about it. Oh well. Hand me another can of that Raid will ya?
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sorry about the poor picture quality- 1957 was a good year for movie monsters!
advertisement for Convair
The Military Industrial Complex has provided us with some wonderful illustrations.
These are surface to air anti-aircraft missles.
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It's my guess that if the Defcon level is high the conventional warheads were switched out for small 'nukes'-
1/10 to 1 kiloton range. Same size was used on air-to-air aircraft mounted missles.
That's explosive equivalent to 100 to 1,000 tons of TNT. That's a lot of whallop on the end of that not so big missile.
"Hey, when the bad-guy's bombers are planning on dropping H-bombs on you and the 30 square miles of the Atlantic your aircraft carrier task force occupies, fleet air-defense wants a sure kill as far away as possible. Now which one of you swabbies wants to be the first to try arming
a nuclear device?"
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* a large percentage of the thousands of warheads stockpiled or deployed at the height of the Cold War were small low-yield "tactical" weapons as described above. So there- you sissies!
not a view you want.
Looking up from stairs of a test bomb shelter. Shot tower visible.
Operation Plumbbob used the tallest towers of all the tests. Some of them over 600 ft high. The structure on the top is called the "cab" and housed the weapon. Putting a weapon on top of a tower provided a more controlled experiment. Dropping them from airplanes, although done, always provide the possibility of a "miss".... oops!
Many of our NATO allies, who did not have atomic weapons, came to our tests and built various types of shelters to see how they would stand up to an actual blast. This one was built by the West Germans.
"Let's see, I think the way to the press viewing area is up these stairs and...OH SHIT!"
Yep, if you want to ride her out real close, looks like a bank vault is the place to be!
... here is a post about a company that bragged about their bank vault surviving the blast at Hiroshima!
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