A devastating review of Oppenheimer

 AARRRGH, art, blather, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., history, Hmm..., nukes, politics, russian empire, Worldwreckers, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Aug 252023
 

J. Robert Oppenheimer is justly famed for his role in developing the A-bomb. He is considered to be something of a martyr for what happened later… during the “Red Scare” he was stripped of his security clearance. But was it actually wrong to do so? Was his interest in the Communist Party some minor childish dalliance from his earlier years… or was it more serious? The recent movie, and most modern depictions, portray him in a positive light.

But he *was* a Communist. What’s worse, there’s good evidence – lots of it from the actual Soviets –  that he actively worked for them. He apparently slipped them heaps of data to help their bomb program, and then once the Soviets had the bomb, he worked to sabotage the American bomb program.

It’s probably well past time that Oppenheimer be re-examined. And if it’s finally concluded that he was a traitor, which there’s good evidence that he was, his name needs to be appropriately blackened as any Communists should be. We tear down statues of people who supported slavery 250 years ago; we tear down statues of people who supported the CSA for *whatever* reason 160 years ago; we would tear down statues of anyone who supported the Nazis 80 years ago. We should tear down statues and monuments and hagiographies of anyone who supported Communists a hundred years ago, fifty years ago or today.

Hollywood Rewrites History Again: What the Oppenheimer Deification Movie Didn’t Tell You

Communism is every bit as bad as Fascism, and arguably worse; Communists *today* are universally terrible people because they have a century of blood-soaked failure that they *choose* to ignore. Communists, their supporters and their wishy-washy Socialist wannabes need to be called out for the monsters and morons that they are. And that includes historical figures.

 Posted by at 2:00 pm

Recent acquisitions

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, drawings, eBay, history, Monthly Historical Documents Program, news, Patreon, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Aug 182023
 

Thanks to ebay and my fabulously lean bank account, I have recently procured a number of items of potential interest:

“NASA Earth Orbital Space Station,” a poster-sized lithograph from McDonnell Douglas depicting a space station that tumbles for artificial-G.

“Re-Entry Payload Launch Vehicle,”  A *brief* General Dynamics presentation on a vehicle to launch re-entry vehicles such as MIRV warhead shapes

 

“Proposed Development Program on Rocket-Type Missiles,” a 1948 Convair report on early ballistic/boost glide missile concepts, that would lead to Atlas. Includes some fantastic large format layout diagrams.

 

“Detail Specification for Consolidated Vultee Model 117 Airplane Class VR Transport Flying Boat,” August 1950, all the details on the then-brand new Tradewind.

 

 

“Detail Specification for Class VP Long Range Patrol Seaplane,” Consolidated Vultee 1946, all the details on a proposed flying boat patrol/bomber

32 issues of “Astronautics” magazine from 1957 to 1969, mostly 57-59 and 63 or so.

The lithograph and the reports will be scanned and put forward for consideration for monthly rewards; the magazines will have the interesting bits scanned and made available to the subscribers/patrons.

 Posted by at 11:02 pm

This trope should be retired

 AARRRGH, aircraft, art, blather, history, Meh., science fiction, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Aug 162023
 

“Our heroes aircraft is falling from the sky! Will they pull out in time to avoid a firey crash and bring the episode, nay, the entire series, to a screeching and unexpected halt, requiring not only clever writing but also difficult actor contract negotiations with the attendant risk of turning off the existing fans?”

Bah. No, of course the aircraft will pull out at the last second. Of course.

Lazy.

 

 

Those old enough to remember TV from the 80’s will doubtless *vaguely* recall any of a number of the same scene: the *enemy* aircraft, often a helicopter, has been struck. Gun, missile, onboard explosion, someone whacked the pilot, whatever, the vehicle is going down. Will it crash? Well, since these are the bad guys and, what’s more, *unimportant* bad guy characters, yes. It’ll crash. But at the last moment it’ll go down *behind* the nearest hill. You’ll know it crashed because a fireball that sure looks a whole lot like some combination of back powder and gasoline will go FOOOOM from behind the hill. It’s a hell of a lot cheaper than crashing an actual aircraft on camera, and slightly less visually awful than using bad scale models or, perhaps worse, stock footage, to depict the event. But it still got to be an incredibly tired and predictable shot.

