AS11-44-6550 and AS17-134-20384

[JayUtah]

Yep, Pickens was a long-time rodeo circuit rider before turning to acting.

[JayUtah]

To revisit George C. Scott's reaction to the film, he was initially angry at Kubrick for keeping the over-the-top takes, but according to his family he later came to see for himself that it was one of his best performances.

[Zakalwe]

I re-watched the film yesterday (for the elventy-millionth time)....what a great movie! The DVD has an excellent docu that goes into the making which is well worth watching. Learning how they created the bomb drop sequence was brilliant.

[ka9q]

I always liked that stencil:

NUCLEAR WARHEAD
HANDLE WITH CARE

[JayUtah]

I always liked that stencil:

NUCLEAR WARHEAD
HANDLE WITH CARE

The humor in the film works at nearly every scale by such ironic juxtapositions, e.g., "You can't fight in here -- this is the War Room!" and the general callousness, detachment, and denial with which the characters approach their individuals roles in the impending apocalypse.

[ka9q]

Of course the bomb doesn't look very authentic because the nose is highly un-aerodynamic. You always want the center of pressure to be near the tail for stable flight.

I don't know if pictures of real US bombs were available in 1963, but they are now.

[JayUtah]

Of course the bomb doesn't look very authentic because the nose is highly un-aerodynamic. You always want the center of pressure to be near the tail for stable flight.

The Dr. Strangelove bombs had big tail fins.  That would serve to move the COP aft, but the unaerodynamic nose would create instability anyway from turbulent boundary flow, so yeah.

I don't know if pictures of real US bombs were available in 1963...

Likely not.  Nowadays we know that some of the thermonuclear weapons carried on the B-52 had casings with relatively blunt noses, but not any with exposed longerons and shapers.  I think Ken Adam simply went for something that would look "different" from a conventional bomb in such a way as to emphasize the menace.  He had served in the RAF and I'm sure he was quite familiar with what bombs look like in general, and why.  But when you look at his Bond set designs, you realize he wasn't always after realism.

There is, of course, the famous story about the USAF objection over the highly realistic depiction of the B-52 flight deck.  Initially there were accusations of espionage, etc.  It wasn't until Adam produced his research, including pictures from a popular aviation periodical and other open sources, that the Air Force realized they hadn't done as good a job as they'd thought of keeping the B-52 a secret.  However, I don't think that applies much to the design of the bombs.

[ka9q]

I think Ken Adam simply went for something that would look "different" from a conventional bomb in such a way as to emphasize the menace.

I think you're right. Real bombs look rather bland.

The one feature of real thermonuclear bombs that surprised me when I first learned about them are the parachutes. Most have them to give the delivering airplane time to escape. They can also be used for "laydown" deliveries where the bomb is fuzed to detonate some time after landing. The bombs on the Leper Colony were larger than anything in the real US inventory (I think the one Major Kong rode was 20 MT), and it most definitely would have incinerated the B-52 as well as Major Kong when dropped as depicted from a low altitude and no parachute.

[BazBear]

I think Ken Adam simply went for something that would look "different" from a conventional bomb in such a way as to emphasize the menace.

I think you're right. Real bombs look rather bland.

The one feature of real thermonuclear bombs that surprised me when I first learned about them are the parachutes. Most have them to give the delivering airplane time to escape. They can also be used for "laydown" deliveries where the bomb is fuzed to detonate some time after landing. The bombs on the Leper Colony were larger than anything in the real US inventory (I think the one Major Kong rode was 20 MT), and it most definitely would have incinerated the B-52 as well as Major Kong when dropped as depicted from a low altitude and no parachute.

Very true. There were actually very few weapons of that yield in the US inventory, even back in '63. Heck, only a handful of that yield or greater were even tested, and all by the Soviets, with the biggest test by the US being the 15 MT Castle Bravo device in '54 - which was twice the high end estimated yield, as well as being the worst radiological disaster in US history.

That said, the information on typical US nuclear weapon yields wasn't available for decades after that movie was made, all the writers would probably have known was how big they could be; and they may well have gone with a bigger than typical bomb for dramatic effect in any case.

[Al Johnston]

Of course the bomb doesn't look very authentic because the nose is highly un-aerodynamic. You always want the center of pressure to be near the tail for stable flight.

I don't know if pictures of real US bombs were available in 1963, but they are now.

I always assumed the main driver for the design was that Slim Pickens had to ride rodeo on it without falling off...

[Zakalwe]

I always assumed the main driver for the design was that Slim Pickens had to ride rodeo on it without falling off...

And he had to be capable of climbing up it from the bomb bay floor to get access to the wiring panel (I'd love to know where he found the screwdriver and pliers as well!).
I imagine that trying to shimmy up the front of this would have been a tad difficult.... 

[Sus_pilot]

You don't think a SAC crew wouldn't have had a tool kit stashed away somewhere?

BTW, it's always surprising to me how small thermonuclear devices are.  When I was a kid, I marveled at the small size of the bomb recovered at Polomares (sp?) when the photos were published in Life.  There's a photo somewhere, also, of a MIRV'ed Minuteman with the aerodynamic nose cone removed and some techs working on the bus - the individual warheads aren't that big.

[Zakalwe]

You don't think a SAC crew wouldn't have had a tool kit stashed away somewhere?

No doubt they have. But he didn't appear to have any kit when he left the cockpit or when he was climbing the bomb. It's nitpicking, I know, but it sticks out a bit.

BTW, it's always surprising to me how small thermonuclear devices are.  When I was a kid, I marveled at the small size of the bomb recovered at Polomares (sp?) when the photos were published in Life.  There's a photo somewhere, also, of a MIRV'ed Minuteman with the aerodynamic nose cone removed and some techs working on the bus - the individual warheads aren't that big.

The [url-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W54]W54[/url] was made to be shot from an artillery piece. It was tiny

[ka9q]

The W-54 and variants almost scare me more than the much bigger bombs. One person could carry them, and you could easily envision it actually getting used by some low-level grunt and triggering a rapid escalation.

[nomuse]

Around my circle, it is basically required to sing "Davey! Davey Crockett!" when that particular weapons system is mentioned.