past pictures
of the week
10:27:12 - 12:08:12
10:27:12 -- PICTURE OF THE WEEK: From the August, 1952 cover of Galaxy Magazine, alien tourists on Earth.
11:03:12 -- PICTURE OF THE WEEK: From 1952, RAF Flight Sergeant Roland Hughes in front of his Vampire FB9. Hughes had been stationed at RAF Oldenburg in northern West Germany when, on July 30, 1952, he encountered a "gleaming silver, metallic disc" which flew alongside his aircraft before speeding off. The object was also detected by RAF radars on the ground. Hughes' account was released this year by the Churchill Archive at Cambridge University as found in the papers of Duncan Sandys, at the time the government's head aviation minister. The exact contents have not been publicly posted, but various newspaper accounts have reported on them, as in this from the Daily Mail...
He described seeing a flash of 'silver light' which rapidly descended towards him until he could see that it was a 'gleaming silver-metallic disc'.
He said its surface was shiny, 'like tin foil', and 'without a single crease or crinkle'.
He could see, with 'astonishing clarity', the craft's 'highly reflective and absolutely seamless metallic-looking surface'.
Flying at high altitude in clear visibility in his de Havilland Vampire, he estimated its size at 100ft across – 'about the wingspan of a Lancaster bomber'.
Several days later Flt. Sgt. Hughes was sent to see Duncan Sandys -- who later became Defense Secretary. Afterwards Sandys would write "I have no doubt at all that Hughes saw a phenomenon similar to that described by numerous observers in the United States" and also that "until some satisfactory scientific explanation can be provided, it would be most unwise to accept without further question the view that 'flying saucers' can be dismissed as 'a mild form of hysteria'."
As for 23-year old Flt. Sgt. Hughes, after his encounter he became known to his squadron as "Saucer Sam", which can be seen stenciled onto his aircraft in the picture above.
11:10:12 -- PICTURES OF THE WEEK: From November 1952, technology meets democracy as the United States presidential election is covered live on television for the first time -- including the first-ever use of computers to project results. Top picture, CBS correspondent Charles Collingwood sits in front of a mockup of the console for the UNIVAC computer, announcing to the television audience "This is the face of a UNIVAC... a fabulous electronic machine, which we have borrowed to help us predict this election from the basis of early returns as they come in." Middle picture: news anchor Walter Cronkite in a publicity shot with the room-sized computer. Bottom: The much smaller Monrobot computer used by NBC. Both computers accurately projected the final results of the election early in the evening, but the suggested Eisenhower landslide contradicted the polls, and so in the end their projections were not trusted even by the president of Remington Rand, maker of UNIVAC, and so they were not announced to the viewing public.
11:17:12 -- PICTURE OF THE WEEK: From 1952,a von Braun space station concept. In a 1952 series of articles written in Collier's, Dr. Wernher von Braun, then Technical Director of the Army Ordnance Guided Missiles Development Group at Redstone Arsenal, wrote of a large wheel-like space station in a 1,075-mile orbit. This station, made of flexible nylon, would be carried into space by a fully reusable three-stage launch vehicle. Once in space, the station's collapsible nylon body would be inflated much like an automobile tire. The 250-foot-wide wheel would rotate to provide artificial gravity, an important consideration at the time because little was known about the effects of prolonged zero-gravity on humans. Von Braun's wheel was slated for a number of important missions: a way station for space exploration, a meteorological observatory and a navigation aid. This concept was illustrated by artist Chesley Bonestell.
11:24:12 -- PICTURES OF THE WEEK: From 1952,international visions of a robotic future. Top: Advertisement in September 1952 Scientific American. Second: In Germany. Third: In the U.S. Bottom: In Switzerland.
12:01:12 -- PICTURES OF THE WEEK: Top two pictures, the BOMARC prototype being acid fueled and on launch pad, autumn, 1952. The supersonic BOMARC missiles(BO from Boeing and MARC from Michigan Aeronautical Research Center)were the first long-range anti-aircraft missiles, and the only surface-to-air missile (SAM) ever deployed by the United States Air Force. Rocket boosted and then ramjet powered, they were capable of carrying conventional or nuclear warheads. Officially designated as a "pilotless aircraft", it was a surface launched long-range missile designed to destroy enemy aircraft. The BOMARC was propelled at launch by a rocket booster until it reached sufficient speed for its ramjets to operate. After launch it was guided from the ground to the vicinity of its target, at which time it came under control of an internal targeting mechanism. Testing of prototypes began in 1952 (third thru fifth pictures, in launch position circa mid to late 1950s) and the A series was declared operational in 1960. The improved B series became operational in 1961 and had a range of 440 miles and a maximum altitude of 100,000 feet. It had more powerful ramjet engines and its solid-propellant booster permitted the almost instantaneous launch of a missile on alert. In 1969 BOMARC B series were operational at six USAF sites in the United States and two RCAF sites in Canada (sixth picture). A series missiles were phased out in the mid-1960s, but beginning in 1962 some were modified and flown as supersonic, high-altitude target drones. Complete phase-out of the BOMARC's air defense mission was completed in October 1972. In the mid-1960s, a Martin JB-57B Canberra aircraft was modified with a 17-foot section of a BOMARC missile spliced on as part of a special test program for high altitude strategic reconnaissance missions (bottom picture).
12:08:12 -- PICTURE OF THE WEEK: From June, 1952, Life Magazine photo of Lt. Col. Frank K. "Pete" Everest pictured at Edwards Air Force Base with models of planes on which he had flown test flights. Born in Fairmont, West Virginia, Everest entered the Army Air Forces aviation cadet pilot training program on November 11, 1941. After Curtiss P-40 aircraft training, he was sent to North Africa and flew 94 combat missions in Africa, Sicily and Italy with the 314th Fighter Squadron, 324th Fighter Group. In May 1944 he was assigned to a fighter squadron at Venice, Florida as an instructor. He asked for combat duty again and was assigned to the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations, where he completed another 67 combat missions. In May, 1945, his plane was shot down by ground fire and Everest was captured and tortured as a Japanese prisoner until the end of the war in August, 1945. In February 1946 Everest came to the Flight Test Division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio as a test pilot. He took part in many experimental tests of the Bell X-1 and established an unofficial world altitude record of 73,000 feet. In September 1951 he was transferred to the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and became the chief Air Force test pilot as head of the Flight Test Operations Division. During his stay at Edwards, Everest test piloted the X-1, X-2, X-3, X-4 and X-5 rocket planes as well as the XF-92 and YB-52. He also took part in test programs for the F-88, F-100, F-101, F-102, F-104 and F-105, as well as the B-52, B-57 and B-66 aircraft. On October 29, 1953, he established a world speed record of 755.149 mph in a YF-100. In his test pilot career Everest flew the Bell X-1B to a speed of Mach 2.3 in December 1954, making him the second fastest man in the world, Later flights in the Bell X-2 rocket plane established him as "the fastest man alive" when he attained a new unofficial speed record of 1,957 mph. Everest left Edwards in 1957, eventually attaining the rank of Brigadier General before his retirement in 1973. He passed away 31 years later at the age of 84.
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