LostCosmonaut posted:

Suicide Watch posted:

When you see a plane painted like this you know it's up to no good

Inacio posted:

I'd say best plane but I don't want to get chastised by the thread.

BIG HEADLINE posted:

I've been reading "Fifteen Minutes" about LeMay's persistent desire to start WW3, and evidently the Air Force was *not happy* about having to repaint the undersides of BUFFs from anti-flash white to 'harder to spot' black. Of course, they were even less happy about putting their precious hydrogen bomb trucks in harm's way in the first place to bomb 'suspected truck parks,' too.

AlmightyPants posted:

Over the years I've gathered that LeMay wanted to start WW3, but I never understood his rationale. Similarly, I'm kind of impressed that despite his long time in such a position of power he was constantly prevented from starting WW3. Is there any information on this?

quote:

Native annalists may look sadly back from the future on that period when we had the atomic bomb and the Russians didn't. Or when the Russians had aquired (through connivance and treachery of Westerns with warped minds) the atomic bomb—and yet still didn't have any stockpile of the weapons. That was the era when we might have destroyed Russia completely and not even skinned our elbows doing it.

Platystemon posted:

As to the balance that kept him in power, but not starting WWIII: I wish I knew. Time travellers, maybe.

ehnus posted:

Neat! I never knew they captured the YF-12 outrunning a surface-to-air missile!

Jaguars! posted:

more of an air to surface missile, generally

BIG HEADLINE posted:

Or it's a rare moment in human history where decency and morality won over morbid logic. Unlikely*, I know - but I'm a pessimistic fucker by stock and trade and I've gotta imagine silver linings *somewhere*.

* the real reason is that despite having deliverable weapons to the other side's 'nothing,' that we 1) didn't have enough fissile material for a usable stockpile until around 1949 for purely fission bombs, 2) until the B-47 and B-52 the plan for delivering the few bombs we DID have was "fly B-29s and B-36s in large formations and hope the Reds don't shoot down the ones carrying the nukes," and 3) before the B-47 and B-52 were introduced, we were dropping bombs that were landing well off target, which meant that even though we HAD the bombs in larger quantity than the Russians and could deliver more of them to the general *vicinity* of targets, we couldn't guarantee their usefulness, and the delivery platforms were simultaneously immensely valuable and extremely unreliable at the same time.

quote:

If you kill enough of them, they stop fighting.

quote:

If we maintain our faith in God, love of freedom, and superior global air power, the future looks good.

BIG HEADLINE posted:

Or it's a rare moment in human history where decency and morality won over morbid logic. Unlikely*, I know - but I'm a pessimistic fucker by stock and trade and I've gotta imagine silver linings *somewhere*.

* the real reason is that despite having deliverable weapons to the other side's 'nothing,' that we 1) didn't have enough fissile material for a usable stockpile until around 1949 for purely fission bombs, 2) until the B-47 and B-52 the plan for delivering the few bombs we DID have was "fly B-29s and B-36s in large formations and hope the Reds don't shoot down the ones carrying the nukes," and 3) before the B-47 and B-52 were introduced, we were dropping bombs that were landing well off target, which meant that even though we HAD the bombs in larger quantity than the Russians and could deliver more of them to the general *vicinity* of targets, we couldn't guarantee their usefulness, and the delivery platforms were simultaneously immensely valuable and extremely unreliable at the same time.

quote:

Twelve Vixen B trials, between 1960 and 1963, attempted to discover the effects of high explosives detonating a nuclear weapon in a fire (typical of conditions which would occur in aviation accidents) and involved 22 kg of plutonium. They produced "jets of molten, burning plutonium extending hundreds of feet into the air."

Nebakenezzer posted:

I wonder if anybody ever said to LeMay "Hey, isn't this how World War 2 started? A golden opportunity to attack an enemy and knock them out quickly?"

blugu64 posted:

Love me some lemay quotes

quote:

If we maintain our faith in God, love of freedom, and superior global air power, the future looks good.

Party Plane Jones posted:

You also forgot that Russia is relatively close to the NATO countries so any potential fallout would inevitably drop on them as well. If Russia was as isolated as, say, Australia is it would have been a more attractive option.

Ola posted:

Yes, apart from those practical reasons they should have murdered 100 million people so we didn't have to risk a war breaking out.

quote:

General Turgidson: Mr. President, we are rapidly approaching a moment of truth both for ourselves as human beings and for the life of our nation. Now, truth is not always a pleasant thing. But it is necessary now to make a choice, to choose between two admittedly regrettable, but nevertheless *distinguishable*, postwar environments: one where you got twenty million people killed, and the other where you got a hundred and fifty million people killed.

