Apollo, Concorde, etc.

James said...
>
> The notion that England had "essentially zero" aerospace industry at
> the end of the sixties is completely untrue; for example the world's
> most advanced passenger aircraft from the '70s onward was Anglo/French
> in origin.
>
> In any case, the show was set ten years in the future from the time it
> was conceived.

True, and they had already stamped out racism...so...

My point wasn't that it was impossible - it was that it SEEMED
impossible to me. There was no launch capability in England at the
time, no payload capability, no orbital capability, no manned aerospace
(yes the Concorde was flying, but that was a far cry from Apollo).

Love the banter, thanks for the feedback!

AS

If you have listened to any of the engineers who worked on Apollo &
the Space Shuttle they will tell you that the Concorde was as
difficult a challenge as was Apollo or the Space Shuttle to achieve.
Concorde had many firsts, some less obvious that others (like an
inertial navigation system - only seem on military aircraft, fly by
wire and so on)

Corcorde achieved something years ahead of it's time. Commercially it
may have been a failure (as is the Shuttle) but from an engineering
point of view it was up there with anything else in aviation. The UK &
France were at their peak of development in the 1960's. The TSR-2 was
generations ahead of it's time and was killed off by pressure from the
American's and a prat called Dennis Healey.

In reality the UK would not be a suitable launch base due to it's
position being well away from the equator.

However, Gerry Anderson saw a UK much more aligned with the USA than
Europe I guess.

As SHADo was a UN run operation there is no reason to suppose that it
would be based in the USA. The idea that Europe is unable to
specialise in high tech establishments is just wrong. CERN being an
example of the ability of Europe to produce something outstanding.

Martin


--- In [hidden email], Andrew Shaindlin <shaindlin@m...> wrote:

Hi I am from Belgium - and I don't see why SHADO's QH wouldn't be in
England? I think there are many reason it could be very well
possible - it's a country between Europe and the US - it's still the
head of the Commonwealth (which includes countries like Australia,
New Zealand, Canada - there were Australian and Canadian connections
in UFO) And most of all it's half way between the US and Russia - and
the Russian had an important space program going in the 1960s (not?)
Beside why is England retarted? Was it not in the UK that the
Industrial Revolution started - the first computer operated in the
1930s and was it not the Battle of Britain (in 1940!) which saved the
Western democraties to fight another day? Perhaps you can see this UK
SHADO HQ as a sort of 'remembering' the few who held on - fought back
and gave 'us' all a second change to win a war which would safe our
way of life!
Beside was it not in London that in the 1960s the first mini-skirts
became a fashion --- I guess most male fans of the UFO have to agree
that's reason enough - not lads?!? LOL

Anne-Marie

> Hi I am from Belgium - and I don't see why SHADO's QH wouldn't be in
> Anne-Marie

Anne-Marie, are you the same person who advertised a UFO
fanzine/newsletter
a few years back in the SHADO-USECC newsletter?

If so, I'd be interesting in knowing more about that fanzine/newsletter
--
what it was called, how many issues were made, when they were made, how
many pages in each, what they contained, are they still available, etc.

Thanks!

Marc

>
> There was no launch capability in England at the
> time, no payload capability, no orbital capability, no manned aerospace
> (yes the Concorde was flying, but that was a far cry from Apollo).

I found it interesting that in one episode (Could it have been "Close-Up" as well?) Straker says something about since the payload they were going to launch was so big, it would be launched by NASA instead of SHADO.
If you're going to create a fictional organization with such tech wonders as SID, Moonbase, SkyDiver etc, why would you make it an organization that doesn't have enough rocket power to launch a large payload?
Yes, I realize that may add to the believability factor by showing that the organization is not all-powerful. But I think it muddies the waters by adding an unnecessary plot complication.

Hi All,

One thing that's always bothered me (and I've mentioned it here before) is:in
Close Up, SHADO already have a B142 space probe in orbit (with a camera) totake
the test pictures (proof of concept) pictures at the beginning of the program.

Who launched that? How did it get launched without the Astro Space Commission
approving it and its presumably huge budget? It already has a camera etc etc
etc...

What happened to it? It was supposed to be a security project... SHADO seemed to
have got it into space...

Best, Griff

Hi - yep it's me! Guilty as charged !!! (Don I need a lawyer now? LOL)

Official I haven't yet given up on publishing them. There were all kind of
thing
which sabotage my 'next issue' - as I was working on it on my own.

There are at present 9 issues - and I have a huge part of issue 10 as good
as
ready - but I was thinking of 'changing' the magazine into a 'fiction story'
magazine,
with no 'fixed' publishing dates. Instead of a mix between fiction and news
etc.
with issues to be published at regular dates. I have a person who sell my
other
magazines and she is more interested in 'fiction' zines. As there is more
demade
for them. But getting fiction stories ready for the magazine is very time
consuming
I am not a native English speaker so I have to re-write a lot!

I did try to contact you than - but I wonder if you ever got any mail from
me?
So I didn't know what to do when I saw you name pop up - as I didn't know
you were interested or not and I didn't want to be a 'nag' so to speak.

Thanks for contacting me!
Best wishes for 2005
Anne-Marie

----- Original Message -----
From: "Marc Martin" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2005 9:15 PM
Subject: [SHADO] To Anne-Marie from Belgium