Electric blanket and ball-bearings,

[Notebook]

keep your nuclear weapon safe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_Club

AWRE's trickery with the steel balls had other unintended outcomes. Even an event as inconsequential as early morning frost was an issue. Violet Club could be loaded into a bomber for up to thirty days on standby while parked overnight on a remote base where the bomb could get very cold. If the steel balls froze together inside the bomb cavity and could not be removed, the bomb was useless. AWRE's solution was to fit the bomb with an electric blanket. Because the bombs were armed before flight, the take-off was hazardous; the bombs could not be jettisoned, and landing with an armed bomb on return to base was too hazardous to contemplate. As a consequence, Violet Club could not be used on an airborne alert,[21] or even flown to a remote dispersal base.

Things have improved a lot since then.

N.

 

[Andy44]

The Royal Air Force were so nervous of the outcome of a fire in storage, that permission was sought to store the bombs inverted, so that a loss of the plastic bung could not end with the steel balls on the floor, leaving the HEU unprotected against a subsequent explosion.[

Oh dear...

 

[Star Voyager]

I learned that Roosevelt gave the European countries millions of dollars to rebuild after WW2. Is it possible that this money went to the Violet Club?

 

[insanity]

“ Aircraft engines must not be run with Violet Club loaded on the aircraft with the safety device [of steel balls] in place. The engines must not be started until the weapon is prepared for an actual operational sortie [to prevent the steel balls vibrating like a bag of jellybeans].[29] ” “ .... uncertainty exists about the effects of movement with the balls inserted. [30] ”

that last line is a classic

 

[Andy44]

I imagine the vibrating balls would alter the smooth surface of the sphere's interior, making it more likely to fail to detonate if activated. Seems like a very fragile and dangerous design.

---------- Post added at 10:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:25 PM ----------

I learned that Roosevelt gave the European countries millions of dollars to rebuild after WW2. Is it possible that this money went to the Violet Club?

Well if you read down in the article, the US gave the UK blueprints for advanced bomb designs with basically no strings attached.

 

[Notebook]

Dangerous is the word that comes to mind. They must have been desperate to come up with a design like that. Reads like the RAF weren't too happy to operate it.

N.

 

[John_L]

Eh, such is life... when the balls drop, it's over

 

[Notebook]

I learned that Roosevelt gave the European countries millions of dollars to rebuild after WW2. Is it possible that this money went to the Violet Club?

The UK just payed the money back a couple of years ago:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4757181.stm

The Marshall plan was a seperate project, though Britain got a large part of the aid.

There was a an agreement between the USA and the UK on nuclear matters:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_US-UK_Mutual_Defence_Agreement

Looks like Violet Club was home-grown, glad to see it wasn't in operation long. An accident waiting to happen?

N.

 

[Star Voyager]

Well if you read down in the article, the US gave the UK blueprints for advanced bomb designs with basically no strings attached.

I wouldn't think there would be.

The UK just payed the money back a couple of years ago:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4757181.stm

Interesting...nowhere have I heard that, nor have I seen this effect the economy.

The Marshall plan was a seperate project, though Britain got a large part of the aid.

Yes, I knew that.

There was a an agreement between the USA and the UK on nuclear matters:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_US-UK_Mutual_Defence_Agreement

That's why there was a lot of RAF-USAF liason work at Vandenberg AFB in the 50's and 60's.

Looks like Violet Club was home-grown, glad to see it wasn't in operation long. An accident waiting to happen?

N.

Good thing it didn't, but perhaps ...

 

[Notebook]

To Star Voyager Re: The WWII loan payback.

I'm guessing it had been going on for so long, and with inflation effect, it was not a large part of either countries budget?

The nuclear exchange is more interesting(to me!), I was looking for the weapon that Blue Streak would have carried, mostly to get an accurate value for the mass. I've tried various values, but it still seems too have too much range, other paramaters accepted.

US control of UK nuclear weapons has always been a topic here(not surprising really). I can rememeber the Greenham Common protests during the 1980's
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenham_Common_Women's_Peace_Camp
Though that was a generic peace protest, I doubt they were bothered who had control.

Just missed the THOR deployment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PGM-17_Thor#Deployment
I think these were dual-key, with the warheads being under US security, and US personnel in the launch chain. DIdn't realise they had 60 of them.

Anyway, glad to see the back of VIOLET CLUB, I'm sure they are much safer these days...

N.

 

[tl8]

An all out Nuclear war in the 50s would have been quite interesting. I wonder how it would have turned out. It would be horrible I suspect, but it would be interesting to see what impact these 'crude' weapons would have made.

