Archive - Cold War Tech

M65 Recoiless Nuclear Rifle

December 17 0 Comments Category: Cold War Tech, Obsolescence

I’ve always been a big fan or rifles. The bigger the better. But somehow I think the military got it right and decided that this particular rifle was just a little too big.
This 155mm bad boy fires a 0.1 kiloton nuclear, equal to about 10 tons of TNT, warhead about 3 miles down range. Not [...]

The amazing Ecranoplanes

I’m not entirely convinced that we can call these things “planes” given the fact that they don’t actually fly.. To travel they rely on ground effect forces that allowed them to “fly” a few meters off the ground at serious speeds and while carrying enormous loads.
My favorite has always been the Caspian Monster. Everything about [...]

Travel by jet or by train? Why not both at the same time?

In the early 1970s the Russians followed the American jet train research by sticking two Yak-40 turbo-jet engines to the lead car of an ER22 train. The SVL (high-speed laboratory car) was intended to be used on the Troika Express and during testing is was able to reach speeds of 180mph (250km/hr)..
Like it’s American counterpart [...]

The great train race

I love weird tech, and it’s really hard to beat the weirdness that the cold war created here and in Russia.. I grew up at the tail end of the cold war that Ronald Reagan, all praise his name, helped bring to an end while I was still in high school.. Anyway, where was I?? [...]