FiendishThingy posted:

IanCaw posted:

So I finally went got to visit the A&S Museum's hangar at Dulles this past weekend. It was amazing, as expected, and it was great to see all the planes that I knew were there -- an SR71, the Space Shuttle Enterprise!, great, wonderful, all that. I expected that.


But my friend and I both stopped and did a holy-loving-poo poo look at the Enola Gay just hanging there, suspended, next to the walkway we were on. Maybe it was because I didn't know it would be there, but there was something.. daunting?.. about being right next to that particular plane. I know that this isn't 100% connected to this thread, but without the Enola Gay, the Cold War would have gone differently, to be sure.

Anyone else weirded out when seeing it, or other planes of specific historical significance?

Alpine Mustache posted:

What museum is that Hustler in?

Sunday Punch posted:

I'm not even sure what sort of advantage an orbital nuclear weapons platform would give you.

Karl_moebius posted:

if the nukes do fly and there is a ship or submarine that survives the exchange, was there even a plan or reccomendation? or did plans really stop at like, step #30: congratulations, you've started global thermonuclear war; kiss your rear end goodbye?

Flikken posted:

Executive Orders is completely

movax posted:

I was honestly shocked it went more than a few days without any posts, it had to be revived. I had some articles from Alert 5 I was going to link to spawn discussion but I never got around to it.

Now, everyone should read this. Pretty eye-opening about how the "simplest" things can go bad, very quickly.

co199 posted:

Mack Maloney's "Wingman" series is so goddamn ridiculous but I'll be a monkey's uncle if I don't love his depictions of WWIII's air war. Of course, having Hawk Hunter shoot down everything with wings with his F-16 and flying 10 missions a day is ridiculous, but hey, dad-fiction.

Psion posted:

Udvar-Hazy owns. I think I posted my gallery from this summer earlier. Well worth the trip. I might have to sacrifice something to the blood gods and hit the USAF museum out at Wright-Patterson but that would also require voluntarily going to Ohio.

grover posted:

The Genie had a 1.5kt warhead and a range of just 6 miles. Wiki has a story of its safety being "proven" in the one and only test by air force officers standing hatless directly under the blast..

wkarma posted:

Here's some cold warriors rusting away. Some BIG cold warriors. And a cat.

http://translate.google.com/transla...om%2F17486.html

grover posted:

The Genie had a 1.5kt warhead and a range of just 6 miles. Wiki has a story of its safety being "proven" in the one and only test by air force officers standing hatless directly under the blast..

Maj. Don Luttrell, Ret. USAF posted:

In hindsight … it appears that it was not safe.

Smiling Jack posted:

holy poo poo

Do you have any more details on this?

quote:

The accumulated air dose for the entire operation between Feb. 1958 and Jul. 1960 ranged from 300 - 33,000 Sievert

Godholio posted:

There are specific refueling track airspaces across the country. I have no idea where my chart is that shows them or I'd take a look and see if there's one there. Even if there's not, ATC is generally pretty accommodating with a request to do one ad-hoc as long as you're not stupid about where you want to do it.

Thief posted:

is that... real life?

Col. Kyle Robinson, CO, 48th FW posted:

We have bird strikes every time we fly an aircraft

Waroduce posted:

Can someone link any articles or talk about the US securing the Soviets nuclear arsenal?

B4Ctom1 posted:

I already read a bunch of budget proposals where the amount is well double north their estimate and that the total number would be pared down to roughly 45-55% of current to close to 300 total reducing the total MAD levels. They plan to actually break down old bombs using the best of everything left over.

Can you imagine what an all new nuclear bomb would cost per unit if they started it today? Closer to platinum by weight?

Mazz posted:

All the Navy's aircraft on one page.

mlmp08 posted:

USAF: even the ejection seats are sexist.

Dead Reckoning posted:

You're really better off picking an accident that didn't have international political or conspiracy dimensions. There are so many "crash caused by bad fuel panel design" options out there.

Look for NTSB accident reports. They're pretty thorough.

Dandywalken posted:

This is amazing, looking at the target list. Anything even vaguely related to industry is getting a nuke.

If they have a bag of cement OR a ball peen hammer on site, or are suspected to have at any point? SAC's paying a visit.

Godholio posted:

Hm, this makes me think I got AIX mixed up with something else in my earlier comment.

quote:

A US Hellfire missile was mistakenly shipped to Cuba sparking fears that sensitive military technology could end up in China, Russia or North Korea.
The laser-guided air-to-ground missile was being moved back from a military exercise in Europe but ended up on the communist island either by mistake, due to criminal activity, or as a result of espionage, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Despite a thawing of of its relations with Cuba over the last year the US has been struggling to retrieve the missile.
US officials do not believe Cuba would dismantle the Hellfire, which was inert and did not contain any explosives.
But they are concerned it could be passed to more technically advanced foreign powers who would.
Those countries could study the missile, including its sensors and targeting technology, to improve their own systems or develop counter-measures.
In early 2014 the missile was shipped by defence company Lockheed Martin from an airport in Orlando, Florida to Spain for use in a Nato exercise.
On its return journey officials loading a flight at Madrid airport noticed it was missing.
The missile was instead found to have been sent on a circuitous route, involving several shipping companies, through Germany to France.
By the time it was tracked down it was already on an Air France flight from Paris to Havana.
When the plane landed a Cuban official noticed the label on the container and impounded the missile.
The United States and Cuba formally restored diplomatic relations last July and re-opened embassies in each other's capitals.
But while negotiations were going on officials were also quietly trying to resolve the issue of the missing missile.
Cuba remains on the list of countries to which US military exports are banned.
Hellfire missiles weigh about 100 pounds and can be deployed from an attack helicopter like the Apache, or unmanned drones like the Predator in targeted strikes ion terrorists.
One was used to kill Mohammed Emwazi, otherwise known as Jihadi John, in Syria in November.
The US Justice Department is investigating the loss of the missile to establish who was responsible.
A US official told the Wall Street Journal: "Did someone take a bribe to send it somewhere else? Was it an intelligence operation, or just a series of mistakes? That’s what we’ve been trying to figure out."
The official said the US does not want any defence technology to remain in Cuba and efforts would continue to get to back.

Concordat posted:

Dumb post I found on the internet from years ago


Sounds terrifying.

Bulgaroctonus posted:

Still making my way through various films, (and drunk guitar squonking), but can any of y'all give a decent summary of French nukes? I thought, as an American, that we gave 'em away. But the facts and the truth tells me not.

Bulgaroctonus posted:

Does a steady diet of Steel Reserve, OE if necessary, count ?

Suspect Bucket posted:

It's got a lot of red on it too. Might be one of Jefferson's kids.