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The time has come for my annual short Thanksgiving/Christmas fund drive for Behind The Black. I must do this every year in order to make sure I have earned enough money to pay my bills.

 

For this two-week campaign, I am offering a special deal to encourage donations. Donations of $200 will get a free autographed copy of the new paperback edition of Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, while donations of $250 will get a free autographed copy of the new hardback edition. If you desire a copy, make sure you provide me your address with your donation.

 

As I noted in July, the support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.

 

In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.

 

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Training WWII gunners to hit moving planes from a moving plane

6:01 pm

An evening pause: While figuring out why this works is really complicated, the simplicity of the technique and engineering is superb, and illustrates again why the U.S. did so well against Germany.

And yes, that is the voice of Mel Blanc.

Hat tip Jim Mallamace.

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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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

11 comments

11 comments

  • wayne
    June 10, 2021 at 8:06 pm

    “Stop That Tank” (1942)
    Walt Disney / Canadian Film Board
    https://youtu.be/Lkc2yAaU3CY
    21:36

  • Jeff Wright
    June 10, 2021 at 8:55 pm

    What with the Barrett .5O cal. and its long range, I have heard it said that even the rotation of the Earth has to be taken into account by snipers due to Coriolis effects or something. If true…that means you may have to lead your target even if it is standing still.

  • Col Beausabre
    June 11, 2021 at 8:48 am

    Commanding Officer of the USAAF’s First Motion Picture Unit was a former corporal in the California National Guard Cavalry by the name of Ronald Reagan

    And, yes, in tank gunnery and artillery fire, the rotation of the Earth must be accounted for (along with temperature, pressure, wind direction and speed, amount of wear on the gun, type of projectile, etc, etc)

  • Jeff Wright
    June 11, 2021 at 11:01 am

    Bull was thinking about gun launching small-sats.
    The Excalibur shell looks to have tough circuitry that withstands the high g forces. This would even beat Musk’s low rates.

    But cost-cutters who don’t understand testing cut this ballistics von Braun off at the knees, and…well, you know the rest. Where the US abandoned the big guns…China may not be as foolish. They fund a wide variety of tech.

  • Max
    June 11, 2021 at 12:55 pm

    Speaking of technology testing… I wonder if the Russians tested their missile yet.

    https://theblogginghounds.com/2021/06/10/russia-to-test-launch-sarmat-hypersonic-icbm-before-putin-biden-meeting/

  • wayne
    June 11, 2021 at 4:40 pm

    Col–
    Great factoid!

    “Camouflage”
    https://youtu.be/Gb36GQO14k0
    20:00

  • John C
    June 11, 2021 at 7:25 pm

    Couldn’t stop thinking about Sean Connery shooting up the tail of his own airplane in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade..

  • Rick
    June 12, 2021 at 1:30 am

    Jeff Wright, even shooting @ 1000 yards at your local range, the Coriolis effect has to be accounted for.

  • John
    June 12, 2021 at 6:11 am

    That was neat.

    I’ve always read/heard that one of the principles of massed bomber formations was that the combined defensive firepower added up for mutual protection. That video implies that unless the fighter is attacking your bomber, the shots would be high deflection and ineffective. I wonder if gunners would fire on fighters attacking other bombers, and if they had lead guidance, and if hits were ever achieved.

    I immediately thought of the B29’s gunnery system- Looks like the gunners there aimed at the fighter and let the computer calculate the lead. Amazing for the 1944’s.

    https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/defending-superbomber-b-29s-central-fire-control-system

  • wayne
    June 12, 2021 at 8:50 am

    John-

    Hitting a Moving Target for World War 2 Bomber Gunners
    (1944)
    https://youtu.be/DWYqu1Il9Ps
    14:15

  • wayne
    June 12, 2021 at 8:52 am

    (with inspiration from Col Beausabre)

    “The Rear Gunner” (1943)
    Burgess Meredith & Ronald Reagan
    https://youtu.be/oKdLbEQ6Dv8
    25:30
    (->degraded print & sound)

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