... just gotta love a documentary with Generals standing in front of giant projections of mushroom clouds and fireballs! LINK
1965 ... US Spy Sub!
... nifty cutaway of the US Navy submarine USS Halibut reconfigured as super-secret spy sub.
From the great website 'Covert Shores'
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all images- Right click- open in New Window or Tab = super colossal size!
... B-70 with 'Skybolts'
... artists conception of B-70's in USAF grey livery; with 'Skybolt' standoff missiles as external weaponry.
artist: Erik Simonsen
1957 ... Andy's dog gets zorched!
... guess we're missing a few panels here. #11 and #12: where Spot mutates into a 50 foot Caninesorus-Rex with death rays shooting from his eyes #12 and #14 where Andy is shipped to Guantanamo for water-boarding and LSD experiments.
... just kidding- thanks to 'hello chicago' here's the whole thing LINK
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... just kidding- thanks to 'hello chicago' here's the whole thing LINK
all images- Right click- open in New Window or Tab = super colossal size!
... Atomic Age Oppourtunity!
... seems like ever-time I watch a documentary about the development of Cold War jet-aircraft- there comes the moment when the narrator says "... finally the under performing Pratt & Whitney engines were replaced with General Electric engines!" - just sayin'.
... guided tour of the 'Doomsday Plane' - Boeing E4-B
"... well Natasha- we will have a pretty easy time of supplying Fearless Leader with ultra-secret espionage information of decadent capitalist pigs this week!"
"Yes Boris- we can relax and catch-up on re-runs of 'Get Smart'.
"Yes Boris- we can relax and catch-up on re-runs of 'Get Smart'.
1954 ... reading for Men!
... Sabre-Dogs and babes! What's not to like?
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all images- Right click- open in New Window or Tab = super colossal size!
1954 ... Convair- Atlas ICBM (film)
... have to wonder if Gerry Anderson might have been inspired by this promotional film before he started work on 'Fireball XL-5' or 'The Thunderbirds'. Super keeno- neato models of the Atlas ICBM when it was still in development stage. Do you think the Convair President's grand-kids got the models when it was done? Actually it's more fun to imagine Dick Nixon playing on the floor of the White House with Ike's grand-kids.
"I nuked you first!" "Naw- I got in the first-strike- you are So glass!"
... early Intercontinental Bomber ideas!
... before the practical development of in-flight refueling, if you wanted to go a really long way, you had to have a really big airplane. Lots and lots of fuel meant big fuel tanks, bigger wings for more lift, bigger tails for better steering in the high-altitudes which meant bigger engines etc. etc. There were a lot of designs. And a lot of wacky ideas.
Remember- in the late 1940's and early 50's there was a distinct lag between long range radar coverage, interceptor technology and the chance that this big baby (or a B-36) just might be able to slip through to it's target!
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all images- Right click- open in New Window or Tab = super colossal size!
1968 ... USAF in Spaaaaace!
... we have to realize that much of what spurred the "Space Race" was the Cold War and the "Arms Race". Big rockets meant big payloads; and those payloads could either be heroic astronauts of H-bombs. The Air Force had it's own space program throughout this period. USAF interest in military applications of space continued throughout the Cold-War. Remember Reagan's 'Star-Wars' (SDI) program. Here we see the sort of nifty magazine cover that I am trying to resurrect in my own illustration work. (no wimpy articles on green, baby-whale saving, technology here!)
Lifting body research helped lead to the Space Shuttle; but the fly-boys were talking manned bombers and fighters in orbit ... oorah!
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... my photo-illus - Vulcan
... I've always really liked the Vulcans in their original all-white 'anti-flash' livery.
But it's difficult to find good photos from that period. So I settled for a more moody depiction of this big V starting it's descent for it's low-level bomb run.
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1961 ... old iron pants!
... General Curtis E. LeMay - commander (inventor) of the USAF Strategic Air Command. Often criticized for his hawkish views (but would you really want the head of SAC to be a sissy?)
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