On Fri, 13 Mar 2015 22:43:42 -0500, "Byker" <byker@do~rag.net> wrote:
>If only the public knew: The B-58 was difficult to fly and a quarter of them
>crashed before they were retired in 1970. We lived about forty miles from
>March AFB, Ca., and their sonic booms shook our neighborhood all the time
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M64Ai4I9-as
>
>We kids knew all about the Redstone. The teacher in my second-grade class
>brought a TV into the classroom and we got to watch Alan Shepard lift off
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iCm22yyz1I
>
>Many kids had "Jimmy Jet" at home
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CclDgg2FDVA
>
>We had real heroes back then
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cmGLg6TcxA
>
>I asked for one of these for Christmas but I didn't get it, presumably
>because the 1959 asking price of $14.98 would equal $122.00 in today's money
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuEhNzoCnJA
Oh, golly...
I remember my Cape Canaveral Rocket set as a little kid. Launched the
first lima bean into space (well, would have, had the kitchen ceiling
not interfered.)
For learning to tie my own shoes, getting a United Airlines 727 (as I
recall - might have been a Caravelle) that had a geared system where
pushing it on its wheels ran a flint doohickey that made sparks come
out the engines. Looking back, this seems like a rather
self-defeating plan if your engines quit the second you leave the
ground...
A little older, and had the 'DarePlane' (sort of an indoor, battery
powered control line biplane) and 'VertiBird' helicopter. There's
actually a PC software simulator available of the latter:
http://www.peterhirschberg.com/vertisim/
Maybe my misspent yoot wasn't so badly misspent after all.
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