... bring US your Mig!


...Korean War leaflet dropped by America 'behind enemy lines' offering a reward for Communist pilots willing to defect - with their aircraft. 
 (including example of happy Soviet pilot that did)

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1960 ... Bell XF-109




 

1954 ... a big ol' son 'a bitch!


... the Mk-17 was the first mass-produced American Hydrogen bomb. At over 25 feet in length and weighing 21 tons it could only be carried by the B-36 bomber (shown here).

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... B-52 - sunset - slight bank to starboard


... recent examples of my illustration work.


... you may purchase prints of my work here


 

... B-1Bs - afterburner climbout!


... some of my recent illustration work. B-1 LINK


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... no big red button - more!


... as the 2nd entry in my dissertation on the control that the President of the United States has over the use of nuclear weapons I am going to defer to a much better authority: Alex Wellerstein and his excellent blog "Nuclear Secrecy". It is a rather prickly topic - given the current political climate - and I find it hard to keep the level of objectivity needed. Alex can explain it much better in a 3 part series starting here

 

1964 ... the genius of 'Failsafe'


 Important men need dramatic important rooms to make their decisions in. The set for the War Room at the Pentagon is well appointed mid-century corporate - but a little claustrophobic. It lends to the drama of the debate. Is this room in a hardened bunker below the Pentagon building?
 


William Hansen as Sec. of Defense Swenson listens silently to the debate between the think tank advisor and the Air Force General. I am trying to figure out why the Secretary was portrayed as a 'cripple'. ( We see him enter the conference room late- on the type of steel crutches often used by Polio victims in those times.) Was it a dramatic device of was the actor Hansen actually disabled at that point in his life?