I’ve posted some B-58 videos previously, but not in a while, and this one is interesting: “Tall Man Five Five”.
I can’t tell if that record still stands: I suspect it was broken by the SR-71, but the NAA’s records site is a bit awkward to use, and they changed the way they classify speed records a while back.
Bonus video: “Twenty Years of Strategic Air Command”, from 1946 to 1966. Silent, but short.
Science Sunday!
I’ve said before that I consider space stuff to be science. And computer history is science. So how about we cross the streams with another area that I find fascinating?
From the MIT Science Reporter circa 1965, “Computer For Apollo”, about the Apollo Guidance Computer.
I know I’ve mentioned him many times before, but Ken Shirriff has written a lot about the Apollo computers. There’s also this (affiliate link) which is even available in a handy Kindle edition (though it isn’t much of a savings over the physical book). May have to order that next time I get some funny money to play with…
Bonus video: also by way of the MIT Science Reporter, this time around 1961. We were riffing on Insane Clown Posse at one of the recent SDCs, and this may be more clearly science than the AGC.
“Big Magnets”.
Today’s installment is going to the dogs.
The Hound Dogs.
“Operation Blue Nose”, a co-production of our friends at the Strategic Air Command and the “Space and Information Systems Division” of North American Aviation. This documents a test of the Hound Dog (a fairly early cruise missile) in which a B-52 crew flew for 20+ hours over the North Pole and back…and then launched one of the missiles.
I’m amused by the banter among the crew (and the guy with the Confederate flag on his helmet – try that in today’s military), but I keep wondering how they got some of this footage.
Bonus video: what if we could launch an ICBM from an aircraft in flight, instead of a silo?
“Air Mobile Feasibility Demonstration” answers that question. Yes, the military actually tested shoving ICBMs out of the back of a C-5 and launching them.
“Coming up on a burn, coming up on a burn…” Do you get the feeling this guy went into sportscasting later on in life?
Last Friday, we had the DC-10. Today: the L-1011 TriStar.
We’ve already talked about the 747, of course.
From the early 1970s, “You Have To Get Up Pretty Damn Early To Beat The Tri-Star”, a vintage Lockheed promo film featuring Hank Dees, the L-1011 project pilot.
Frank Borman (who is still alive at 92) shows up as well. His Wikipedia entry is worth reading.
Bonus video #1: “Welcome Aboard”, another L-1011 promo, notable for references to Jules Verne, and for acknowledging that airline travel is cramped…in 1968. Sort of an antidote to all those other vintage videos showing people eating caviar off of fine china in the air…
Bonus video #2: “No Simple Thing”, another L-1011 promo, focusing mostly on the design of the aircraft.
Travel Thursday!
As far as I can tell, we’ve done Bermuda, Brazil, Ireland, and Hawaii in our ongoing Pan Am travelogue series. But we haven’t done an obvious destination. A country much like ours (at least in 1962) but separated by an ocean and a common language.
“Wings to Britian”.
Bonus video: I thought I’d throw this in, since it is short. A discussion of Toby jugs by two gentlemen from Bonhams Auctioneers. I have to confess: I enjoy those accents. Both of these gentlemen seem like the kind of person I’d like to take down to the pub for a pint or two.
I can’t find anything online that addresses the WWII symbolism of the Toby jug: was that an invention of the “12 O’Clock High” scriptwriters, or was this an actual tradition for aircrews?
I thought it might be fun to do two real (and kind of short) bits of history today.
This first one is all audio, with no real video, so you could put it on in the background while you work. This is an interview with Corporal Julius Franklin “General” Howell. He was born in 1846, enlisted in the Confederate Army at 16, and served in Company K of the 24th Virginia Calvary.
The interview is from 1947, when he was 101. He died in 1948.
Please do note that my posting this should not be construed as endorsement of any particular cause or idea; if I do endorse some cause or idea, I will say so here. I think it is interesting (as a half-baked frustrated wannabe historian) to hear people talk in their own words about events they lived through.
And in that vein: Mr. Samuel J. Seymour appears on “I’ve Got a Secret” on February 8, 1956. At the time, Mr. Seymour was 95.
I thought I’d take a break from nuclear war and the military and share a couple of mildly geeky videos.
First up: “Man and Computer: A Perspective”. This comes from IBM’s United Kingdom branch and dates to 1965.
