After the end of World War II, the "Iron Curtain Cold War" between the two major blocs represented by the United States and the Soviet Union for more than 40 years pushed the level of human science and technology to an incredible peak. To this day, many weapons and equipment born in this special period are still the "ceiling" that most countries cannot reach.
This issue will take stock of the "mad science and technology monsters" that were born under the hegemony of the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War since the 1950s.
First, the "Saturn V" carrier rocket
The Saturn V super launch vehicle is the largest launch vehicle ever built and put into service by mankind, and the protagonist of the famous "Apollo Moon Landing" program.
Developed in 1962, Saturn V made its first flight on November 9, 1967, with a full arrow height of 110.6 meters and a takeoff weight of 3038.5 tons; a total thrust of 3408 tons, a lunar orbit carrying capacity of 45 tons, and a low-Earth orbit carrying capacity of 118 tons. (Without data comparison, everyone's concept of the volume of this rocket may not be very clear, China's latest and largest Long March 5 carrier rocket in service is 56 meters long and the take-off weight is 870 tons).
Saturn V is the first human landing spacecraft "Apollo 11" delivery platform, in that era when jet aircraft was still just popular, the whole behemoth and the successful launch of 3 astronauts to the moon, it is indeed incredible, no wonder many people still question the authenticity of the Apollo moon landing. Due to the huge cost and limited practical significance, the United States also called off the related moon landing program after the successful return of Apollo 17 to Earth in 1972. Although americans have been working to "return to the moon" decades later, the reality is difficult, although Saturn V has long been eliminated, but it has not been able to replicate the legend. It can be seen how crazy technology was in that era. It deserves to be ranked first.
Take off a Saturn V rocket weighing more than 3,000 tons
2. The "Tsar Bomb" hydrogen bomb
Do you think the Hiroshima atomic bomb was powerful? Learn about the "Tsar Bomb" made by the Soviets just a dozen years later. The Tsar Bomb initially set the nuclear equivalent of 100 million tons of tnt explosives (the Hiroshima "Little Boy" atomic bomb was only 15,000 tons of equivalent). Later, before the test explosion, because of the fear that the released nuclear material would have a serious impact on the environment and cause public opinion and diplomatic pressure, the manic Soviets decided to reduce the power of this nuclear bomb by half to 50 million tons of equivalent, but even so, it was still more than 3800 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb, equivalent to 10 times the total explosives used in World War II! Detonated in the Arctic in 1961, the explosion instantly formed a huge mushroom cloud 67 kilometers high and 20 kilometers in radius, and people thousands of kilometers away felt its strong blast wave. This is the most powerful explosion on Earth since the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago, after the comet hit the earth and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, the earth was affected by the most powerful explosion, shaking the entire Eurasian continent. The giant mushroom cloud produced by the explosion is like a doomsday scene.
The explosion of the Tsarist bomb propelled the entire Eurasian continent by 9 millimeters
Third, the SR-71 "Blackbird" high-altitude high-speed reconnaissance aircraft
Do you think the missiles are fast? The "Blackbird" reconnaissance plane of the United States can be traced back to 60 years ago in 1959, and since its service, it has been alone for more than half a century, spying on the airspace of other countries like no man's land, and until it is retired, it has not found an opponent to match it. It is by far the fastest aircraft in the history of human aircraft. Capable of maneuvering at three times the speed of sound at an altitude of 26,000 meters, even anti-aircraft missiles cannot catch up, and it has never been shot down for more than thirty years. In order to fly the aircraft, the pilots of each flight had to wear anti-load suits similar to spacesuits. The aircraft was decommissioned in 1998, the production line was completely destroyed after the production was stopped, and the relevant research data was permanently sealed, which is also the mystery of the blackbird, is it possible that the United States has obtained black technology from outer space?
Fourth, the enterprise nuclear-powered aircraft carrier
e=mc2。 On September 24, 1960, the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was officially launched, and was named "Enterprise" by the U.S. Navy. Enterprise began development in 1950, entered service in 1961, participated in major military operations including the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War, and was retired in 2012. Although the USS Enterprise has been retired for nearly a decade, no other country in the world can match the active aircraft carrier of any country except Eagle Sauce itself (of course, this hope can only be pinned on my rabbit). Enterprise is also by far the longest aircraft carrier in the world, with a total length of 342.3 meters, a flight deck width of 76.8 meters, a full load displacement of more than 94,000 tons, a maximum capacity of 85 aircraft, equipped with eight a2w pressurized water reactors, theoretically having unlimited endurance. The USS Enterprise, let alone 60 years ago, is also the envy of all great powers in the present.
The "Enterprise" nuclear-powered aircraft carrier galloping in the Atlantic Ocean
5. 941 "Typhoon" class strategic nuclear submarines
Russia's latest strategic nuclear submarine "North Wind God" class underwater displacement of nearly 24,000 tons, can be described as a deep-sea monster, but there is no harm without comparison, compared with the 48,000-ton "Typhoon class" nuclear submarine, it seems to be a small witch. The Typhoon class is one of the world's largest nuclear-powered submarines built by the Soviet Union in the 1970s. Due to the double-hull design, the size of the Typhoon class is much larger than that of ordinary nuclear submarines, the tonnage is comparable to that of a medium-sized aircraft carrier, and the whole boat can carry 20 P39 submarine-launched ballistic missiles with a range of more than 8,000 kilometers. Its significance is simply to enhance the high-intensity nuclear strike capability.