 

[Andy44]

About the warhead for Blue Streak, I recall reading that the warhead originally intended for the Atlas missile was much bigger and heavier than the one it eventually carried. Atlas was supposed to be bigger, with 5 engines instead of 3, 4 boosters and a sustainer. But while Atlas was still being designed, nuclear weapon technology advanced and warhead yields increased while size and mass decreased, so Atlas was redesigned into the 3-engine configuration we are familiar with.

I am thinking maybe Blue Streak also was overengineered to carry a warhead bigger than was eventually needed?

 

[Notebook]

I would guess, US and USSR badly damaged, but not out. Western Europe completely devastated, rest of the world, waiting for the radiation.

UK was in no doubt what would have happened:
http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k207/Notebook_04/?action=view&current=img008-1.jpg
paragraph(second (g)? or what should be (k) in sequence. Hope their analysis was better than their typing.

N.

 

[Andy44]

An all out Nuclear war in the 50s would have been quite interesting. I wonder how it would have turned out. It would be horrible I suspect, but it would be interesting to see what impact these 'crude' weapons would have made.

From what I've read, it would have been very ugly for all involved, but likely much uglier for the USSR and PRC. Curtis LeMay's SAC was making unauthorized mock bombing raids into Soviet airspace, reaching their targets, simulating weapons delivery, and returning to North America successfully. The Soviet interceptors could never adequately defend northern Russian airspace in those early days, always scrambling and arriving late on the scene.

LeMay was a very scary figure in history, the kind of guy you need to keep a leash on, but also who you want on your side in a fight. He did some blatantly illegal and even immoral things, but he built SAC into a professional force. Fortunately his voice was not the only one Kennedy had to listen to during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

I always thought a good idea for a combat flight sim would be a mid-60s nuclear war, with Bears and Stratofortresses and MiG-21s and F-104s and so forth. On a computer, the end of the world is lots of fun.

 

[Notebook]

About the warhead for Blue Streak, I recall reading that the warhead originally intended for the Atlas missile was much bigger and heavier than the one it eventually carried. Atlas was supposed to be bigger, with 5 engines instead of 3, 4 boosters and a sustainer. But while Atlas was still being designed, nuclear weapon technology advanced and warhead yields increased while size and mass decreased, so Atlas was redesigned into the 3-engine configuration we are familiar with.

I am thinking maybe Blue Streak also was overengineered to carry a warhead bigger than was eventually needed?

You are proabably right, Blue Streak was never deployed operationally, but it was part of a US/UK strategy, with ATLAS being the ICBM, and Blue Streak the MRBM. It shares a lot with ATLAS, so it reasonable to assume it would have had the same warhead.

Its difficult to get info on the warhead, and with it being converted to first stage of Europa, the figures often don't make sense. Luckily Orbiter provides lots of "test facilities"

N.

 

[Star Voyager]

To Star Voyager Re: The WWII loan payback.

I'm guessing it had been going on for so long, and with inflation effect, it was not a large part of either countries budget?

Yes, but back then our economy was crap and we had more money than we knew what to do with. That's where this came in (earlier, I said millions; it's actually Billions):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lend-Lease

I wish my country paid off our debts to everyone else.

 

[Urwumpe]

I always thought a good idea for a combat flight sim would be a mid-60s nuclear war, with Bears and Stratofortresses and MiG-21s and F-104s and so forth. On a computer, the end of the world is lots of fun.

What is the problem with making that? And will it include also the more extreme stuff? Like the B-36?

Making such a world as flight sim would be some kind of cool, I am really sure people would play it, especially if you include the whole insanity of the cold war. Just imagine having the V-Bombers in action... or get a soviet invasion through the Fulda Gap. But making a MMORPG out of it would be hard, I doubt you can run the game well when it needs to be reset every month.

 

[Notebook]

Yes, but back then our economy was crap and we had more money than we knew what to do with. That's where this came in (earlier, I said millions; it's actually Billions):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lend-Lease

I wish my country paid off our debts to everyone else.

Not a bad deal really,

The loan, $586m (£145m in 1945) and $3,750m in line of credit (£930m in 1945), was to be paid off in 50 annual repayments, with the United Kingdom having an option to defer payment of interest and principal if circumstances warranted. This option was exercised six times, resulting in the loan being paid back in 2006, rather than in 2000. The rate of interest was 2 percent, beginning after five years.[1]

as I stare at my credit card acclunt...

N.

 

[TMac3000]

An all out Nuclear war in the 50s would have been quite interesting. I wonder how it would have turned out. It would be horrible I suspect, but it would be interesting to see what impact these 'crude' weapons would have made.

At that time, since true ICBMs were still a brand new technology, most nuclear weapons were designed to be delivered by bombers. This would have resulted in a very slow moving, clumsy war, including a huge aerial battle between each side's fighters and bombers.