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> 65,000 lbs, 80 feet long, with the terrifying code name, SLAM (Supersonic, Low Altitude Missile), or … “project Pluto.” This thing was perilously close to bei
by hitekker 11y ago
> 65,000 lbs, 80 feet long, with the terrifying code name, SLAM (Supersonic, Low Altitude Missile), or … “project Pluto.” This thing was perilously close to being built. They tested the engines at full scale and full power at Jackass Flats, and the guidance system was good enough they used essentially the same thing in the Tomahawk cruise missile.
For those who wish to read more about it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto
And for those who want to see a very interesting kind of doomsday in which this superweapon is used:
http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm
A most enjoyable short story.
- arethuza 11y agoNuclear powered cruise missiles also feature in Missile Gap by the same author - ICBMs not being able to work for interesting reasons.
- cstross 11y ago* Waves
- arethuza 11y agoAs someone who was a teenager in the late 70s and early 80s both A Colder War and Missile Gap appeal to my morbid fear of, and powerful fascination with, all things nuclear warish :-)
- cstross 11y agoI'm about your age, then. (Born 1964, was 25 when the Berlin Wall came down: where I grew up, lived, went to school, and attended university was never more than 10km from a WarPac strategic nuclear target.)