Do you see what I have to compete with?
I might as well have parked a Citroen 2CV next to that 1977 Ferrari 308 GTS
Also:
What is the difference between Native Americans and a Classic Car show?
Native Americans have to dance to invoke rain.
(At least it was sunny on Sunday when I volunteered for Gate Sales)
The Lighthouse that Never Fails
1958
Lighthouse Launch animation for full launch sequence simulation
Wernher Von Braun driving a
Brown Engineering Small Lunar Rover mobility test vehicle
Huntsville, Al
1965
Still frame from Wernher Von Braun’s new hit series “Pimp Mein Auto”
Titan I launch
Vandenberg AFB Silo Test Launch Facility
1961
The Silo Test Launch Facility was designed for a Titan II, but because the Titan II was not ready, they used a Titan I to test the operational status of the silo. The second stage was filled with water and had an inert reentry vehicle, for testing purposes.
Electronic Intelligence by General Dynamics
Erik Nitsche
1960
Saturn-Apollo 7
Radio Frequency Interference Test
LC37B at Cape Canaveral, FL
August 13, 1964
Now when I say fins, which part of the photograph do you look at first?
I’m sure you’ve seen pictures like this:
and wondered “I’ve seen the NASA Mission Control before, but I’ve always wondered how they displayed those beautiful numerals both above the large screens and on the consoles, I wonder how they work?”
Well, you can find out after the break!
Unlike Nixie Tubes (which were used in more backroom operations; they weren’t as easy to read and didn’t give the same ‘wow’ factor for the cameras), they are not under vacuum and did not require immense power to keep them lit.
Above: Nixie Tube Display VS. In Line Readout
These devices called either “One Plane Displays” or “In-Line Readouts” were like mini projectors that contained small slides for numbers, letters, and even background color to highlight the information being displayed. Most were built by the Industrial Electric Engineers (IEE) and displayed Futura font, which is smooth and easier to identify than on Nixie tubes or edge lit displays
Below is an exploded view of the internals of an individual display which shows the light bulbs, light separator, magnification, and slides in the slide holder:
These displays were used on to display the channel number, process timers and position coordinates. Unfortunately, as processing speed increased and the advent of the LED and 6 segment displays were introduced, these displays were phased out and deemed inefficient and space wasting.
General Dynamics - Convair Astronautics
Point Loma Test Site
Atlas 10C being positioned into environmental test stand
1959
Someone must’ve been saving for that Jag!
To Mars by A-Bomb: The Secret History of Project Orion
Final Lesson: JFK is the reason we can’t have nice things
Dr. Strangelove (1964) - Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Ich möchteDoktorMerkwürdigleibesein!
The Queen Mary made it all the way from PA to FL (with help from the Autotrain, of course) but while driving it on the 3 and 1/2 hour trek from Pennsylvania to Virginia, it got 22 MPG on a mid 80’s V8 with a two tonne car!
The only problem I’ve found is a vacuum leak on the carburetor somewhere (in heat-sink one of the seals lets in air and causes the engine to stall), so I’ll have to replace the carburetor seal and the vacuum lines just to be sure.
Other than that, I’ll be transitioning from a bleh Summer back into College time!
"Vintage Cars are like bad Girlfriends."
- Elon Musk
2012
Well, I hear that Musk’s Daughters aren’t really dating material either…
General Dynamics / Convair Trailer Truck
Hauling an Atlas Missile
Circa 1960’s
I am sure a fan of Dr. Strangelove, and I’ve heard about Fail-Safe but unfortunately I’ve never seen it- it definitely is on my “to-see” list though! Thanks for reminding me-
Sorry for my long leave of absence, but my first senior semester of Aero Engineering turned out to be harder than I thought- But who thought that designing a Low Bypass Turbofan would be easy?
Thanks for sticking around to see what’s next-
Saturn Ib (Skylab 2) vs Saturn V (Skylab 1)
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
May 7, 1973
and
N11 vs N1 Moon Rocket
Tyura-Tam, Baikonur Cosmodrome
July 4, 1969
Give it up for these brave pilots, flying one of the only ever aircraft to fly with an operational Nuclear Reactor aboard, the XB-36H, used to test the effects of radiation on aircraft components in flight (the other aircraft being the Russian TU-95 LAL). While the converted Convair B-36 may not have been powered by the reactor, it was a first step toward a Nuclear Future!
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth
June 18, 1956
Aeritalia G91 vs Fiat 1800
1959
In the previous post about the XB-36H and post about the pilots, I also mentioned that there was another plane used for testing the effects of radiation on aircraft components, that being the Tupolev TU-95LAL AKA the “Letayushchaya Atomnaya Laboratoriya.” The converted TU-95 bomber had a small nuclear reactor fitted into the bomb bay, but because the VVRL-IOO reactor exceeded the size of the bomb bay, aerodynamic fairings on the top and bottom were added to accommodate the reactor and provide sufficient cooling.
Radiation sensors were added to the cockpit before and after the shielding, tail and in non-removable wing pods of the aircraft, and a chart of the Neutron flux measured from one of the sensors can be seen from the article “Рассеяние нейтронов в воздухе,” by В.М.Мордашев as seen above.
While testing of the aircraft components proved successful, shielding of the crew was not as adequate to crew survival as the American XB-36H. As written in a letter by Lead Test Pilot E. A. Guryanov (center)
"We’d all been irradiated, but we ignored it. Of the two crews, only three men survived: a young navigator, a military navigator, and me. The first to go, a young technician, took only three years to die." - Source.
Two other surviving crew members included Nyuhtikov Mikhail (Right), and M. A. Nyuhtikov(Left).
Here and Here are two recounts from engineers working on the TU-95LAL project. While the TU-95LAL aircraft may not have been powered by the Nuclear reactor, it was another step toward a Nuclear Tomorrow!
Merry (Late) Christmas!
Nike Hercules Decorated
