Operation Sailor Hat

 awesomeness, blather, history, nukes, science, weapons, youtube  2 Responses »
Nov 122012
 

Operation Sailor Hat was a series of three non-nuclear explosions designed to test the responses of US Navy ships and equipment to nuclear-level explosions. Since these tests were carried out in 1965, above-ground nuclear tests were banned, so half-kilotons bursts were simulated with 500 tons of TNT. Goes to show that you don’t need nuclear explosives to have fun.

A number of “Sailor Hat” videos are on YouTube, but most have been mangled with craptacular editing or irritating watermarks. Here are a few.

A brief clip from an official briefing film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeFAhbzlF2Q

 

A longer clip with an annoying watermark and music spliced in from “Trinity and Beyond::”

[youtube tXeXvp4YaI0]

Here Stacey Keach narrates several minutes worth of clips, but with a *really* annoying watermark:

The same video, but without the massive watermark… but with a  smaller one, and Keach over-dubbed in Russian (I think):

 

And because why not… a “music video” of atomic bomb tests (including the non-nuclear Sailor Hat vids) set to White Zombie:

Using chemical explosives as stand-ins for nukes of course has definite limitations. For starters and most obviously… not neutron or gamma ray radiation. Second, chemical explosives don’t get anywhere near a hot as nuclear explosions… thousands of degrees vs. millions. Third, the fireball from a nuke is caused by the air around the nuke absorbing the prompt X-rays and such and being heated to a bagrillion degrees; the fireball of a non-nuke is generally the mass of the bomb itself converted into an incandescent cloud.

And if you’ve an interest in nukes buy haven’t seen “Trinity and Beyond…” sheesh, why not? It is indisputably awesome. A-bomb footage cleaned up and restored by a Hollywood special effects expert. Result = awesome.

——-

 Posted by at 1:15 am

And so it begins…

 Forward!, news, politics, weapons, ಠ_ಠ  27 Responses »
Nov 072012
 

Now that the election is over and Obama doesn’t need to worry about campaigning anymore, expect his true goals to come forth. Behold!

After Obama win, U.S. backs new U.N. arms treaty talks

The talks failed in July because the Obama administration didn’t want to have to deal with the “gun grabber” issue in the debates. But within *hours* of the re-election, the adminstration jumps back in. A quote from one of the “officials:”

“We will not accept any treaty that infringes on the constitutional rights of our citizens to bear arms”

Translation: “We will accept any treaty that infringes on the constitutional rights of our citizens to bear arms.”

 Posted by at 7:36 pm

Lockheed Cuda

 aircraft, Hmm..., models, news, rockets, weapons  4 Responses »
Nov 012012
 

A photo from the recent Air Force Association Technology Expo 2012 shows a large display model of the F-35 with weapons bays loaded with Lockheed-Martin “Cuda” air-to-air missiles:

A Lockheed Martin model shows how its “’Cuda” concept for a small AMRAAM-class radar guided dogfight missile could triple the air-to-air internal loadout on an F-35. The missile is about the size of a Small Diameter Bomb and fits on an SDB-style rack.

I’ve not seen anything on this missile before (at least not under the name “Cuda”). So off to Google I went… and came away equally unenlightened. About the only relevant thing I could find was that Lock-Mart took out a trademark on “CUDA” for a guided missile in 2011.

 Posted by at 9:53 am

Stagger Around #3: AGM-129 “Stealth” Advanced Cruise Missile

 aircraft, drawings, history, models, nukes, photography, secrets, weapons  4 Responses »
Oct 142012
 

Literally years in the making, I’ve put together two versions of a photo essay of several surviving examples of the AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missile. Available free for the downloading is Stagger Around #3: AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missile, Abridged Edition as a 13 page PDF booklet. This contains photos of the AGM-129s on display at Hill Aerospace Museum in Utah, the USAF Museum in Dayton and the Strategic Air & Space Museum in Nebraska, ready to print.

Also available is Stagger Around #3: AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missile, Full Edition. This 34-page edition includes more photos of these missiles, along with the missile at the San Diego Aerospace Museum restoration facility, a rare General Dynamics display model, official USAF photos of the AGM-129 in test and in service and drawings of the missile, including 1/32 scale layout diagrams. This is available through MagCloud, either as a downloadable PDF ($5.75) or as a professionally printed and bound edition ($11.80).

Don’t forget to check out my other MagCloud publications, including Justo Miranda’s Reichdreams Dossiers, Aerospace Projects Review, Historical Documents, and Photographing Stuff.

And don’t forget to check out Stagger Around #1, F-104A Starfighter, and Stagger Around #2, Starship Enterprise.

NOTE:

If you liked this and want to see more like it… feel free to toss fifty cents, a buck, a hundred bucks, whatever, my way. Think of it as a donation to a worthy cause. Or a bribe. Whatever you’re more comfortable with.

 Posted by at 12:58 pm

Small Diameter Bomb

 aircraft, awesomeness, photography, weapons  5 Responses »
Oct 052012
 

Shockwaves are awesome. The Small Diameter Bomb delivers.


A GBU-39/B small diameter bomb strikes a BM-21 rocket launcher during a test at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., in 2005. SDB was integrated on the F-15E Strike Eagle first, and is being delivered to combat units for use in the war on terrorism.

A small diameter bomb hits an A-7 parked inside a concrete aircraft shelter during a test at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. SDB is an autonomous, 250 pound class weapon that can be used in adverse weather and has a standoff range of more than 50 nautical miles.

 Posted by at 1:22 pm

Trident

 nukes, photography, rockets, Utah, weapons  2 Responses »
Oct 012012
 

The ATK “rocket garden” near promontory, Utah, has a Trident C-4 sea launched ballistic missile on display. Projecting from the blunt nose of the missile is an “aerospike.” This is not an aerospike rocket engine (such as the X-33 was supposed to have), but instead a telescoping rod with a smallish flat plate. Stored within the nosecone, it would project forward shortly after launch. The plate – made of wood, of all things – would take the aerothermal heating load of hypersonic flight at relatively low altitude, and would set up a shockwave well ahead of the nosecone, reducing drag. The Trident has a blunt nose for packing purposes… a pointy nose simply wouldn’t fit within the limited missile tube length of a submarine. The aerospike lets it have more or less the aerodynamics of a pointy nose while being shorter.

 Posted by at 7:59 am

Hill has a Stealth

 aircraft, history, nukes, photography, weapons  2 Responses »
Sep 182012
 

I wandered by Hill Aerospace Museum a while back and was surprised to see that they have an AGM-129 stealth cruise missile on display. On close inspection, this one seems to have been “restored” by spackling over all the surface details. Granted there weren’t that many to begin with, but they even plugged up the tailpipe.

 Posted by at 11:33 pm
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