Atlas: The ICBM

1960s US Air Force documentary about Amercia's effort to catch up to the Russians in Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile technology.
US Air Force

[@MaciusSzwed]

Man! Talk about a treasure trove of intel? I really love these informational films of the past.

[@ASKconard]

This may as well be a Lucky Strike commercial. Great Cold War nostalgia.

[@Zoomer30]

"I don't often build ICBMs, but when it do, I expidite Stay unexploded my friends"

[@jeffreygrove]

The last version of Atlas (F) was stored upright in an underground silo, similar to modern ICBMs (the difference being it had to be elevated to the surface to fire), and could be partially pre-fueled if put on alert (they would add the oxidizer on a launch order). The prior version (E) was stored horizontally in a "coffin" that was blast-hardened. Supposedly the Atlas-F could be fired in about 10 minutes if on alert.

[@peachtrees27]

Context/background: this came out in early '58, a few months after (the shocking - to the layman) Sputnik. Love this line: "the ballistic missile program puts us on the threshold of space travel, the same propulsive unit now powering Atlas could boost a lighter body like a satellite into an orbit path around distant planets like Mars or Venus"

[@peachtrees27]

The three launches mentioned at the end of this mini-doc (prescient for us KZbinrs) are literally the FIRST three flights of this rocket. Keep in mind this is BEFORE Sputnik. Notice in flight #3 something different about the rocket: no skirt. The first two flights failed because of overheating in the engine area. They removed the skirt and this basic Atlas A (no staging, no center sustainer motor, radio-guidance) actually succeeded... A little more here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Atlas_launches_(1957%E2%80%9359)#1957

[@Zoomer30]

Pete Kuhns Is there a reason that it only appears those 1st 3 only had the booster engines running? Seemed like the center "sustainer" engine was not fired.

[@WWeronko]

@@Zoomer30 Those were Atlas A. They didn't have a sustainer engine.

[@64curarine]

I believe it is Castle Nectar, a 1.69MT barge shot, 05-13-54, depicted at 09:43.

[@scotthares]

ICBM's of that era were not capable of Multiple Reentry Vehicle (MRV). One single warhead per missile.

[@jeffreygrove]

You are correct about accuracy; CEP was terrible, but that's why it had a 1.5MT warhead. At roughly 100x the power of Little Boy, it would be enough to destroy a target from several miles away, or destroy the vast majority of any city.

[@MrShobar]

Actually, not a bad film. Two stars. Gen. Schreiver was born in Germany, and was educated at Texas A&M. His second wife was a country western singer. By 1963, he controlled nearly half of the entire Air Force budget.

[@christophermacdog]

lol....everyone smoked back then....and anywhere they wanted to.

[@jf8461]

Yeah,,, back when Americans were allowed to do such things, as smoking cigarettes.

[@LeofromFreo]

Today, can I buy them? Yep. Where can I smoke them? Nowhere.

[@KiloByte69]

And I wish I owned an Atlas...

[@michaelfuria4257]

I built the Revell plastic model of it when I was 11....

[@Nihil2005]

Ask not what your ICBM can do you for you. Ask what you can do for your ICBM.

[@AnyaArisohn]

Hugo-Garcia HGX LOL!! ❤️

[@stephen9869]

5:08 ...Awesome job! Imagine telling your mates you got paid to do that! :-P

[@user-mk3mj4uu9i]

Greetings from USSR, from medved, vodka, balalayka and Mother of Kuz'ma.

[@MrShobar]

Narrated by Clete Roberts.

[@Skipbo000]

and all it took was a couple of guys with box cutters and a plane ticket.

[@Zoomer30]

Those first 3 launches seemed to only show the booster engines firing and there was no vernier engines on the sides.

[@Zoomer30]

Atlas: Michael Bays Favorite ICBM.

[@tybo09]

...the our B-52s... Many of which are still flying and are due to stay that way for several more decades...

[@FylthyBeest]

Chris, this is a pleasant surprise running into you here. How are you, my friend? Thanks for your vigilance at the other pages.

[@johnk1639]

Once they realized they couldn’t reverse engineer the Roswell ufo, they restarted their icbm program 😀

[@_MaxHeadroom_]

And the Oscar goes to... 2:44

[@_MaxHeadroom_]

@*Uncle Joe* I had forgotten about this, lol. They must've done one crappy take and then said screw it. That or maybe the woman was just a terrible actor. 😄

[@_MaxHeadroom_]

@*Uncle Joe* Haha I tried new coke when they brought it back a few years ago promoting stranger things and couldn't tell much difference between the two

[@grahamkeithtodd]

as in the Shakespeare quoit "there is something rotton in the state of Denmark"

[@wibblehx]

Everyone is smoking!