President Merkin Muffley: You're talking about mass murder, General, not war!

General "Buck" Turgidson: Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks.

President Merkin Muffley: I will not go down in history as the greatest mass-murderer since Adolf Hitler.

General "Buck" Turgidson: Perhaps it might be better, Mr. President, if you were more concerned with the American People than with your image in the history books.

Nebakenezzer posted:

I think if you assume, like I think LeMay did, that nuclear war with the Warsaw Pact was 100% inevitable, then it was pretty much, well, like George C. Scott in Dr. Strangelove:

Alereon posted:

The more you know about the cold war, air power, and nuclear deterrence the better this movie gets. It's truly a masterpiece. Also, "turgid" is a great word.

Godholio posted:

I can't believe my family isn't posting LeMay quotes on facebook.

quote:

I don't want to hear of any of you men getting into any fights with the British. But if you do, you'd better not get whipped.

quote:

I think there are many times when it would be most efficient to use nuclear weapons. However, the public opinion in this country and throughout the world throw up their hands in horror when you mention nuclear weapons, just because of the propaganda that's been fed to them.

aphid_licker posted:

Imagine living in the world where it happened. "Hey, remember that day America went and killed Russia?" That's gotta put a bit of a dent in your general outlook.

Jaguars! posted:

more of an air to surface missile, generally

blugu64 posted:

Actual quasi content as I don't think there is anywhere else to post it. I found a Davy Crockett, B53, and a nuclear rocket at the museum of atomic testing in Las Vegas.

Suicide Watch posted:

https://www.wired.com/2016/09/air-force-stash-f-22s-us-nasa-yeah-sure-got-room/


I wonder if they have a hangar map with little F-22 shapes like they do on carriers

quote:

But again with the mutual love: NASA uses the base’s runways for their own aircraft. Share and share alike.

Except … at the low end of the F-22 cost estimate, those 13 parked planes are worth about $1.8 billion—that’s 10 percent of NASA’s total annual budget.

TheFluff posted:

LET'S MAKE SOME NOISE

Suicide Watch posted:

https://www.wired.com/2016/09/air-force-stash-f-22s-us-nasa-yeah-sure-got-room/


I wonder if they have a hangar map with little F-22 shapes like they do on carriers

Nebakenezzer posted:

I'm imagining some sort of Ocean's 11 where the Davy Crockett is still live, and they gotta steal it from a museum as part of the latest big plot.

"What the hell? This thing is rigged to blow with a egg timer?"

Enourmo posted:

Actually that reminds me, why the gently caress did we skip all the F-designations between 22 and 35? I realize the joint strike fighter prototypes were the X-32 and X-35, but why when it was chosen as the contest winner wasn't it re-designated F-24 or whatever?

designation-systems.net posted:

(4) Design Number: Each vehicle type and basic mission symbol is used to form a separate series of design numbers. E.g., all helicopters are designated in a single numerical sequence, while "normal" aircraft are designated in separate series according to their basic mission. According to the instructions, the numbers in each series are to be assigned in strict numerical sequence without reference to manufacturers' model numbers and/or existing numbers in other MDS series. However, this rule is rather often violated nowadays, e.g. by using the manufacturer's model number (e.g. KC-767A), retaining the number when a new designation in another series is assigned (e.g. the production variant of the X-35 was designated F-35, although the next number in the F-series was 24), or allocating "special" numbers (e.g. X-50A, T-6A). For more information on these and other examples, see article on Non-Standard DOD Aircraft Designations. Also, sometimes numbers are skipped in one series because they are in use at the same time in another series (e.g. C-34 was skipped to "avoid confusion" with T-34).

quote:

The PO sends a written request for assignment of a new MDS to the DODCP. For U.S. Air Force POs this is done directly, while for the other DOD services (Navy/Marines, Army, Coast Guard) or the NASA, this is done via that service's DCP (Departmental Control Point), which handles and forwards all MDS requests for the respective service. The written request must include a reasonably detailed description of the program and the vehicle, so that DODCP can determine which new MDS (if any!) should be assigned.

blugu64 posted:

I'd be lying if I didn't think about how awesome one would look in my office. Side note, I also forgot I saw this too:

Terrible Robot posted:

64 days 22 hours 19 minutes

Still find it hard to believe.