In the huge typhoon-level patch, the size of the "God of the North Wind" is still the younger brother
B52 Stratofortress strategic bomber
Perhaps from today's point of view, the combat capability of the B52 bomber is not particularly prominent. But for veterans who have been riding the blue sky for nearly 70 years, the B52 has created a number of disciplines since its birth. Today, looking around the world, it can be said that the B52 "Stratosphere Fortress" is not convinced by any country's bombers except the Soviet Tu 160. The aircraft was designed by boeing in 1948, first flew in 1952, and entered service in batches in 1955, producing eight models: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h. At present, the US B52 bomber fleet has more than 70 in service, and to this day, it is still the main force of the US strategic strike, and some media have disclosed that many grandchildren in the US military have been driving B52 service experience for three generations. At the same time, because the B52 series is still the only model that can launch cruise missiles in the United States, the US military plans to let the B52 bomber continue to serve until the middle of this century, at which time, the B52 will truly realize the baptism of four generations of control, the "century-old machine" has survived generation after generation of modern fighters, and perhaps only its old rival, the Soviet Tutu-95 strategic bomber, is the one that accompanies it to the end.
F-117 stealth attack aircraft
The F117 was the world's first attack aircraft designed with stealth technology, nicknamed the Nighthawk. Development began in the mid-1970s and entered service in the early 1980s. It has experienced the baptism of fire of important wars such as the Gulf War and the Kosovo War. The f117 is a sci-fi, avant-garde design, an invisible façade made up of multiple planar geometries that is not obsolete even today.
Although the F117 has average performance and was shot down in the military operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999, its birth undoubtedly provided important experience and reference for the design and manufacture of the later fourth-generation stealth fighter. It also points out the direction for the development direction and operational concept of the fighter in the 21st century, which can be described as the originator of the stealth fighter.
The F-117 is the world's first attack aircraft to use stealth technology
VIII. An-225 strategic transport aircraft
What is the world's largest aircraft? Surely many people will answer the Airbus A380 without thinking. In fact, the actual size of the A380 is a circle smaller than the An-225 transport aircraft. The An-225 was designed and manufactured by the Soviet Antonov Design Bureau in 1985. The whole aircraft is 84 meters long, with a wingspan of 88 meters, equipped with 6 zmdb progress d-18 high-aisle ratio turbofan engines, the maximum take-off weight is 640 tons, the maximum carrying capacity is 250 tons, and the carrying capacity is 6 times that of the current Main Soviet And Russian Transport Aircraft Il-76! It is also the largest surviving strategic transport aircraft in the world. The An-225 transport aircraft was originally designed and built for the Camel Transport Soviet Space Shuttle Tempest, but later due to its large size and high cost, the requirements for the level of take-off and landing at the airport were very high, and most of the transport tasks of the An-124 large transport aircraft were fully competent, so the aircraft was only built and is currently owned by Ukraine.
IX. Kirov-class nuclear-powered cruisers
The Modern-class destroyers and Glorious-class cruisers built during the Soviet period have been touted by many domestic and foreign media as "aircraft carrier killers", but if we want to talk about warships fighting aircraft carriers, the real big brother must be the Kirov class. A British officer, after visiting the cruiser Peter the Great, praised "this is a man's warship".
Kirov-class cruiser code name "1144.1/1144.2" project, began development in the 1970s, in 1980 the first ship completed construction, the class of ships 250 meters long, 28.5 meters wide, full load displacement of more than 26,000 tons, is the world's largest surface warship in addition to aircraft carriers. In addition to following the Soviet characteristics of "big", the armament system of this type of ship is also called madness, the whole ship is equipped with 188 vertical launch systems, can carry 500 missiles of various types, the huge hull also makes it possible to carry 3 Ka-27 anti-submarine helicopters, called "arsenal ships", Kirov-class "killer weapon" lies in its equipped with a range of 600 kilometers of P700 granite heavy anti-ship missiles, the bullet flight speed of Mach 2.5, the warhead can carry a conventional warhead or nuclear warhead. At present, only one of the "Peter the Great" is in service with the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy.
10. The "Star Wars" program
The "Star Wars" program was a defense plan that reached the pinnacle of the white-hot period of the struggle for hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union, and its birth pushed the momentum of the Cold War to a new climax and was also the last straw that completely crushed the Soviet Empire. Of course, "Star Wars" is not a weapon, but a huge combat system plan. The author put it in the finale, which is also deserved. The core content of the planet program is to strike the enemy's intercontinental strategic missiles and spacecraft in outer space by various means to prevent nuclear strikes launched by hostile countries against the United States and its allies. It was the ultimate plan proposed by the Reagan administration in the 1980s to impose a comprehensive "containment" on the Soviet Union, which wanted to expand the focus of the war of military armaments into outer space. As part of the Star Wars program, the U.S. military envisioned building space-based kinetic weapons systems that could launch ballistic missiles or laser weapons in space to deliver precision strikes against land and enemy satellites. From today's point of view, such a deranged battle plan could only be implemented in that particular era.
Soviet space shuttle Tempest
Due to the huge cost, of course, the most fundamental reason was the collapse of the Soviet Union, and after spending hundreds of billions of dollars, the United States finally terminated the implementation of the program in the mid-90s, and many famous projects were stopped.
Imagine if the Soviet Union had not collapsed and all the core projects of the Star Wars program had been implemented according to the original steps, what would be the level of military technology of mankind today?
The "Star Wars" program is the product of the 1980s, when the two superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union reached a stalemate in the field of nuclear weapons, and they were moving toward a dead end in the arms race. It is not a simple defensive plan, but a strategic plan of the United States to comprehensively contain the Soviet Union's state system in the political, economic, scientific, technological, and military fields, which pushed the climax of the US-Soviet struggle for hegemony to the peak.
In fact, in the more than thirty years of the arms race between the two camps of the United States and the Soviet Union, the level of human military science and technology has made rapid progress, and a large number of town and state weapons that are still daunting have been built. In that manic era when daring to think and daring to become a reality, human beings are constantly exploring and touching the new heights that science and technology can reach.