[@jeffreygrove]

Love the dramatized conversations starting around 2 minutes in. All white, mostly older, half of them smoking, men with haircuts you could set your watch to. Also, could that "teacher" be any more unnatural in front of a camera if she tried?

[@mickistevens4886]

racist!

[@34ofaninchofbrain80]

as it happens old age has killed every one in this film by now.

[@Zoomer30]

So who here would see that rocket shaped thing driving on the road and think "wow, that's a big boiler"? 😒

[@TheDieselbutterfly]

this must have been produced by marlboro

[@launch4]

One thing though, how would weapons like the R7 and Atlas be used in the event of war? Because of their liquid fuel they took a long time to prepare, and they were vulnerable to attack by bombers because they had to stand outside on gantries. And even if they did survive the opening rounds, their warheads were not accurate enough to destroy anything but cities.

[@exet]

2:49 that guy is going to drop his cigarette ashes in that machine.

[@benr6911]

See 15:11 for what Eisenhower called the "military industrial complex." It's funny how they don't mention when talking about the V2, that our missile is basically modeled on that (the liquid fueled ones at least). And not only that, that It's designer Wernher Von Braun, an SS Nazi, helped design our missiles and eventually became head of NASA. Although it sure sounds like him talking around 18:00. Dr. Strangelove! I like the retro feel, like the guys sitting around the table discussing missile design. "A horse can be sound as a dollar, but there's still the question of whether he can do the mile and a quarter." lol

[@fiftystate1388]

Ben R, Jump to 7:39. Different: Gimballed engine not carbon exhaust vanes for steering. Balloon tank instead of internal stringers. As for your fifteen eleven and eighteen remarks, I'm sure your accurate interpretation is recognized by everyone. However your attention span needs some work.

[@EM-ig7ib]

Was this film sponsored by the Tobacco companies? This whole thing looked like a commercial for Marlboro

[@mikezaid3219]

An ICBM

[@havisfadil4104]

Atlas Wire Line Ni

[@peterschliegel3691]

I heard about a mexican guy, who sells one of them for 20 bucks.

[@sapper199M]

the bombs did not blow the city's completely away these bombs did not explode on the ground they were timed to explode in air and a fire bomb could not explode to that magnitude for the size of what these bombs were

[@metabog]

He keeps saying Los Angeles with the wrong type of 'g'!

[@nakazatoGTR]

Well his nickname says he cant swim. so i believe he cannot think.

[@AnteDeRae]

DENMARK ???

[@jamestheotherone742]

cheezy.

[@melandor0]

Which physicists?

[@thomasmarvell5875]

that acting though

[@getl0st]

12:25 This guy has seriously creepy eyes...

[@bornfedslaughter]

How does every govt video have that distinctive American male voice? I don't even think people talk this proper at all anymore.

[@computbut1]

Jealous?

[@dagda825]

I think it's because most of these films were developed by DoD journalists and in that era, the vast majority of them were men. Just a guess though.

[@Zoomer30]

*EXPEDITE!*

[@nutsackmania]

dude we better streamline, expedite this propaganda

[@orange70383]

Couldn't have been accurate, too many variables. Any difference in top speed, air density, even the smallest angle would cause it to be wildly off target. Even different batches of fuel can have different energy potentials.

[@jessicalancaster2714]

is there somthing wrong with our ICBM no it your Country

[@maguirre103]

Americans don't realize the only difference between this and the North Korean missile propaganda films is this one is about their own country. Not saying they shouldn't be proud of their nations scientific achievement tho.

[@skipsassy1]

Operation paperclip - we both had German geniuses - of course they were the Columbus of rockets! Get real.

[@krumble104]

Yeah right, tell that to the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki!

[@gtaclevelandcity]

"..not a copy of the German V2" my ass it wasn't

[@BigDaddy-yp4mi]

Shows how little you know. COMPLETELY different type engine, different fuel, different payload delivery (ours could deliver a payload to orbit, the V2 couldn't-it literally had a bomb built into it and not for self-destruct safety), and most importantly- a revolutionary new guidance system that was state of the art and made the german's v2 guidance look like a high school shop project; and it kinda was, the v2 has a propellor that spun a certain amount of times then nose-dived...the spins from the wind passing over the nose moved a switch in sync with distance (for the most part) and when tripped to the correct distance, nose dived into London. TOTALLY different rockets. Especially considering one was a flying bomb the other was a payload deliverable rocket.

[@MGalicia80]

Awesome propaganda video....

[@RecklesslyPessimistic]

Please explain to me why i can find thousands of videos of nuclear weaponry being detonated? Please tell me what happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Oh, you know I bet all those victims were in on the hoax.