 Posted by at 11:46 pm

$200 a round rocketgun

 awesomeness, blather, history, Hmm..., rockets, spacecraft, weapons, youtube  No Responses »
Aug 162023
 

Here’s something you don’t see too often… someone firing *numerous* rounds from a Gyrojet. Each of these .45 caliber rounds are solid propellant rocket units, last manufactured in the 70’s or so. They apparently run about $200 *each,* which makes me wonder if there might be a market for newly manufactured ammo. As a practical  home defense, police or military weapon… the Gyrojet basically wasn’t. It took something like 50 feet for the round to reach maximum velocity, which means at close range it might just bounce off an opponent. But as a range toy they might be fun, especially if the cost per round could be dropped substantially. And there’s no reason why it can’t… sure, each round is more complex than an equivalent conventional bullet, but they are just some basic parts with 1960’s rocket propellant. And that last could doubtless be improved; better propellant, better grain design and better manufacturing of the nozzle plate could *really* boost performance.

The claim is made here that the Gyrojet was designed to be used in space because they were uncertain if conventional gunpowder firearms would work in a vacuum. This is untrue; nobody with the least bit of understanding of the chemistry of gunpowder and how guns work thinks that guns *won’t* work in space. However, conventional firearms do have three major issues for space applications:

  1. Recoil.
  2. Thermal issues: exposure to sunlight and vacuum means that small metal devices like guns heat up *fast.*
  3. Vacuum issues: grease, gun oil and the like boil off quick, meaning they can’t be used in space.

 

The Gyrojet has far lower recoil than conventional firearms. And the Gyrojet is a far simpler mechanism, made largely from stamped metal sheet to far lower specifications. This means it can heat up without jamming, with virtually no need for lubricants. So the Gyrojet seems like it’d make a dandy sidearm for the USSF. Bump it up to .75 caliber and you have yourself a light bolter. And perhaps best: home manufacture of Gyrojets would be *easy.* A 3D printed Gyrojet, with some *basic* metal parts, would not only be easy to make, but with vastly lower forces imparted on it than a conventional firearm, it’d be far less likely to explode.

 

So… where are the new-manufacture Gyrojet rounds? At $200 a round for the vintage stuff, you can start off *real* expensive and still undercut the current market.

 

 Posted by at 6:52 am

KSC Master Plan

 awesomeness, books, history, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Aug 102023
 

Recently acquired at some cost, and finally fully scanned at some effort, is this 1965 “Master Plan” for Kennedy Space Center. It’s basically a book of maps of the region showing all aspect of the infrastructure. It’s in good shape and was scanned at 600 DPI rather than the usual 300, due to the fine quality of the maps. It will be in the next catalog for Patrons and Subscribers to vote on. It’s a little out of the usual for APR… it’s not about unbuilt aircraft or spacecraft; in fact, no aircraft or spacecraft designs are included. But it’s still an interesting historical artifact.

I also have a KSC Master Plan from the Shuttle era. Substantially larger format, with more conventional full-color maps. I haven’t scanned that due to the chore it would be to get done, but if this proves popular, I’ll get on it. I *also* have a large-format Master Plan for Ames Research Center.

 

If you are interested, check out the Historical Documents Program.

 

 

 Posted by at 11:46 pm

National Socialism = Socialism

 Forward!, history, Hmm..., politics, youtube  No Responses »
Aug 102023
 

There is an ongoing spat between two YouTubers. The details don’t really matter; the YouTubers don’t really matter. Like a lot of these things, their spat is boooring. However, sometimes these sad little moments result in other people trying to explain the situation, and making something interesting and useful out of it. Below is a video from yet another YouTuber; in the process of explaining why one of the combatants is wrong, he devotes the majority of his video to explaining how 1930’s/40’s German National Socialism is indeed far leftist ideology, and actual *socialist* ideology. This is not a new concept, but some people persist in believing that Funny Mustache Man was actually a right winger, and it’s always important to correct them.

 

 

 Posted by at 8:07 pm

English history up in smoke

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Gah., history, Hmm..., news, politics, Worldwreckers, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Aug 082023
 

People who have lived in a place for centuries often hold eccentric, old, downright obsolete facilities in higher regard than people who hav4e just moved in and have no links to the place. Example: a centuries-old pub was sold to a developer. It was signed up for historic protection, but before the paperwork could go through a pile of rubble was mysteriously dumped into the road leading to it. And then it mysteriously caught fire, with the pile of rubble blocking the fire department. The brick structure remained standing, opening up the possibility of being restored; it was then very quickly razed to the ground mechanically. Gosh, I guess it’s gone, nothing left for it but to built cheap housing on the very valuable plot of land…

 

Police ‘reviewing all evidence’ on cause of Crooked House pub fire

Mayor calls for Crooked House pub gutted by fire to be rebuilt ‘brick by brick’

 

 

Huh. It’s a mystery.

 

 Posted by at 3:45 pm
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