AIRPOWER/Cold War - Its literally the first two lines of their hymn

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Agustin Cienfuegos: May 7, 2008

Thought I'd make up a little spy satellite post, how else did we learn about those darn pesky bears in the woods? Those are my pic-a-nic baskets!

The Corona project was a series of spy satellites developed by the U.S. in order to see what our friends in the CCCP, Red China, and other places may be up to without our knowledge. The program became even more important after Gary Powers got shot down in his U-2 over Holy Mother Russia. They were developed and deployed from 1959-1972 and were responsible for some firsts such as:

* 1st photo reconnaissance satellite in the world
* 1st mid-air recovery of a vehicle returning from space
* 1st mapping of earth from space
* 1st stereo-optical data from space
* 1st multiple reentry vehicles from space
* 1st reconnaissance program to fly 100 missions

They'd launch the satellite on a Thor-Agena rocket like so:

This is Discoverer 37 on the launch pad at Vandenberg in January 1962. Discoverer was the cover name for the program as a "scientific" mission. It's true use wouldn't be known until years later. This mission was a failure though, and no one got to see this KH-3 satellite's pretty pictures of people drinking kvass and T-62s drag racing in the tundra.

The first Corona image...a Soviet landing strip in far eastern Siberia, almost to Alaska.

That all seems fine a dandy, hell, I can even get better images on Google Earth now...but this was the granddaddy of it all. Of course, no one knew about this secret CIA operation until the 1990s.

I think the craziest thing about them (besides being used by the military-industrial complex to misreport the size of the bears) was the way in which the photos were retrieved, by mid-air grab.

The darn thing would tip upside down, poop out a little pod with the film, and parachute it down.

Where the CIA's gophers (U.S.A.F.) would come by and snag them in mid-air with the Flying Boxcar! Hooray C-119!

C-119 just wants to be loved.

Agustin Cienfuegos fucked around with this message at 01:09 on Jan 6, 2011

# ¿ Jan 6, 2011 01:07

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 09:05

Agustin Cienfuegos: May 7, 2008

iyaayas01 posted:

Cool AC-119 pics

That was a pretty cool spy satellite write up.

Thanks! I was doing some background reading for a project and they happen to come up, so I thought I'd turn it into a post. Might add a couple more things I came across, such as Ted Molczan (the guy who they programmed spy satellites to hide from) and cool/weird experimental aircraft at "the box".

# ¿ Jan 6, 2011 07:05

Agustin Cienfuegos: May 7, 2008

VSEPR posted:

Browsing youtube, I found a declassified video from what seems to be the early 1950's covering some of the planes in SAC and TAC, including the LABS maneuver.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nurNq5SvhT4

So far that uploader's other videos are equally cool.

# ¿ Jan 21, 2011 08:55

Agustin Cienfuegos: May 7, 2008

Tovarishi, what happen to knowledge of winners of Cold War!? Soviet Union wins this fight? Probably this is because of superior Soviet airpower.

Click here for the full 1000x667 image.
Su-25 is powerful weapon!

Су-25 (Amerikanski comrades call Frogfoot Su-25) is glorious example of will of Soviet peoples in air combat excellence. It is best for overcomplicate American capitalist mind to think of superior Su-25 as �Russian A-10�. This is best for understanding and friendship.

First Грач (Soviet forces name plane after mischievous bird, not mutilate amphibian part) was flying from year 1981 in battle against Osama bin Laden and American-backed allies in Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Su-25 swoops in and shoots everything up. Long has the Motherland operated sturmoviks against ground enemies. Su-25 is logical elevation of this history developed to pave way through NATO in Europe. Good-bye NATO, you have been terminated!

First important point is titanium bathtub for our pilot to protect. Ah, not only A-10 get this luxury! Cock Pit of Su-25 can withstand shelling of 20mm cannon. Only dent! Flying good.

Su-25 return from battle with smelly Georgians! Fly to home ok!

Now that pilot is good, he may attack ground enemies with smorgasbord of missiles, bombs and cannon. While American A-10 ground attack has overcomplicated technical showoff gun, beloved Su-25 has more practical, yet dead making Gsh-30-2 30mm cannon. Many attach points can carry rocket, bomb, missile, or even barrel of kvas.

Look at sexy time.

Americanski A-10 has fly to maximum at 706 kilometers per hour. Su-25 surpasses enemy imposter with maximum of 950 kilometers per hour. Check off win in column again for Russia!

Overcomplicate design of capitalist planes also cripple ability to fly from any crumbling airstrip in middle of forest like Грач. Su-25 take off in frozen tundra airfield covered in downed tree and with covering of empty vodka bottles. A-10 and other NATO types take oppression of hundreds of crewmembers to hourly sweep runway with toothbrush. Very sad and unfortunate.

Comrades in Peru show last-ditch assault tactic.

Watching of video is also good:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0mE_BCj-eg

# ¿ Feb 11, 2011 21:37

Agustin Cienfuegos: May 7, 2008

Muchas gracias a todos! I was procrastinating on some GIS work, and thought I'd try to make a stupid/awesome post.

The Peru Su-25s apparently came from Belarus...and are used to shoot down cocaine cowboys!

# ¿ Feb 12, 2011 00:21