In praise of nuking Hiroshima

 history, Hmm..., nukes, politics  No Responses »
Aug 102020
 

For decades it has been the vogue to complain about the dropping of two atom bombs on the Empire of Japan. This has been argued ad nauseum, but I think a good summary of the better position is found in:

“Thank God for the Atom Bomb”

Written by Paul Fussel in 1981. He was an infantryman in Europe during WWII, and likely would have been killed – along with perhaps a million other American soldiers, sailors and airmen – had the A-bombs not been dropped.

The future scholar-critic who writes The History of Canting in the Twentieth Century will find much to study and interpret in the utterances of those who dilate on the special wickedness of the A-bomb-droppers. He will realize that such utterance can perform for the speaker a valuable double function. First, it can display the fineness of his moral weave. And second, by implication it can also inform the audience that during the war he was not socially so unfortunate as to find himself down there with the ground forces, where he might have had to compromise the purity and clarity of his moral system by the experience of weighing his own life against someone else’s. Down there, which is where the other people were, is the place where coarse self-interest is the rule. When the young soldier with the wild eyes comes at you, firing, do you shoot him in the foot, hoping he’ll be hurt badly enough to drop or mis-aim the gun with which he’s going to kill you, or do you shoot him in the chest (or, if you’re a prime shot, in the head) and make certain that you and not he will be the survivor of that mortal moment?

 

It’s very definitely worth reading.

 Posted by at 12:49 am

Nuking Portland

 history, Hmm..., nukes, politics, youtube  No Responses »
Aug 022020
 

“The Day Called X” is a CBS broadcast from 1957 dramatizing a nuclear attack on Portland, Oregon. Rather interesting to compare/contrast then vs. now… three hours warning of the attack vs maybe three minutes now, Portland being described as “friendly,” the citizens *calmly* evacuating the entire city (noting that in 1955 a practice evacuation cleared out the center of town in little more than half an hour), Portland before the attack not looking like it was already bombed into gravel, nobody here is touting the glories of Communism and yapping about burning down capitalism, etc. Doubtless back then when this was broadcast there would have been very few people arguing that Portland getting nuked would improve the place, or even jsut shrugging in exhaustion upon hearing of the event. Note how often “AN ATTACK IS NOT TAKING PLACE” pops up on screen, presumably so that people tuning in late don’t freak out. Behold at 17:11 the glorious Ford Edsel, just the thing for fleeing an H-Bomb.

“One thing is certain: Portland has a plan for the survival of it’s people and the continuity of it’s government. You know, actually the survival of this entire nation depends upon the ability of Federal, state and local governments to carry out their responsibilities in the event of a massive nuclear attack.“

How times have changed. Or not.

 Posted by at 11:51 am

MX-2276 BoMi

 aircraft, awesomeness, history, nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Jun 262020
 

Before the Convair Atlas ICBM proved that it was possible for a rocket to reach out across the world and deposit some canned sunlight reliably close to commie targets, it was understood that the only way to accomplish the task was with pilots and bombardiers. But by the mid 1950’s the idea of subsonic manned bombers sneaking into the heart of the Soviet Union without getting swatted was starting to seem nonsensical. So Bell Aircraft, under the direction of former V-2 program director Walter Dornberger, dreamed up the MX-2276: a three-stage manned rocket bomber. Looking akin to an evolved Sanger Antipodal Bomber, the MX-2276 used two manned and winged stages, with an unmanned expendable stage in between. The final stage would carry a single gliding nuclear warhead deep into the USSR, using the human crew to attain some measure of accuracy.

But then the Atlas came along and ruined all that.

The idea persisted, however, turning first into the Bomber Missile (BoMi) then the Rocket Bomber (RoBo) then Dyna Soar. With each step it became less fantastical, and also less of a dedicated weapon system; by the end of the Dyna Soar, it was a one-man experimental re-entry vehicle launched by a fully expendable Titan IIIC. Since then the idea of a “rocket bomber” has popped up from time to time, but never with the level of seriousness displayed in the mid/late 1950’s. For more on the whole BoMi program, see Aerospace projects Review issues V2N2, V2N3 and V2N4. APR issue V3N4 gives a pretty complete rundown of the final Model 2050E Dyna Soar.

 Posted by at 12:14 am

Early NASA Shuttle Art

 art, history, nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Apr 182020
 

Sold on ebay a while back, a piece of NASA color art depicting a Shuttle orbiter dropping off a satellite (more likely a deep-space probe given the bizarrely-located RTGs). The orbiter, however, does not seem to be closely based on an actual design. It has some similarity to a North American Rockwell concept, but I’d wager that it’s mostly artistic license.

 Posted by at 1:31 am

APR Monthly Historical Documents Program

 aircraft, APR, art, drawings, history, Hmm..., Monthly Historical Documents Program, new products, news, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, Patreon, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Apr 052020
 

Once again Patreon seems to be becoming unstable. So I’ve got an alternate: The APR Monthly Historical Documents Program

For some years I have been operating the “Aerospace Projects Review Patreon” which provides monthly rewards in the form of high resolution scans of vintage aerospace diagrams, art and documents. This has worked pretty well, but it seems that perhaps some people might prefer to sign on more directly. Fortunately, PayPal provides the option not only for one-time purchases but also monthly subscriptions. By subscribing using the drop-down menu below, you will receive the same benefits as APR Patrons, but without going through Patreon itself.



Details below.

Continue reading »

 Posted by at 9:11 am

Advanced Ballistic Reentry vehicle

 art, history, nukes, weapons  No Responses »
Mar 252020
 

The re-entry vehicle used on the Peacekeeper and Trident missiles. The slim conical shape meant that it would lose minimal velocity as it plunged through the atmosphere; note that it has a contact sensor near the nose to permit it to detonate on impact.

 Posted by at 10:07 am

Possibilities of New Business Growth: Space Command Post

 history, nukes, projects, spacecraft  No Responses »
Mar 182020
 

In 1985, Rockwell International considered the possibility that there might be profit in a space station with a singular purpose… to serve as a command post in the event of a nuclear war. Its position would let it confirm Soviet ICBM launches and direct space based weapons in their response. Presumably this means that there would need to be several such orbital command posts. The brief description suggests that the command post would be in “high orbit,” perhaps geosynchronous; to have global coverage, at least two and preferably three or more such posts would be needed. The lower the orbit, the more would be needed to see the whole planet.

 

 Posted by at 5:10 pm

Possibilities of New Business Growth: Space Nuclear Power Systems

 history, nukes, projects, spacecraft  No Responses »
Mar 092020
 

In 1985 Rockwell International thought that there might be a business case for space based nuclear power systems. The customer base for nuclear reactors in space seemed to be restricted to military satellites (warning and recon mostly) and deep-space exploration systems. Advantages over solar power include resistance to the degradation of PV arrays due to passing through the ionizing Van Allen radiation belts and no need to track the sun. Costs, however, were high… high enough that in the end nothing came of it.

 Posted by at 10:31 am
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