Bonus video: I feel like I have to apologize for this one, but I’m posting it because I think certain people will get a kick out of it. It isn’t in English, and there are no subtitles. I’m not even sure what the title is. This is apparently from some point in the 1980s, and shows computing…in the Soviet Union. Including some shots of the Soviet version of the IBM PC.
Trolling, trolling, trolling…
Remember the good old days of the Cold War? When folks were afraid that we’d be bombed any minute?
From 1957, “A Day Called ‘X'”, a “documentary” about civil defense evacuating Portland, Oregon after being warned of an impending Russian bomber attack. This was a co-production of CBS Public Affairs and the Federal Civil Defense Administration.
Glenn Ford, noted Canadian, is the presenter and narrator. But everyone else in this movie is an actual person playing their real-life role. That guy striding purposefully into the Emergency Operations Center? That was Terry Schrunk, the mayor at the time.
But what happens after the bomb drops?
Bonus video: from 1968, “Nuclear Attack Preparedness Procedures: Survive To Fight”, an Air Force training film about advance preparations for an attack, and post-attack procedures (dealing with fallout, casualties, damage, etc.)
Science Sunday!
Back in the day (approximately 1952-1964) gleeful eccentrics walked the Earth. And I mean that in the best possible way: I would have enjoyed having a few beers with these guys if I had been around back then.
Some of them were interested in earth science. So they formed a group called the American Miscellaneous Society (AMSOC, because I’m not going to keep writing that out).
AMSOC’s biggest and most famous venture was Project Mohole.
Now, when you were a kid, you probably wanted to dig a hole to China. Or at least thought about it. Project Mohole was kind of that on a larger scale. Specifically, AMSOC’s idea with Mohole was to drill a hole through the earth’s crust and into the mantle to bring back samples.
Not that kind of samples. They were especially interested in the Mohorovičić discontinuity, the boundary between crust and mantle. (Hence the project name.)
But there was a problem. No, they were not looking for audiophiles who needed high quality cassette tapes. The problem was that the earth’s crust is really thick on dry land, and you have to drill down a long way to reach the mantle.
But! If you drill at sea, the crust is a lot thinner there, and you don’t have to drill as deep a hole!
But! This was the late 1950s – early 1960s. Drilling technology, especially deep sea drilling technology, wasn’t as advanced back then.
But! This was the late 1950s – early 1960s. Sputnik! Space race! We can do anything!
And so, with funding from the National Science Foundation, Project Mohole began in 1961.
Phase 1 was kind of cool: they used a drillship called CUSS 1, and developed “dynamic positioning”. That allowed the ship to hold a position within a radius of 600 feet, which, in turn, allowed them to drill in deep water. Their deepest hole went down to 601 feet under the sea floor, in a depth of 11,700 feet.
Unfortunately, stuff happened. AMSOC really wasn’t set up to manage big projects like this, so they turned the management over to the NSF. The various institutions involved didn’t completely see eye to eye on the project goals, and there was some infighting over where to drill the next hole, and whether to drill shallow holes first or go for the gusto and try to hit the Moho.
The NSF took bids on who the primary project contractor would be, and they ended up selecting Brown and Root. Now, I have a sentimental attachment to Brown and Root (my dad worked for them) but it seems like they were not the best choice to run the project. B&R apparently wasn’t highly skilled in sea drilling. Costs went up and up and up.
Then Congress got involved. Technically, Congress was already involved: one of the big supporters of Project Moho was Albert Thomas, a congressman from Houston. (Thomas was also key in getting NASA to locate the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. His involvement may explain why B&R was chosen as the primary contractor. The fact that B&R was also a big donor to Lyndon Johnson might have something to do with it as well.) Thomas died in February of 1966, and the project was cancelled later that year.
And somewhere, I have a copy of Willard Bascom’s A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea.
Short bonus video: this claims to be footage of a nuclear weapon being used to put out a massive gas well fire in the Soviet Union.
I’ve had this in my queue for a while because I’m not sure if it is real or fake. If it is fake, it is well done, and certainly suckered me in. I guess this is one of those “I report, you decide” moments.
We haven’t had any survival videos yet this week, so I think it is time for some choice cuts from the military’s archives.
“Mountain and Desert Survival – Desert Survival”, from the Air Force. I’m thinking 1963 for the date. It is in color.
Bonus: you can’t have one without the other. “Mountain and Desert Survival – Mountain Survival”. This is for sure from 1963, and also in color.
I was going to say something kind of snarky about the narrator, but on second thought, it would have been beneath me.
