1962 ... the facts!
... after millions of Americans saw a cover story like this it is not hard to understand it was hard to generate enthusiastic support for civil defense. I was a seven year-old devotee of Life magazine at the time- hence my life-long nightmares of living in underground catacombs with atomic zombies scratching at the door!
I am surprised by how tough and unvarnished the facts of thermo-nuclear war are presented. Try to imagine that this is a very possible scenario for Ozzie and Harriet and not a forty-nine year old piece of historical flotsam.
1952 ...'ground support'
... during the Korean War using aircraft to provide 'close air-support' for fighting forces on the ground was further developed. Of course the gung-ho guys at 'Mechanix Illustrated' thought up some helpful, and weird, suggestions.
1949 ... prone pilot
... putting the pilot in a prone position was thought to be a way to help get through the high gravity forces of jet maneuvers. Instead 'g-suits' were developed; garments that tightened and kept blood from draining away from the upper body. It was also really hard to fly in this wacky position!
1956 ... Talos missiles
... your choice- with or without nuclear warhead!... here's your orientation film sailor! ( I'm starting to like the music on these Special Weapons' films)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgFIhomusc8
... SAC command center
... Offutt AFB, sixty feet underground, Nebraska. Mid 1960's.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offutt_AFB
1950 ... here come the British!
... from a marvelous, and endless, site of aviation history.http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/index.html
all images- Right click- open in New Window= super colossal size!
... 'our friend the atom'
... two ominous images from a recent series of articles I wrote for 'UltaSwank' on the push for atomic power in the 1950's and '60's.http://www.ultraswank.net/science/our-friend-the-atom-%E2%80%93-part-1/
1950's ... catastrophic comics
I spoke with someone who grew up in the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He said that he did not remember anything like this being offered to youngsters there.
... NATO air power
The European countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization maintained a vigorous aerospace industry which produced designs equal to the US and USSR. (Draken 1955, Swift 1954)
... cold Cold War
US Air Force personnel and B-50 Strategic bomber. The shortest air route between the Russia and the US was over the North Pole. A percentage of our atomic strike force was stationed at forward bases in Alaska and Greenland.
... 1951
... the cover illustration shows what looks to be a MIG-15 in the front position. It was an unexpected leap in fighter technology and a nasty surprise for American bomber and fighter pilots during the Korean War. Not only did Russia provide them to their North Korean and Chinese allies but much of the combat was secretly done by Russian pilots.
... airburst: 20 kiloton
... this illustration by famed artist Chesley Bonestell depicts a Hiroshima sized atomic bomb detonating at several thousand feet above a major American city. Detonating the weapon at an altitude above the target maximized blast damage. Illustrations like this, in major publications, helped to personalize the specter of atomic war. Producing both anti-war sentiment and anti-communist paranoia.... here is a depressing British documentary about the effects of a bomb 500 times larger detonated over London- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AYMS1po0L8
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