Image credit: Andri Kyrychok

The Vought F4U Corsair was a carrier-capable fighter aircraft that saw service primarily in World War II and the Korean War. Demand for the aircraft soon overwhelmed Vought’s manufacturing capability, resulting in production by Goodyear and Brewster: Goodyear-built Corsairs were designated FG and Brewster-built aircraft F3A. From the first prototype delivery to the U.S. Navy in 1940, to final delivery in 1953 to the French, 12,571 F4U Corsairs were manufactured by Vought, in 16 separate models, in the longest production run of any piston-engined fighter in U.S. history (1942–1953).

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This infographic from MilitaryEducation.org gives you an overview of the various achievements, medals, ribbons and ranks available to members of the US Army by highlighting the accomplishments of two standout Army veteran soldiers, Audie L. Murphy (the most decorated Army veteran of all time) and William D. Hawkins (who is well known for what he achieved while being severely outnumbered).

via: Cannon Gun Safes

Source: Adopt-A-Bot on Etsy

The core was used in an atomic bomb test in 1946, five weeks after the second fatal accident, and proved in practice to have a slightly increased yield over similar cores which had not been subjected to criticality excursions.

First Incident

On August 21, 1945 the plutonium core produced a burst of neutron radiation that caught Harry Daghlian in its path. Daghlian was a physicist who made a mistake while working alone performing neutron reflection experiments on the core. The core was placed within a stack of neutron-reflective tungsten carbide bricks, and the addition of each brick moved the assembly closer to criticality. While attempting to stack another brick around the assembly Daghlian accidentally dropped it onto the core and thereby caused the core to go critical. Despite quick action in moving the brick off the assembly, Daghlian received a fatal dose of radiation. He died 25 days later from acute radiation poisoning.

Another person who was in the lab at the time of the accident—Private Robert J. Hemmerly, a Special Engineer Detachment (SED) guard—received an exposure of approximately 31 roentgens of soft X-rays (80 kV equivalent) and less than 1 roentgen of gamma rays. Hemmerly died in 1978 (33 years after the accident) from acute myelogenous leukemia at the age of 62.

Second Incident

On May 21, 1946, physicist Louis Slotin and seven other scientists were in a Los Alamos laboratory conducting an experiment to verify the exact point at which a subcritical mass (core) of fissile material could be made critical by the positioning of neutron reflectors. It required the operator to place two half-spheres of beryllium (a neutron reflector) around the core to be tested and manually lower the top reflector over the core via a thumb hole on the top. As the reflectors were manually moved closer and farther away from each other, scintillation counters measured the relative activity from the core. Allowing them to close completely would result in the instantaneous formation of a critical mass and a lethal power excursion, and the only thing preventing this was the blade of a standard flathead screwdriver manipulated by the scientist’s other hand. The test was known as “tickling the dragon’s tail” for its extreme risk, and was notoriously unforgiving of even the smallest mistake; many scientists refused to perform the test, but Slotin (who was given to bravado) became the local expert, performing the test almost a dozen separate times, often in his trademark bluejeans and cowboy boots in front of a roomful of observers. Enrico Fermi reportedly told Slotin and others they would be “dead within a year” if they continued performing it.

While lowering the top reflector, Slotin’s screwdriver slipped a fraction of an inch, allowing the top reflector to fall into place around the core. Instantly there was a flash of blue light and a wave of heat across Slotin’s skin; the core had become supercritical, releasing a massive burst of neutron radiation. He quickly knocked the two halves apart, stopping the chain reaction and likely saving the lives of the other men in the laboratory. Slotin’s body positioning over the apparatus also shielded the others from much of the neutron radiation. He received a massively lethal dose in under a second and died nine days later from acute radiation poisoning. The nearest physicist to Slotin, Alvin C. Graves, was watching over Slotin’s shoulder and was thus partially shielded by him, receiving a high but non-lethal radiation dose. Graves was hospitalized for several weeks with severe radiation poisoning, developed chronic neurological and vision problems as a result of the exposure, suffered a significant shortening of his lifespan and died of a radiation-induced heart attack 20 years later. The other six people in the room were far enough away from the assembly to avoid fatal injury, but they all suffered other complications as a result of the accident. Two people suffered severe shortening of their lives and died years later from radiation induced complications: leukemia (at age 42, 18 years after the accident) and clinical aplastic anemia.

