The B-47s and a Cold War Interlude

That incredibly helpful  hint narrows it down to a 60 year period.

 I spotted this great remnant from the Cold War at a local antique mall.  I had to do a little Wikipedia and web searching to determine the make of these bombers.  These B-47s predated the B-52.  The result of early post-WWII research, they were designed to drop atomic bombs on Russia.

The societal and economic impact of defense operations on small cities is significant.  But finding a phone book with this cover art surprised me.

There wasn't much in Topeka, Kansas in 1963.  Forbes Field was formerly a Strategic Air Command base and later home to horizontal silo ICBMs.  I love this action shot.  Good to know that our nuclear bombers could be scrambled in a hurry.  I'm glad they were never used for their intended purpose.

Up in the air over Wichita, Kansas.  Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Having grown up in the era of Mutually Assured Destruction, I have an odd fascination with the mechanics behind the Cold War and still love aviation history.  My wife's cousin interned at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum while working on his Doctorate in the history of technology.  I was more than a little jealous.

The B-47 was produced in Wichita, Kansas.  Up until last month, Boeing was a major presence in Kansas.  It recently repaid the efforts of our Congressional delegation and the Brownback administration to land a lucrative refueling tanker deal by announcing their departure next year.  Basically, the politicians were pwned by the corporation.

B-47s on the Flight Line.  Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

Editorial Comment:  Done well, vintage black and white film photography was just gorgeous!

Wrong era, but I still love this graphic from Jordanoff's Illustrated Aviation Dictionary

Juvenile Cold War Space Fiction

Front Cover:  Thank goodness for Rip and his brave friends!  Oops.  Looks like he pulled a Luke Skywalker and lost yet another gunner.

Inspired by a recent post at Richard's Writing Ball blog, I pulled out an acquisition from earlier this year.  Featuring the heroic Rip Foster, Assignment In Space is copyrighted 1958 and written by someone who chose the equally heroic sounding pseudonym of Blake Savage.

Savage, indeed.  I read a couple of paragraphs out loud to my fourteen year old and felt my IQ drop several points.  For safety's sake, I'm turning a portion of this entry over to the Olympia SM9.

Hmm.  The graph paper has green lines but doesn't scan all that well.  Perhaps I will give the SM9 a black/red ribbon and see how that works.  Comments on unusual vintage paper choices are welcome.

Let's take a look at the back and some of the in between pages:

Back Cover:  Looking mighty Soviet what with the typography and the red suits.  Nice shot, Rip!

Mining thorium is hard.

Getting shot in Zero G is even harder.

"You shoot that ship while I kick a planet into the other one's path!"

Wow.  I just realized how sarcastic this post became.  Really, I did not intend it to be this snarky.  I guess too many standards committee conference calls in one day makes me peevish. 

So why did I bring this book home?  Extreme snark aside, I actually love the cover art and illustrations.  In retrospect, I realize now that my kids have access to much better literature than I ever did.  Hey old folks - remember "Dick and Jane" in first grade?  "Assignment in Space" is high literature in comparison.

Despite my diss, this is the kind of stuff I loved as a kid growing up in the Space Age.  Yes, worrying about nuclear Armageddon was no fun at all.  But dang, I watched the first lunar landing live on TV.  How cool is that?

Svetlana Optima's Rules for Survival

This is the first experiment in using an actual scanner instead of camera for posting a typecast.  Claire, codename gingercat, had some unfortunate experiences over the last week.  She is as tough and lucky as the average secret agent.  Svetlana has grudging admiration for those qualities.