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Nuke-Lobbing

Posted by michael on from the bombs-away dept.

SlideGuitar writes "The following is a fascinating article about how the Navy in the 1950s, wanting to assure that it had a carrier based nuclear force, used A1 Skyraider (single engine propellor driven aircraft) to lob nuclear bombs using a manuever called the "goofy loop" (read the article.) The goofy loop put about seven miles between them and a Mark 7 nuclear device at detonation. The pilots knew that (1) they couldn't get far enough away to survive, and (2) if they did survive there probably wouldn't be a carrier to go back to anyway. There are lots of emails from pilots who did the manuever and what they thought about the whole business."

17 of 365 comments (clear)

  1. so what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    i'm not seeing the importance.

  2. FP!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    first nuclear post fuckbitch!!!

    Yours Sincerely,
    The Big Bad Troll.

  3. Mozilla name change is fucking stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    What a fucking mistake it was to use the names "Firebird" and "Thunderbird". Let's keep the Mozilla name. Lets have "Mozilla Browser" and "Mozilla Mail".

  4. The Kilrathi do not coexist! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I'm thinking of a - Wing Commander game? It must've been that; probably Wing Commander III. After the massive cannon ship failed, the only remaining option was to go in on a single fighter and deliver this bomb which shattered the Kilrathi homeworld's tectonic plates, but there was no way to deliver the weapon and escape its blast. Kind of a suicide attack, really.

    I think that was the game. But I could be confusing it with Star Control II.

    Man. Science Fiction games were cool in the early nineties. Immersive. What happened?

    1. Re:The Kilrathi do not coexist! by Kumkwat · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Oh thats what happens at the end, I remember just wasting endless cycles trying to shag the cute pilot and mechanic.

    2. Re:The Kilrathi do not coexist! by NanoGator · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      "'m thinking of a - Wing Commander game? It must've been that; probably Wing Commander III. After the massive cannon ship failed, the only remaining option was to go in on a single fighter and deliver this bomb which shattered the Kilrathi homeworld's tectonic plates, but there was no way to deliver the weapon and escape its blast. Kind of a suicide attack, really."

      Yes, it was WC3. WC4 took place after Christopher Blair (played by Mark Hamill, who probably found this role to be quite familiar...) became a hero for blowing up the Kilrathi homeworld. Yadda yadda.

      At the end of Star Control 2, what happens there is your ship is turned into a gigantic bomb. After weakining the Sa-Matra's defenses, your ship did a neat little parallel parking maneuver next to the big guy and exploded. Fortunately, a quick escape pod got you out.

      Relevance to the topic? Heck I dunno. Niether of these games (Btw, both on the 3DO...) relied much on these physics. Once you got there, an FMV scene took over and did the hard part. Pity because I get a kick out of solving problems like that. Anybody remember that mission in GTA 3 where you have to lob grenades through a window? Ah I just loved getting all my armor blown away. ;)

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    3. Re:The Kilrathi do not coexist! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      You must've been doing it wrong ;p I never had a problem with fragging myself with the ordinance, just getting it in the damn window, switching to an assault rifle, mowing those feds or cia or whomever down, then hopping in my ride before that bozo escaped ;p

      -- vranash

  5. Infidels by knightinshiningarmor · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    This is such lies. They are suiciding at gates. Such media lies. The infidels will roast in stomach! I tell truth you only!

  6. Re:Slashdot goes to war by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    You are not seeing the forest through the trees. You believe the lies of the mass media, and other socialist rags.

  7. Re:offtopic by Moofie · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    So...the operation in Iraq is about oil.

    Duh, you think? See, the difference between America and every other "imperialist" nation in the history of the WORLD is that America permits adversarial, even belligerent nations to control a vital strategic resource.

    The Caesars would have rolled into Iraq and installed a Roman government to control oil supply. This OPEC thing would never have happened.

    OF COURSE the war in the middle east is about oil. More to the point, it's about protecting the supply of a strategically essential resource.

    What exactly is wrong with that?

    --
    Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
  8. Re:Slashdot goes to war by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    You think the mass-media is socialist? Boy, you must be really fucking stupid.

  9. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    you are "truely" incapable of correct spelling, like your moron president - can you say "nuke-you-lar" ?

  10. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Although I do not recall Dubya ever being put to a spelling test that I am aware of, if you are going to nitpick grammar, you may want consider capitalizing the beginning letter of your sentence.

  11. Re:offtopic by Alien+Being · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    "drop the USA vs. Them simplicity."

    Right. It's USA+England vs. them.

  12. Re:Damn, that's harsh... by RadioTV · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Owww... he looks like a monkey, so that's a pretty serious slam. :)

    You aren't the only one that thinks he looks like a monkey.

    Bush or Chimp

    --
    I have great faith in fools - self confidence my friends call it. - Edgar Allan Poe
  13. Re:offtopic by abirdman · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Let's just call it what it is... a good ol' Texas-sized lynching. I don't believe a lot of strategic, global thinking went into it-- there was a bad guy, and a bunch of people with weapons willing to follow their leader and dispense the justice the rest of the world was too slow to mete out. It appears to have been a successful lynching, too. That's why no one is too concerned that the WMD's haven't turned up.

    --
    Everything I've ever learned the hard way was based on a statistically invalid sample.
  14. Re:offtopic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Why don't you shut the fuck up buddy?
    As if anyone gives a fuck about what you say.