The Demon Core In Use

The Demon core was put to use for the Able detonation test of the Crossroads series on July 1, 1946, demonstrating that the criticality experiments of Daghlian and Slotin increased the efficiency of the weapon.

Charles Stross refers to the Daghlian incident in his novel The Atrocity Archives, specifically in the included short novel by similar title.

The 1989 film Fat Man and Little Boy portrays, in a character named Michael Merriman (played by John Cusack), a fictional composite of Harry K. Daghlian and Louis Slotin. The character dies of radiation poisoning after two hemispheres of fissile material, which are separated by a screwdriver, connect accidentally.

Joseph Kanon recounts events surrounding the first criticality accident, “Tickling the tail of the sleeping dragon [...] Testing how far we can go,” in his 1997 novel Los Alamos.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/viamoi/3022959240/

Water

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Air

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Earth

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APT-CJSP-011 COMBUSTIBLE LEMONS MODEL: 0419 (by ammnra)

In its broadest sense, culture is the sum total of our beliefs, our fears, our behavior patterns, our institutions, our common values, as well as our art, music, and literature.  But the arts often neglect or omit reference to the Cold War.  In fact, most of us who lived through those times have scant visual knowledge of what may be fairly called the dark side of our culture.  We were immersed in the myopic soup of getting an education, finding a job, marrying, and having children.  Meanwhile, far from our thoughts, bright and earnest young men were spending 24-hour duties behind 7-ft thick steel doors.  There they drilled constantly the procedures to launch missiles with a 30-minute trip to the Soviet Union.  The nuclear warhead on the Titan II missile shown here packed nearly three times the explosive power of all the bombs dropped by the Allies in WWII.  And there were 54 of these missiles on alert for 25 years.
Most of us remember periods in our lives most vividly in terms of the popular music of the time.   This project depicts some of the objects from the dark side of our culture during the Cold War and links them with popular music of the era.  As surreal as the images are by themselves, their juxtaposition with the music magnifies the dreamlike quality of what was really at stake and how little the existence of these doomsday machines seemed to touch our lives.  By the way, bright and earnest young men (and now women) still pull 24-hour duty in launch-control bunkers every day.  (Make sure your speakers are on and don’t forget to come back from Youtube

LINK 1953:  “Rock Around the Clock”  Bill Haley and the Comets

Armored Nuclear Weapon Transport Rail Car and Locomotive, “The White Train” 1951

LINK  1955:  “Tutti Frutti”  Little Richard

Gun Port, Armored Nuclear Weapon Transport Rail Car of “The White Train” 1951

LINK  1957:  “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On”  Jerry Lee Lewis

Experimental Nuclear Propulsion Reactor HTRE-2 for Strategic Bombers 1957

LINK  1957:  “Bye Bye Love”  The Everly Brothers

Mk-28 Thermonuclear Bomb Cluster, 1958

LINK 1957:  “You Send Me’  Sam Cooke

Titan II ICBM in Silo 1963

LINK  1964:  “I Want to Hold Your Hand”  The Beatles

Titan II ICBM in Launch Duct 1963

LINK  1964:  “Oh Pretty Woman”  Roy Orbison

Control Console, Titan II ICBM 1963

LINK 1965:  “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”  James Brown

Titan II ICBM Cableway from Control Room to Missile Duct 1963

LINK  1965:  “Help!”  The Beatles

Minuteman II ICBM at Launch Facility Delta-09 1965

LINK 1965:  “In the Midnight Hour”  Wilson Pickett

Blast-Hardened UHF Antenna, Minuteman II ICBM Launch Control Facility  Delta-01 1965

