Las Vegas Atomic Testing Museum review

The museum is a very short cab ride away from the Strip and is a good way to spend an hour or two after losing your car and first born at the craps table.  It was put together really well and contains a lot of authentic artifacts.  My only complaint was that there was too much information (text) that went along with each display.

Adult tickets are $12.  No photography allowed.

This is some of the cool stuff I learned and saw:

1. The atomic cannon (1953).  This was the first and only atomic cannon.  The shell delivered 15 kiloton's worth of nuclear goodness.

2. Testing near Vegas Strip.  I had no idea how close the testing was.  You could actually see the mushroom cloud from Fremont Street.

3. Kosmos 954 (1978).  A nuclear powered Soviet satellite crashed into the Canadian wilderness.  Full story here.

4. Bikini Atoll test (1946): The water-borne test left me speechless.

Here is a great overview of the museum:

Museum website.

Airplane the movie slot machine

Coolest theme for a slot machine.

North Korean MiG-21 crash in China photo

It is unclear whether the pilot was trying to defect to Russia.  I cannot believe how many countries still use these old Cold War relics.  Blue represents current operators, red means former operators.

High quality footage of MiG-21's interior and exterior:

MiG-21 on the Discovery Channel:

Putin flies water bomber to put out fires

Like him or hate him, Putin is one bad mofo.

Aircraft experts: Is she right?  40,000 TONS of water?

Russia Navy Day celebration

Anti-missile defense

Strong teeth

Frogmen parade

Hammer and bricks

Peek-a-boo

Now, Misha, this is how you assemble...

The other two Varyags: The Russo-Japanese ship and the Chinese casino

The Russian navy's guided missile cruiser Varyag is docked in San Francisco and open to visitors tomorrow.  The history of its two predecessors are full of intrigue and had A LOT of unexpected owners.

Varyag I.  Varyag means Viking, BTW.

• The cruiser was built in and launched out of Philadelphia in 1899.
• Commissioned into Imperial Russian Navy in 1901.
• In battle against Japan in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, the crew sank it on purpose off of Incheon, Korea.
• The Imperial Japanese Navy salvaged it and it served as the light cruiser Soya.
• During World War I, Japan and Russia were allies so the ship was returned to Russia at Vladivostok in 1916 and renamed the Varyag.
• Sent to Great Britain for overhaul so that it could be used in Russia's Arctic squadron.
• Because of October Revolution in 1917, the British seized it.
• Sold to Germany for scrap in 1920.
• While en route to Germany, it sunk off of a Scottish village.

Varyag II.  

• The aircraft carrier project began in the Soviet Union in 1985.
• After the breakup of the USSR, the unfinished ship was transferred to Ukrainian ownership in 1992.
• With no engines, rudders, or electronics, it was put up for auction in 1998.
• A dummy corporation in Macau snatched it up under the false pretense that it was going to be turned into a casino.  
• In 2002, it reached Dalian, China, where it is being converted into a Chinese aircraft carrier.

Here are some cool Varyag II photos from here.

Under construction in the Ukraine.

Being towed near Turkey.

Dalian shipyard in China.

2008 photo.

Full-scale training mock-up in Wuhan.

Putting out Kuwaiti oil fires, Warsaw Pact style

Hungarian genius + captured Iraqi T34 tank - turret + 2 MiG 21 jet engines = Great Wind.

Go to 0:18.

Cold War NATO planes landing on autobahn

Ah, 1980s nostalgia.  This video has it all.  1980s NATO combat aircraft.  Cold War exercise.  On the West German autobahn.

Via Stipistop.

The last space shuttle flight

Sometime in November, Endeavour will be the last shuttle to be launched into space from sunny Florida.  For almost all of us, these flights have become so routine and ordinary that they have become background noise.

