Fly Like A Beagle

If You Look Askance At Me - 
 - I shall reach down your broadband and slap you.  Yes, you read that correctly: "Beagle".  
    "But why a Beagle?" I hear you squawk.  "For as essentially earthbound canines they have little ability to fly, surely?"
     O ye of little faith.  Art?

Think of Dumbo, mate, on your way down.

     If an elephant with a magic feather can manage it, why not a dog?
     And, please, leave the mission to Mars out of it.  That was an autonomous probe, not a space-faring vessel.  No, the Beagle I refer to is this one.  Art?

As flying as it gets

     I don't know how three engines all pointing in different directions helps it along; if you have an issue, take it up with Chris Foss (the artist).
     None of which has anything to do with what I wanted to talk about first, namely the Orion III Spaceplane from "2001: A Space Odyssey" (hereafter 2001 as the full title is a bit of a mouthful).  Art?

A sexy bit of kit indeed

     Note something that I've only just realised - this thing is streamlined for atmospheric travel, rather than staying in orbit and picking up passengers from an orbiting ferry from Earth.  How does it take off?  Does it take off?
     The answer is in some pre-production design sketches, which that comatose sluggard Art had better sort out* -

Vaguely rude ...

     The Orion takes off from a vertical launch rail, carried aloft by a recoverable rocket booster.  Presumably it glides down to a landing a la the Space Shuttle? though I don't have time enough to go checking that out.  
     Incidentally, Fireball XL5 also took off from a launching ramp on a booster rocket, as imagined by futurologist Gerry Anderson.  Art?

Thus

      This came out in 1962, so it's definitely possible it influenced 2001, though of course the great-grandaddy of them all takes place in "When Worlds Collide".  Art?  Less coke more bloke!

On the grand scale

     This in turn is from 1951, so who's influencing whom?
     Ooops!  I only meant this to be a brief two-picture item about the Orion III.  See how I've rambled.**

"The Rezort"
I am currently 25 minutes in to this zombie film, which has an interesting premise: after 2 billion dead in global wars against zombies, humanity has finally won and is rebuilding.  There are no more zeds left, apart from a small island off the Australian coast, where wealthy tourists can come to hunt them down in safety.

Conrad predicts it'll all end in tears

     Now, we the audience have been to another nearby island, which houses 1) an airport and 2) a refugee camp right next to said airport.
     Are you familiar with Chekhov's Gun?  The Ruffian playwright pertinently observed that if, in Act One of a play, there is a gun hanging on the wall, then by Art Three it will be used.
     So I predict with "The Rezort" and 1) Airport, 2) Refugees and 3) Zombies.
     We shall see.

Nick Moran Contorts Himself Again
Nick, in case you are shockingly under-informed, is better known as "The Chieftain", and one of his pleasure in life is clambering over and inside various tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles.  This is no easy task, since he stands 6' 2", and there is barely enough room inside today's modern metal monsters for him.  He has found it very difficult to exit most tanks either quickly or without bruising, even when doing the "O b****r the tank is on fire" and simulating a panicked rush.
     Anyway, recently he has been doing his thing with an M5 Stuart light tank, so if Art -

O ta.

     Note the lack of sponsons, the single sloped glacis, the protecting metal cover that the turret machine gun folds down into.  Got that?  Let us now look at the M3 Stuart light tank.  Art?

T.V.M.***

     This has hull sponsons, a two-angled glacis and a turret of different shape and dimensions.  It also used a radial aircraft engine that gave terrific performance but which was a gas-guzzling monster, so the M5 has twin V8 diesel engines.

There we go - that's tanks and zombies covered, and if Art will just add in a picture from 2001 -

USAF Strategic Missile Platform

     - these things were all simply bristling with atom bombs.
     The BOOJUM! trifecta - tanks, zombie and atom bombs.  You know it makes sense!



*  He's been in the coke bunker again; it's too rich for him, but will he pay attention?
**  Of course, you love it really.  Right?
*** Ta Very Much