Lawnmower Boy Posted November 28, 2009 Report Share Posted November 28, 2009 Re: Sky Scorcher 1 megaton air-to-air missile (1956) I finally clicked on that link, and for all the details, what stood out was a description of the aftermath of a party at the testing site. It just says so much about the world view of the participants. The following morning, subdued but still happy, the celebrants lined up at the lab's medical tent for the vitamin B-12 shots that in those days were thought to cure hangovers. .... SCIENCE! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gewing Posted December 3, 2009 Report Share Posted December 3, 2009 Re: Sky Scorcher 1 megaton air-to-air missile (1956) I thought Slam was supposed to crash into a final target? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyrath Posted December 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2009 Re: Sky Scorcher 1 megaton air-to-air missile (1956) I thought Slam was supposed to crash into a final target? I think there were some mission profiles where it just orbited the target city until it started to glow blue, then it flew out to ditch itself in the Marianas Trench. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egyptoid Posted December 3, 2009 Report Share Posted December 3, 2009 Re: Sky Scorcher 1 megaton air-to-air missile (1956) >> SLAM (aka Project Pluto), the cruise missile stop that. you know how I get when you talk that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gewing Posted December 4, 2009 Report Share Posted December 4, 2009 Re: Sky Scorcher 1 megaton air-to-air missile (1956) I think there were some mission profiles where it just orbited the target city until it started to glow blue' date=' then it flew out to ditch itself in the Marianas Trench.[/quote'] Heck, it could have been programmed to do tight orbits over every enemy city in sequence... Though I wonder how well the guidance system would have held up to extremely long term exposure to those levels of radiation? It is interesting that iirc TERCOM guidance was orginally deveoloped for that weapon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clonus Posted December 4, 2009 Report Share Posted December 4, 2009 Re: Sky Scorcher 1 megaton air-to-air missile (1956) well' date=' at least with casaba howitzer, you were not troubled with the problem of disposing of the blasted thing. With slam[i'] (aka project pluto)[/i], the cruise missile would come home after completing its mission, hotter than a nuclear reactor core element. I think they planned to ditch it into the marianas trench or something like that. Which would make greenpeace and prince namor very angry. Iirc the casaba howitzer concept was intended to make an orion-drive spacecraft into a species of space-going battleship. According to george dyson's book project orion, president kennedy was horrified at this and canceled the space battleship. The casaba howitzer was further developed for the strategic defense initiative ("star wars missile defence"), where it became even more classified. Yes, we could have had this in 1970. I'm stumped as to what they would have used it for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawnmower Boy Posted December 4, 2009 Report Share Posted December 4, 2009 Re: Sky Scorcher 1 megaton air-to-air missile (1956) I'm stumped as to what they would have used it for. Shootin' down Russkie missiles to stop 'em from spreading their radioactive fallout all over the Free World! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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