1986 ... Soviet Civil Defense!

... more from this endless series of Soviet Civil Defense posters. No way around it; digging slit trenches and then covering them with a layer of earth looks way too much like digging your own grave!

all images- Right click- open in New Window or Tab = super colossal size!

1950 ... "How to Protect Yourself in an Atomic Attack"

... Grim - that was the mood of Civil Defense advice at the start of the Cold War. Five short years after the end of WW2 and many people felt that an atomic slug-fest with the 'Reds' was inevitable.

Here's a helpful film to prepare us for what is coming in 1951 - in grim black and white narrated grimly by Edward R. Murrow.

1946 ... "the wing will fly!"

... the swirl of controversy and regret about the Flying Wing and it's ill-fate attempt to become America's first true intercontinental bomber will never fade! Plenty of evil doing and dooers by Convair and corrupt politicians. But the long and short of it was that without modern computerized controls the tailess design would have been hell to control at the high altitudes that would be required for the nuclear mission.

90 min docu. tells the whole dramatic tale.

 

1958 ... cold-war soap opera!

all images- Right click- open in New Window or Tab = super colossal size!

1953 ... "blowin' the chickens around the barnyard!"

... results of a fun little project of my photo-illustration work. In cooperation with professional model maker Guy Pernetti and diorama artist extraordinaire Michael Paul Smith. LINK

... not that this sort of thing didn't really happen!

 

... USSR: CD practice!

... this looks like one of those "insert caption here!" contests.

 

1954 ... a fine pickle!

... I think this is a fictional account; but no doubt inspired by the run-away Castle-Bravo test earlier in 1954 - LINK

 

1955 ... stuff of nightmares!

... Operation Teapot: Turk shot, 43 kiloton - Nevada testing site.

... many more: LINK