LINK  1965:  “Sounds of Silence”  Simon and Garfunkel

Security Control Center, Minuteman II ICBM Launch Control Facility  Delta-01 1965

LINK 1965:  “Shotgun”  Junior Walker and the All Stars

Blast Door Art, Minuteman II ICBM Launch Control Center  Delta-01 1965

LINK  1965:  “My Girl”  The Temptations

Deputy Commander’s Console, Minuteman II ICBM Launch Control Center Delta-01 1965

LINK  1966:  “Mustang Sally”  Wilson Pickett

Missile Site Radar, Safeguard ABM System, Nekoma, ND  1975

LINK  1970:  “One Toke Over the Line”  Brewer and Shipley

Missile Site Radar with Generator Cooling Towers, Safeguard ABM System, Nekoma, ND  1975

LINK 1971:  “Imagine”   John Lennon

Sprint Missile Silos and Missile Site Radar, Safeguard ABM System, Nekoma, ND  1975

LINK  1971:  “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)”  The New Seekers

Sprint Nuclear-Tipped Interceptor Missile 1975

LINK  1972:  “Superstition”  Stevie Wonder

Spartan Missile Silos and Universal Missile Bunker, Safeguard ABM System, Nekoma, ND  1975

LINK  1972:  “American Pie”  Don McLean

Spartan Nuclear-Tipped Interceptor Missile 1975

LINK  1973:  “Muscle of Love”  Alice Cooper

Spartan Missile Silos and Missile Site Radar, Safeguard ABM System, Nekoma, ND  1975

LINK  1977:  “Margaritaville” Jimmy Buffett

Warhead Handling Bunker , Safeguard ABM System, Nekoma, ND  1975

LINK  1978:  “Old Time Rock and Roll”  Bob Seger

Perimeter Acquisition Radar, Safeguard ABM System, Concrete, ND  1975

LINK 1981:  “A Country Boy Can Survive”   Hank Williams, Jr.

B83 1-Megaton Thermonuclear Gravity Bomb 1983

LINK  1988:  “Man in the Mirror”  Michael Jackson

NASA Goes to Star Wars Celebration V and Makes Plans For Hyper Drives?

NASA talks with “Star wars” creators, stars and fans about the inspiration of the film and the appeal of space exploration. [nasa.gov]

Items Taken Into Space Reflect Accomplishments on Earth

Astronaut Jim Reilly helped welcome R2-D2 and Luke Skywalker‘s lightsaber from Star Wars to the Kennedy Space Center. The lightsaber is being taken into space aboard the real-life spacecraft Discovery during mission STS-120. Photo credit: Lucasfilm + View Hi-Res Image

Star Wars Fans to NASA: Build a Hyperdrive

It’s not easy to get to a galaxy far, far away using engines powered by just liquid hydrogen and oxygen. So, NASA should develop a hyperdrive that would power astronauts through the cosmos at light speed, “Star Wars” makers and fans advised agency representatives Aug. 13 during the movie franchise’s Celebration V in Orlando, Fla.

If NASA invents a hyper drive, these guys have volunteered to fly it throughout the galaxy. Photo credit: NASA/Gianni Woods › View Larger Image

Anthony Daniels

He played the golden droid C-3PO in the “Star Wars” films.

He can be seen at left looking at a picture of NASA’s own real-life anthropomorphic robot, Robonaut 2.

Photo credit: NASA/Mike Chambers

› View Larger Image

Adrianne Curry

A reality TV star portraying an Imperial recruiter, she stated..

“NASA and Star Wars inspire humanity to search for more life in the universe.”

Photo credit: NASA/Mike Chambers

› View Larger Image

Darth Vader came by the NASA and Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex booths during Star Wars Celebration V in Orlando, Fla. Photo credit: NASA/Gianni Woods ›  View Larger Image