I Did Raise This As A Leading Question In Yesteryon's Blog
Now, we need to recapitulate a bit of Big Bang Bomb BOMARC background, because I don't trust your attention spans.
You will recall that the Ol' Bo was a nuclear-tipped supersonic Surface To Air Missile (hence SAM), whose design spec originated in the early Fifties, and which was obsolete by the time it got deployed. Art!
Now, these things could go like stink, to use an Air Force technical term. They lifted off on a rocket engine, which you can see above, gradually angling over from vertical to horizontal flight, by which time they were hitting Mach 2.8 as their twin ramjets took over.
As you may suspect, they did not accelerate from zero to 2,147 miles per hour by combusting unicorn poop and fairy farts; they used hydrazine and nitric acid. Art!
Hydrazine is fantastically efficient as a rocket fuel and a colossal danger in every other way; you can see the chaps above having to use full haz-mat suits with an external air supply, as it's toxic as all get out. It will do-in (apologies for the technical jargon) your lungs, liver, kidneys, eyes, central nervous system, thyroid, spleen and skin if you're exposed to it. Nobody has come back and reported that it's bad for your patellae, but I wouldn't take any chances.
Then there's nitric acid. The fumes will irritate your eyes, lungs and skin and if you spill it on yourself then it will transform you into a species of organic soup. Art!
Where there's a spill, it'll make you ill
These compounds were used as fuel because they are hypergolic; that is, they spontaneously ignite when brought into contact with each other. So, no external ignition source or naked flame is required for HyZNiac funzies. Art!
Like it says on the tin, these arrows are pointing to "Hazardous Components" and I think the rearmost cylindrical tank is the fuel container.
It's not obvious if it's one of the HCs above, but on 7th June 1960, a helium vessel inside a BOMARC ruptured, the explosion in turn rupturing the fuel tanks, which instantly created a raging fire that lasted for 45 minutes until fire crews extinguished it.
That second cylinder? I think that's the W40 fusion-boosted 10 kiloton fission warhead. The dimensions are about right. Art!
The fire melted the missile body, and the nuclear warhead, and the reason you don't have the McGuire Memorial Crater is because 1) the explosive girdle around the warhead didn't detonate but either melted or burned, and 2) you may be ahead of me here - the warhead's safety designs meant it didn't detonate. If 1) had happened then acres of ground would have been contaminated. If 2) had occurred - Art!
Long after when the wreckage had been cleared
There were 55 other BOMARCs on site; heaven only knows what would have happened to their warheads. I don't know if there have been practical tests on what happens to an intact nuclear warhead if another live one goes off nearby, and I genuinely doubt anyone would be bonkers enough to suggest trying it.
Your Humble Scribe has perused Google and teh interwebz pretttty thoroughlyl and cannot find any photographs of this fire, with only a couple of long-range photos of the ensuing damage. It is fairly obvious that the South Canadian Air Force sat on any picture evidence as it would have been bad for their image.
You never know, it's now over 60 years since the fire. Perhaps evidence will be released in another 40 years. One can only remain hopeful.
I Am A Man Of My Word*
Yesterday I raised the issue of what has long been known as the "Meinertzhagen Haversack", a deceptive measure carried out by Perfidious Albion before the beginning of the Third Battle Of Gaza in the First Unpleasantness. Briefly put, the haversack contained lots of faked yet convincing documents that seemed to indicate the British would only make a feint attack on Beersheba. Art!
 |
| Thirsty Ockers and horses drink up |
The ruse was an outstanding success, so Colonel Meinertzhagen claimed, post-war, to have been the one to come up with the idea and to have carried it out.
Long after the event, it seems that Meiny was a cad and a bounder. His professional reputation began to unwrap in the Eighties, with a final nine-inch nail hammered into his coffin earlier this century.
Conrad has dug up an Australian precis that states the "Journal Of Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence" from 2014 proved Meiny did not suggest the scheme. That would be a James Belgrave. No, I've not dug up any info on him. Give me time! AND the daring officer who dropped the fake satchel almost at the feet of a Turkish cavalry patrol was one Captain Arthur Neate.
Told you I'd follow-up.
An Interesting List I Found
As you should surely know by now, Conrad ends up in odd corners of the internet without being entirely sure how we got here. We're not in Royton any more, Edna.
So -
I confess I'd never heard of this particular kitchen innovation. Art!
"Meat Shredding Claws"? I suppose it's fairly obvious what you do with them. The downside is that the cheaper ones are made of plastic and bend into uselessness at the first go. The expensive metal ones do no better a job than a pair of forks (note how I avoid a tasteless pun here), which you can find in your cutlery drawer for free. Art!
"City In The Sky"
The Doctor is doing a bit of charming, seeking transport to travel into the outback.
Deferring to a man who knew all about
spaceships when he personally knew nothing at all, Mike shrugged in acceptance.
‘Take this,’ he said, offering what the Doctor recognised as a hacksawed
Volkswagen bezel, where the large “W” had been removed and a chain hung from
the “V”’s apex. Not quite an “A” for
“Assistant Mayor”, but close enough. ‘Go
to the courier station and ask for a reserve horse. Please, don’t injure or exhaust it, or I’ll
be up for the chop.’
‘Thank you!’ exclaimed the Doctor, smiling mightily and walking
backwards whilst bowing, making a timely exit before the Assistant Mayor
changed his mind.
‘Right, Alex. You’ve seen
everything to see here. Let’s get back
to Don and you can tell us all about your
The deeply-tanned courier station staff, a clutch of hard-bitten
horsemen, were suspicious at first when the Doctor ventured into their humble
homestead. His display of the Assistant
Mayor’s token quelled any doubts and they loaned him a good-natured roan mare,
being warned not to ride her to exhaustion or get stalked by Hunting Spiders.
Ah, yes, the Hunting Spiders. The fan fiction equivalent of Chekhov's Gun.
Going Round In Circles
Thanks to the Beeb for their photography contest on the theme of 'Circles', which their competition entrants interpreted pretty broadly. Art!
Courtesy Mark Roughley
This is Mark experimenting with his camera in preparation for Bonfire Night, when the whole of This Sceptred Isle indulges in dangerous explosive devices. Sorry but there is no information about what, exactly, is causing this phenomenon.
"The War Illustrated"
We are now onto Edition 183, which is dated 23rd June 1944. Art!
This is General, later Field Marshal, Alexander, the top dog in Italy. The peninsula would continue to hold pole publicity position for a short while, as the delay between photographs being sent back to Blighty moved beyond the two-week Operational Security period. You might have expected D-Day and the invasion of France to be front-page news in TWI - but don't forget, you're dealing with Perfidious Albion. The Teutons were convinced that the Normandy landings were a subsidiary or complete feint, and that the 'real' landings would be in the Pas De Calais. TWI was not allowed to publish anything that might undermine this fallacious reasoning.
<dons heated mittens>
Finally -
I've just been outside to put the blue bin out and it's vile weather - cold, windy, damp and drizzling. Definitely weather for stew.
* "Man" is debatable as is this whole assertion.
No comments:
Post a Comment