I know yesterday was Travel Thursday, but I think it’s time for some more planes. Specifically, some big jet airliners.
(If you haven’t seen it, “Genghis Blues” is a swell documentary, and is available on Amazon Prime.)
Where were we? Oh, yes, planes. Specifically, the DC-10. I think, like the Electra, this is another example of a good plane ruined by bad publicity. Though to be fair, the cargo door problem is one that should have been caught and fixed before people died: it wasn’t a little known phenomena, like whirl mode on the Electra.
But I suspect what really killed the DC-10 was American Flight 191, and that seems unfair. It wasn’t that the plane was bad: it was that the airline decided they were going to experiment with maintenance shortcuts on a passenger aircraft, and that came back to bite them good and hard.
Today’s feature video: “The Making of a DC-10”, from our friends at McDonnell Douglas.
Bonus: “The Ten Takes Flight”, a slightly longer video about the design and construction also from McDonnell Douglas.
Travel Thursday!
Where to this week? We’re going to Greece!
Why Greece? I’ve been enjoying a relatively new podcast, “The Delicious Legacy”, about the history of food in the ancient world. (If you want to give it a try, I recommend the episode “The Orthodox Easter Food Traditions“.) So why not?
From TWA: “Superjet to Greece”. Speaking of food:
Now I’m hungry.
Bonus video: since I don’t really have any place else to put this, “Across the World in 3 Seconds”, a short film about Pan Am’s communications and computer systems.
I thought I’d do a little trolling today.
Remember the Tailhook scandal?
Well, we have video of the reunion of the Tailhook Association…
…from 1968. I guess at some point it stopped being a “reunion” and started being a “symposium”. Or maybe it’s always been both a reunion and a symposium. I’m not clear.
There’s some interesting “a wink and a nod” stuff in here: “bold men with a zest for life”, un-orthodox use of “No Step” decals, a reference to supplies of tomato juice in Vegas being seriously depleted (because of aviators consuming Bloody Marys as a hangover cure). Then again, “…single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints“.
There’s also some nice vintage video of Vegas in the late 1960s, if that’s your pleasure.
(I kind of wonder how the admiral got his award home. But he was an admiral: that was probably a problem for his subordinates.)
(The Tailhook Association is still active, though the 2020 symposium has been cancelled due to the Wuhan flu.)
Bonus video: these are supposedly home movies of U-2 flight tests at Edwards AFB in 1972.
Time for some more military geekery. And I think that’s appropriate in this case, because this covers two interesting areas of research.
“Holloman — Frontier of the Future”, a documentary about Holloman AFB in New Mexico and some of the work going on there at the time. In addition to missile testing and flight operations, Holloman has a long (35,000 feet at the time: it was upgraded to 50,917 feet in 2000) rocket sled track: this is where John Paul Stapp did his work, and he’s interviewed briefly in the film.
Holloman was also the home base for Project Manhigh (though the balloons were launched from other sites).
If you can find a copy of it at a more reasonable price, The Pre-Astronauts: Manned Ballooning on the Threshold of Space by Craig Ryan (affiliate link), which is mentioned in the notes, is a swell book that I enthusiastically recommend.
Bonus video: and now for something completely different (and longer). I have not watched this yet, but I’m bookmarking it here for reasons I’ll go into in a moment.
From the National Capital Area Skeptics video channel on YouTube: Dr. Eric Cline lecturing on “1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed”.
I was totally unfamiliar with the Late Bronze Age Collapse until Paul Cooper covered it on the Fall of Civilizations podcast (which I enthusiastically endorse). Dr. Cline’s book (affiliate link) is on my Amazon wish list, and I’ll probably be ordering a copy soon-ish.
Science Sunday!
Remember back in the old days, around 2017 or 2018, when folks were losing their (stuff) over fracking?
Imagine what things would have been like if we were doing fracking…with atomic weapons.
“The Atom Underground”, from our friends at the Atomic Energy Commission. This is a documentary about Project Gasbuggy:
This was part of Project Plowshare, the government’s attempt to use nuclear weapons for “peaceful purposes”: digging harbors, building canals, and other massive excavation
Bonus video #1: here’s another point of view on Gasbuggy, which contains more actual test footage.
Bonus video #2: “A Force to Move the Earth”, a documentary from the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory focusing on the work of mechanical engineers. There’s also some interesting footage of LRL’s early computer time-sharing system.