... meanwhile back in the U.S.A.

Lest we go astray from our important topic of the 'end of the world', I think it's important to insert a random post of a mushroom cloud and... OH THAT'S JUST SILLY!

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"Casandra Carsons of Las Vegas was voted Miss Atomic Test by the 350th Bombardment Group. 'Now that's a special weapon I'd like in my bomb bay' said an unamed S.A.C. spokesman. Miss Carsons said she'd gladly give her all for her country and volunteered to

have her mega-tonnage dropped on any enemy target. Gdansk and Leningrad have asked to be first strike options!"

juggernaut of people's press rolls forth more uplifting posters of socialist triumph !!!

"Don't stop waving until the artist puts his brush down- do you want to be shot?"

The Peoples Squadrons of menacing red toy airplanes will forever keep our glorious sky's free!

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early Soviet posters

 Giant Stalin and other guy balloons float over Thanksgiving Day parade. Worlds largest paper mache tanks pass in review.

Lenin does interpretive dance- has anyone ever seen this guy smile?

In the color and font division of the propaganda war the Soviets had us beat hands down.
"That's straight tens for the Russians on modernist, negative space usage. Bad news for the Americans who seem to be stuck in colloquial realism. Boy,that's gotta hurt!"

Russia was soooo into Red

I love propaganda art. East or West. But the Communist Block nations had stuff that was so over the top it makes us "dirty capitalist swine" look lame in comparison. Much of Western propaganda came in the more subtle from of the biggest brother of the capitalist system- advertising.

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1969 ... meanwhile in Red China

ey, this isn't the Olympics!

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Those aren't pixels kids, those are thousands of people holding placards, each with a tiny part of the huge picture to form. Busby Berkeley would be thrilled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gGVryQDvv4&feature=related

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breakthrough bomber- BOEING B-47 STRATOJET

painting by John Young http://www.brooksart.com/Younglist.html

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The Boeing B-47 actually first flew in 1947 - just two years after the end of WWII.

It was a huge jump in aviation design. The thin wings had a radical 35 degree swept back angle and the engines were slung under those wings instead of buried in the fuselage. The B-47 was the prototype for most of the jet designs today.

Instead of heavy drag inducing machine gun turrets it had only a tail gun and relied on it's amazing speed for defense. She flew faster and higher than any Soviet fighter of the time.

The B-47 was the first purpose built nuclear bomber in the U.S. inventory. Although it was classified as a medium range bomber it worked well with the new technology of mid-air refueling and therefore could reach any enemy target in the world. Most of the 2,000 bombers built were "forward deployed" in locations close to the USSR such as the United Kingdom, and Greenland.

During the early 1950's, when our deterrent was almost completely reliant on bombers, the B-47 gave the U.S. and NATO overwhelming atomic superiority.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFZxfE6yAcw&feature=fvw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2Ahh0Yj6zI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqIJL8lx00o&feature=related

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note: it's fun to post links to videos but the cable channels get a lot of facts wrong- the first video on this list makes 3 mistakes in the first 30 sec- do these people stop to think that they are making a documentary?

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"...who forgot to pack the Twinkies!"

above: crew compartment, cutaway, Boeing B-47 bomber.

photo: pilot and co-pilot

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"Which one of us ejects DOWN?!?" 

Although from the outside the nose of the B-47 resembles a jet fighter- on the inside it's your typical Jules Verne nightmare! The pilot and co-pilot sat in ejection seats on top of a big central pedestal. The navigator-bombadier was wedged up forward in the nose on a lower platform. A narrow catwalk ran on either side below the pilots and to port there was a hatch and ladder down to the ground. Got that straight? 

In the event that it was time to leave the aircraft in a big hurry the pilots could be ejected out the top after the very big and heavy canopy was blown off. But because of his position in the nose the navigator-bombadier had to be blasted out of the aircraft downward through an explosive trap-door. All of this while you're going 600mph, on fire, upside down..... a walk in the park!

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for a better view send out for "Strategic Air Command" with Jimmy Stewart- and watch out for that tomato soup, it's hot!

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http://strategic-air-command.com/aircraft/B-47/b47-gallery-3view.htm

http://strategic-air-command.com/aircraft/B-47/b47-profiles.htm

fever dreams of VTOL

The Navy longed for a means of air cover for vital and vulnerable merchant convoys. What better way than to launch fighters straight up off the decks of the cargo ships? Landing these flying vego-matics left even veteran test pilots with a bad case of the shakes; that was on several acres of tarmac; now try it on the pitching deck of a ship!

 
We may note that the Navy conservatively held onto prop driven aircraft because they were proven and more fuel efficient than those new-fangled jets. It wasn't until those British invented steam catapults and angled carrier decks that the Navy gave up on wonderfully impossible designs like these.------------------------------------------------------------

top- a real budget-buster from Leifpeng's flickr site

middle- XFY Convair "Pogo"

bottom- XFV-1 Lockheed "Salmon"

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note for all the non-geeks out there- VTOL= vertical take-off and land
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Another Cold War benefit of VTOL is you don't need to rely on airbases with their miles of concrete runways; with a big bulls-eye painted on them. Imagine how cool it would be to have one of these stationed in the backyard next to your swing-set! "Hey mister, you want some lemonade!"

disclaimer- 1964 (amended)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97Rnn8MGat8

"ooooooh pretty!"

The French make the prettiest hydrogen bombs. C'est Oui! The big donut is due to the very high humidity of the atmosphere in beautiful French Polynesia where this test took place.

Spectacular but relatively small and practical- 1 megaton range. (Like their cars.)

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Strangely, I remember this was a common poster in head-shops of the 1960s.

"ooooooh look at the colors!"

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"...please stand by."

 

Ah yes, our founding fathers...

Is it possible that Stanley Kubrick and Peter Sellers did more to avert the end of the world than all of the politicians and test ban treaties combined?

The genius of "Dr. Strangelove" is how it captures both the grim reality and the wild absurdity of Mutual Assured Destruction. It gave the "unthinkable" a human face. If we dared to laugh at the end of the world, then maybe we could stop it,

or maybe it wouldn't happen at all.

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Dr. Strangelove makes his entrance- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTstgN8ReTo