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Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

 

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

 

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

 

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

 

 

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

 

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. I could really use the support at this time. There are five ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

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Last Super Fortress B-29 takes to the air

An evening pause: A bit of World War II history is saved by volunteers so that it can fly again.

Hat tip George Petricko.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

7 comments

  • Frank

    Thanks George and Bob.

    I grew up on the base at China Lake where this plane sat it the desert. A few of us base kids would ride our bikes out to the boneyard (avoiding the security guards) and play WWII in them, taking turns in the pilot seat and as gunners. Some of the big bombers still had radio logs, headsets, microphones, and all sorts of pieces that made the game even more real for this 8 year old kid. All we had to add were the sounds of the engines and cannons as we fought the enemy in the skies.

    Its wonderful to see Doc restored and flying again. Thanks for bringing back the memory.

  • Joe

    Tough and sturdy in use, fragile with time and disuse, these are rare birds indeed! What the Enola Gay and Bockscar did to help end WWII saved so many lives for both America and Japan, and what the B-17’s and their crews did for Europe! These bueatiful aircraft should be preserved, they are national treasures..

  • Mitch S.

    Nice to see.
    Funny how the reporter was awed by it’s size. Guess he never saw a B36!
    Brings to mind the last time a B29 was brought back to flying condition… almost made it!
    (heartbreaking)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u4YBwjQTds

  • Frank

    Thanks for that Mitch.
    I value seeing the dedication and sacrifice of these men towards a noble goal, even if it wasn’t achieved.

  • Steve Earle

    Thanks for the Link Mitch S. even though I can’t bear to watch it again….

    All that effort and even a man’s life. And all to satisfy a boyhood fantasy, so sad.

    Even the first time I watched the program (and I didn’t know yet how it would end) I remember yelling at the TV: “Cut the damn thing up and fly the pieces out to a nice dry hangar somewhere you idiots!!”

  • ken anthony

    My stepdad was an A&P mechanic that once worked to restore a B-17. That thing was so tiny inside that a bigger person couldn’t fit in it’s stations. He found it very satisfying to work on something you could appreciate seeing after you were done. He was born in 1930 and could tell you any WW2 aircraft by the shadow it put on the ground.

  • Steve Earle

    I know there’s at least one more intact B-29 sitting on the bottom of Lake Mead…..

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Lake_Mead_Boeing_B-29_crash

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