Retrotech: Lofting and Machining Components for the T-38 Supersonic Trainer, 1958

by

 

A participant writes about the early days of numerical control machining and also discusses how definition of complex aircraft shapes was done prior to the computing era.   Imagine the labor intensiveness of that process, which descended from traditional shipbuilding techniques but surely required a much higher degree of precision when applied to aircraft production.

A Bendix G-15 computer was used for the NC work described at Northrop, with paper punched tape as the communications medium between the computer and the machine tool.   There is a Bendix G-15 at the American Precision Museum in Vermont, along with many machine tools and other interesting exhibits–see my post here.   Recommended visit for those interested in the history of technology.

An Idyllic Home on the Edge of Hell

by

 

I’ve seen a number of WW2 movies over the years one of the more unusual, Europa, Europa, was based on the true story of a Jewish boy whose sister was murdered on Kristallnacht, 1938, and the parents felt it best to leave Germany and go to Poland. The son ends in a Soviet orphanage in the Soviet sector of Poland, and when the Germans invade the Soviet Union, ends up after a long story as an adopted son of a Wehrmacht Captain, who believed that he looked “Aryan” enough that he ended up in a Hitler Youth elite school in Germany. Of course nobody knew he was Jewish in his fight for survival.

The Zone of Interest is also based on a true story, but the British director, Jonathan Glazer, based the screen play loosely on a 2014 book by Martin Amis. Although based on a novel, I would put the movie in the “substantially true” column.

Why?

Read more

Say Goodbye to Hollywood

by

Last week, in a discussion thread on a story about plans to revamp Hollywood Boulevard and make it attractive to tourists, against an apparently overwhelming tide of homelessness, addiction and petty crime, someone posted a link to this Billy Joel song. For some curious reason it struck me, since I have been saying goodbye to Hollywood the physical place, and the entertainment concept over the last couple of decades.

Read more

History Lesson

by

This newspaper is so old that one of the news stories is about a US visit by the Graf Zeppelin…the airship before the Hindenburg…that would be 1929.    And the other story is about the massacre of Jews by Arabsalmost 20 years before the establishment of the state of Israel.