Though I grew up living a few hours away from Edwards Air Force Base, where most of the shuttle landings took place in the 1980s, I never got to see it.  Now, with just two flights left, I imagine a lot of people are making plans to visit Florida.  To save the cost of transporting the shuttle from its landing site at Edwards in California back to Kennedy in Florida, all of the landings are in Florida now (weather permitting).

Here is a video of the first shuttle landing.  Check out the old school NASA RV.  It's amazing that something designed in the '70s is still carrying people into space!

This is an extended look at the Challenger disaster.  I remember our school's principal coming into my classroom and telling us that the shuttle had exploded.  My teacher wheeled in a TV and we were glued to it for hours.  I don't think I really comprehended the tragedy until I watched this today (I was too young then).

Here is a launch sequence from last November.

And who knew NASA had mission posters?  Very Hollywood.  Sort of.

Garbage Special video

This may be my favorite song from the late '90s.  Its link to '80s alt pop is clear.

Miniature paper airplane passengers

This is rad.

More here.  Via Stipistop.

2010 Moscow Russia Victory Day military parade on board cameras tanks planes

Moscow Russian Victory Parade rehearsal

This is my favorite parade.  The Soviet era aircraft, ZIL limousine convertibles, and mobile missile launchers rawk!  This is the 65th anniversary of the end of the Great Patriotic War, by the way.

Soviet Concorde SST: Tu-144

The Concorde and the Tu-144 are displayed together in Germany's

Auto & Technik Museum in Sinsheim.

In my post about the XB-70, an anonymous commenter mentioned the Soviet Concorde, the Tu-144. You can find all the info about that plane here.

But what I found really fascinating about this plane, the people who designed and built it, and Soviet propaganda can all be seen in this promo.

Bay Area California Littlefield Tank Museum

I went on a tour of the late Jacques Littlefield's tank collection at his Portola Valley ranch just south of San Francisco. You can set up a visit by contacting his foundation. The waiting list is about two months long. The tour is only held on weekends. There is a $20 donation/entrance charge.

The tour was in depth, fascinating, and took about three hours. There are over 200 tanks and other combat vehicles in four large warehouses. The highlight of the trip for me was not one, but two SCUD missiles sitting on top trucks!

Here is the parking lot as you enter. It's insane.

This is the oldest tank in the collection, an American M1917 Six Ton. It is a copy of a French model. None of these American tanks saw any action in World War I. The turret is manually operated, i.e. the gunner used his shoulder to swivel it.

These bullet holes were supposedly created as a part of armor testing before the tank came off the assembly line.

Obligatory Sherman tank. Surprised to learn that they were virtually useless against the German tanks.

In Soviet Russia, Red Star gets you!

"For Stalin" (T-34).

USA! USA!

These ridges supposedly acted as an anti-magnet to repel magnetic mines (not sure).

Czech please.

T-55.

East German.

These flimsy flaps somehow stopped incoming projectiles. Sorry, I listened to three hours of info without a notebook so I don't remember everything.

This Israeli M48A4 tank is interesting. It fought in two wars. In the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, someone fired an RPG at the rear of the tank on the Sinai Peninsula. The little hole it caused can be seen below.

That hole is in the bottom left hand corner of this photo, which gives you some perspective. Well, the RPG entered the tank through that hole it created and seriously f'ed up the transmission and engine and disabled the tank. Amazing what a well-aimed RPG can do.

BMW R75 bike with sidecar in the front, first of two SCUD missiles in the background.

VW Kubelwagen Type 82.

I like the African palm tree insignia, sans swastika. Very Indiana Jones.

We're getting closer to the SCUD missile.

Bam! That's an SS-1c SCUD B missile. I heart the Eastern Bloc transporter with yellow foglights.

This is a late 1960s Soviet long-track radar vehicle.

Inside of the radar vehicle.

First aid instructions in Czech(?).

Here is an older SS-1b SCUD A missile.

Infrared "light" popular in the 60s and 70s.

Weird insignia.

Sweden!

Palm tree without the swastika.