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General Knowledge Quiz

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Mcr Warrior

Mcr Warrior

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Melody and Harmony were two, if I correctly recall.

P.S. Fairly sure also it was 'Cloudbase' not 'Skybase'.
 
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randyrippley

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Melody, Harmony, Symphony, Rhapsody and Destiny

Only three ever launched at one time though

It was Cloudbase in the original series, Skybase in the reimagined CGI series
 
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randyrippley

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On the same theme.......where was Cloudbase assembled and how was it launched into flight?
 
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randyrippley

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GRALISTAIR said:
I assume modular design? Then assembled like the International Space Station - in space or extremely high up. Design and modules built in Sweden iirc?
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I'll give you that
Forty sections built in Sweden, sent into geostationary orbit by rocket and assembled there using an old satellite as a workshop/base.
Then flown down to a cruising height of 40,000 feet, piloted by Captain Black.
Must have been a heck of a heat shield!

Your turn.
 
Mcr Warrior

Mcr Warrior

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randyrippley said:
On the same theme.......where was Cloudbase assembled and how was it launched into flight?
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Was this ever seen/discussed in a broadcast episode of 'Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons' or was it just some later back story in a book or magazine or similar?
 
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randyrippley

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Mcr Warrior said:
Was this ever seen/discussed in a broadcast episode of 'Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons' or was it just some later back story in a book or magazine or similar?
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A bit of both. Mainly in the magazines, but it was - as far as I can remember - referred to in passing in one of the episodes.
 
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millemille

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Gloster said:
Welsh author Peter George’s novel Red Alert was the basis for two films. Name them.
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I have a vague memory that it was the basis for Dr. Strangelove and a non-humorous film from a few years earlier with the same premise, an error leads to a lone America nuclear bomber attacking Russia. Was it the one with Henry Fonda as the US President and Larry Hagman as his interpreter and Fonda ends up ordering another US bomber to drop a bomb on a US city as quid pro quo to prevent an all out nuclear war? The final scene is Fonda holding a telephone talking to someone in the US city about to be bombed and there's a screech and then silence from the phone as the bomb goes off....
 
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millemille said:
I have a vague memory that it was the basis for Dr. Strangelove and a non-humorous film from a few years earlier with the same premise, an error leads to a lone America nuclear bomber attacking Russia. Was it the one with Henry Fonda as the US President and Larry Hagman as his interpreter and Fonda ends up ordering another US bomber to drop a bomb on a US city as quid pro quo to prevent an all out nuclear war? The final scene is Fonda holding a telephone talking to someone in the US city about to be bombed and there's a screech and then silence from the phone as the bomb goes off....
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Yes, close enough. They were Dr Strangelove and Fail-Safe, which both came out in 1964. Fail-Safe was supposedly based on a novel of that name, not Red Alertt, but US judges seem to have been unconvinced.

To you to press the button.
 
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millemille

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Gloster said:
Yes, close enough. They were Dr Strangelove and Fail-Safe, which both came out in 1964. Fail-Safe was supposedly based on a novel of that name, not Red Alertt, but US judges seem to have been unconvinced.

To you to press the button.
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What Silverplate solution prevented a Lancaster from becoming as well known as a pilot's mother?
 
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millemille

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Gloster said:
Presumably Operation Silverplate was when it was decided to use a US aircraft to drop the first atomic bomb?
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Close enough.

Enola Gay, the B29 which dropped the 1st nuclear bomb on Japan, was named after the pilots', Colonel Tibbets, mother.

Operation Silverplate was the US air force's part of the nuclear bomb project and the anticipated size of nuclear bomb types precluded any US aircraft from dropping them but the size of the Avro Lancaster's bomb bay did allow this.

Until a number of B29's were modified to increase the size of the bomb bay there was a real possibility that an Avro Lancaster with some significantly less glamorous name, like "Enid Puceflange" dropped the first atomic bomb and Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark had a real challenge on their hands....
 
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Gloster

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millemille said:
Close enough.

Enola Gay, the B29 which dropped the 1st nuclear bomb on Japan, was named after the pilots', Colonel Tibbets, mother.

Operation Silverplate was the US air force's part of the nuclear bomb project and the anticipated size of nuclear bomb types precluded any US aircraft from dropping them but the size of the Avro Lancaster's bomb bay did allow this.

Until a number of B29's were modified to increase the size of the bomb bay there was a real possibility that an Avro Lancaster with some significantly less glamorous name, like "Enid Puceflange" dropped the first atomic bomb and Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark had a real challenge on their hands....
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Enid Puceflange
You made a blancmange
I will never say
Why I threw it away

What is peculiar about the song Bob by Weird Al Yankovic? It is a quality which, as far as I know, it shares with only one other song.
 
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randyrippley

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millemille said:
Close enough.

Enola Gay, the B29 which dropped the 1st nuclear bomb on Japan, was named after the pilots', Colonel Tibbets, mother.

Operation Silverplate was the US air force's part of the nuclear bomb project and the anticipated size of nuclear bomb types precluded any US aircraft from dropping them but the size of the Avro Lancaster's bomb bay did allow this.

Until a number of B29's were modified to increase the size of the bomb bay there was a real possibility that an Avro Lancaster with some significantly less glamorous name, like "Enid Puceflange" dropped the first atomic bomb and Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark had a real challenge on their hands....
Click to expand...
It was a bit more complicated than that. The Americans didn't have a bomb release mechanism that could hold and drop the bombs and needed the device used in the Lancaster. The Lancaster itself would only have been used if the device couldn't be transferred. The problem was that the lower flight ceiling and slower speed of the Lancaster would have given the trip a high risk of being a one-way mission for the crew.
In the event they managed to lash-up the Lancaster release mechanism in the B-29, so the crew got back alive.
 
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