Dropping The Bomb
I’m still reading the Skunk Works, where Kelly Johnson is a wizard of aeronautics and business. He won two Collier Trophies; in 1954 for the development of the F-104 Starfighter and its J79 engine, and in 1963 for the development of the A-11 Mach 3 aircraft. He was also instrumental in the development of the infamous U-2 spy plane, which is still in operation today.
Collier Trophy on Wikipedia
Kelly Johnson frequently sparred with Air Force General Curtis LeMay, who believed that “demolishing everything was how you win a war." Curtis LeMay went on to become George ("Segregation Now, Segregation Tomorrow, Segregation Forever") Wallace’s running mate in his independent party bid for President in 1968. Curtis LeMay was also a recipient of a Collier Trophy in 1964 for "for development of high performance aircraft, missiles and space systems."
Lest anyone think that Curtis LeMay's penchant for carpet bombing was as ultimately unsuccessful as his vice presidential campaign, I'll note that the Collier Trophy recipent for 1972 were the folks of 7th & 8th Air Force and Task Force 77 of the Navy for Operation Linebacker II. A little hard to see that as an achievement in aeronautics, but...
The desire to obliterate one's enemies, and inflicting unconscionable numbers of civilian casualties, is not an historical aberration in the practice of war, or confined to the playbook of the Bad Guys.
https://twitter.com/spiritoflenin/status/1555879168486817792
https://nitter.net/spiritoflenin/status/1555879168486817792
#aeronautics #bombs #Hiroshima #Nagasaki #war
