Search Results : 1968 to 2001

Atlantic Airlines Flight 423 lost – 2,304 feared dead

 AARRRGH, aircraft, Hmm..., science fiction, ಠ_ಠ  24 Responses »
May 042015
 

As a “2001” nut, it was my goal to incorporate as much of the relevant technological backstory into my history of how to get from 1968 to 2001 as was available. A new bit of “2001” data has come to my attention… and, wow, I’m having a hard time rationalizing it.

In the scene where astronaut Frank Poole is shown blandly eating his meal on the Discovery’s centrifuge, you can see him reading something on his paper-thin tablet device. There is of course zero possibility of making out just what he’s reading. You’d expect it to be just a page of random text… but no, this was a Stanley Kubrick film, and the whole page was fiction created just for this. And apparently that page of text was preserved and published in the “Stanley Kubrick Catalog,” which I’ve not seen. But a small scan of the “newspaper article” was posted HERE, and is just barely legible. I’ve blown it up and cleaned it a bit, and the whole thing tells a rather remarkable tale.

It seems Atlantic Airlines flight  423 was presumed lost somewhere between New York and London. That’s not terribly interesting in and of itself. But AA flight 423  was a Mach 3-capable HEP/COMM 11-Z4 airliner with 12 engines, 2,109 passengers and 199 crew (including 11 pilots). Why the hell an aircraft capable of Mach 3 flying from New York to London would need *eleven* pilots is anybodies guess.

In the world of “2001,” I can easily assume the existence of Mach 3, 70,000 ft-altitude jetliners. I can grimace and kinda accept Mach 3 airliners with more than 2,000 passengers. But 200 crew? Nope. Sorry. Willing suspension of disbelief system failure.

2001 NYT article

Note that supersonic aircraft are described as “Mark 2” and “Mark 3” capable, which I’m guessing means an editing failure, as it would’ve made more sense for them to be “Mach 2” and “Mach 3” capable. I know, shocking… the press making dumb errors about techmologicamal stuff, even in the far distant era of 2001.

 Posted by at 11:04 pm

“A Million Pounds A Month”

 art, awesomeness, history, Hmm..., models, rockets, science, science fiction, spacecraft, youtube  No Responses »
Oct 122021
 

A film made circa 1965 by Con Pederson of Graphic Films for the USAF. It depicts the future of space operations as seen from the mid-1960’s, before the optimism about space came crashing down after Johnson cancelled Saturn V production in 1968. Pederson influenced Kubrick’s work on “2001: A Space Odyssey,” and that is visible in this film… the failure of the AE-35 unit is clearly seen, as is a rather chunky space pod prototype.

 Posted by at 7:46 am

TCM + Sci Fi

 history, science fiction  No Responses »
Jul 012019
 

Just an FYI: Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is running classic science fiction movies on Tuesday nights in July.

July 2: “A Trip To The Moon,” 1902; “Metropolis,” 1926; “Di Frau Im Mond,” 1931; “Things to Come,” 1936; and  bunch of “Flash Gordon” serials.

July 9: “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” 1951; “The War Of The Worlds,” 1953; “Forbidden Planet,” 1956; “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” 1956; “It Came from Outer Space,” 1953; “The Thing From Another World,” 1951; “Earth vs the Flyign Saucers,” 1956

July 16: “Destination Moon,” 1950; “For All mankind,” 1989; “Countdown,” 1968; ” From the Earth to the Moon,” 1958; “First Men In the Moon,” 1964; “20 million Miles to Earth,” 1957, “Them!” 1954; “The Blob,” 1958; “The Fly,” 1958

July 23: “The Time Machine,” 1960; “2001,” 1968; “Five Million Miles to Earth,” 1968; “Marooned,” 1969; “Twelve to the Moon,” 1960; “Village of the Damned,” 1960

July 30: “Close Encounters of the third Kind,” 1977; “Star Wars,” 1977; “Star Trek II,” 1982; “Solaris,” 1972; “Logans Run,” 1975; “Westworld,” 1973; “2010,” 1984

 Posted by at 4:09 pm

James Bond: A Space Odyssey

 art, blather, history, Hmm..., rockets, science fiction, spacecraft  No Responses »
Mar 172019
 

An idle thought occurred while Netflix was on for background noise while I poked away at the computer.

Can we shoehorn the James Bond and 2001 universes together? Obviously we can’t assume that every Bond movie is canonical with “2001,” since the Bond flicks recognize that the USSR fell. But *one* movie… maybe. Consider the linking figure: actor William Sylvester.

Sylvester played Dr. Heywood Floyd,  head of the National Council of Astronautics, in 1968’s “2001.” He also played “Pentagon Official” in 1967’s “You Only Live Twice.” Obviously these are not the same character, as the timeframes of the movies are separated by ~34 years, while the *actor* was essentially the same age (~45) in both movies. But here’s the what-if: what if that Pentagon Official was Heywood Floyds father? It’s *really* not that unusual for people deeply involved in the government bureaucracy and politics to have kids who follow in their footsteps. Dr. Floyd would have been born when his father was about 34, a perfectly cromulent age for that sort of thing.

It’s a minor point, of course, to have the same actor. But the events of “You Only Live Twice,” where a well-funded terrorist organization is paid by the Chinese to run a space launch facility and program to steal Soviet and American space capsules, might be just the sort of thing to set changes in the timeline in motion. A private organization operating Chinese equipment (it’s unclear whether the entire rocket and spacecraft were Chinese products through and through, or if SPECTRE designed them themselves using Chinese hardware, or what) and proving rapid turnaround for a partially reusable space launch system in 1967 would have been just the thing to get the USA and USSR off their butts. NASA was well on it’s way to the moon, but the “Bird One” spacecraft would have set them on the course to developing low-cost reusable craft *fast.* Because not only would it be obvious that major powers have such craft… so do criminal organizations.

“Pentagon Official” saw World War III nearly break out over a small reusable spacecraft of remarkable capability. Doubtless he would have shared that with his then-11-year-old son. That could well have set Lil’ Heywood on his way, just as the events set the US and the USSR on their way to lunar bases and space stations.

I suppose there might be a longer fan-fiction story in there.

– – –

By the way: a few years ago I mastered kits for Fantastic plastic that fit directly into this hypothesis. Click the pics for the links to ordering them.

 

 

 Posted by at 8:23 pm
 Newer Entries