The vehicle had long been known from the pages of TV 21, where it featured in a Ron Embleton illustrated Stingray strip, which presumably was based on the actual toy.
You can read about some of the history of the toy and speculation about the box art here:
https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2022/06/david-nightengale-and-submarine.html
However, I was researching an entirely different vehicle yesterday and came upon an interesting site called Air Force Declassification Office https://www.secretsdeclassified.af.mil/ which at first seemed to be a unauthorised site showing patents and documents released by the military under freedom of information auspices.
There isn't a great deal of information on it, but as a document relating to the launch of a Cold War 'Sputnik' satellite caught my eye, I was drawn in. Shortly after, I saw another interesting read, about Submersible Aircraft. The document by Rand Corporation, from 1964, was a proposal for aircraft which could be stored and launched from a submersible base, thereby extending the range of a penetrator or bomber aircraft. The document shows the various wing and engine geometries ad also shows images of proposed nuclear carrier vehicles, which all bear a striking resemblance to the toy!
The full pdf can be viewed here: http://tinyurl.com/5bwf9v4t
Below are some highlighted images from the document.
Note the design of the toys 'aircraft' missiles as shown above, relative to the aircraft proposals.
Now that is one of the best updates I have ever seen on the blog! Fabulous research Bill. You've cracked it, like you did with the Nuclear Ferry design fifteen years ago! Love it.
ReplyDeleteAlmost by accident too! Bill
DeletePhew! Great find! I wonder how TV21 writers and artists got to see these proposals back then?
DeleteI think the aerospace industry was keen to show off its prowess, so the less practical ideas found their way into trade adverts and articles like Colliers and Popular Mechanics as examples of futuristic engineering Bill
ReplyDeleteThere was an article on submersible aircraft carriers in an early issue of World of Wonder magazine - it might have been a cut-away ?
ReplyDeleteThe jets in the TV21 illustration look to be based on the Northrop F-5A Freedom Fighter, with the wing moved back to where the tailplanes would normally be.
Wow - a C21 toy pulled from secret government documents - how cool is that! Also, that external motor underneath the toy was also used in some marine-related Japanese SF models, if I recall. It was detachable, so you could make your SF sub a
ReplyDeleteLand or Sea vehicle. SFZ
Wow what a find Bill! That "...af.mil/" at the end of the URL is definitely Air Force. I'm surprised to see they had a separate website for this instead of placing the material on one of their history sites or even the National Museum of The Air Force site. That probably would have been a better spot for it. In any case, great find!
ReplyDeleteWell thats good to know Ed. I wasn't sure if it was the work of some overenthusiastic fanboy, culling documents off the Government website under the freedom of info ! Theres some great stuff about the Avro Flying Saucer and Projects Grudge and Blue Book too. The Sputnik 46 article is especially fascinating as it documents the launch of an undisclosed Soviet vehicle, post Vostok and probably codenamed 'Sever' (North), which failed to make orbit. The designation '46' shows just how prolific the russian launches were, compared to the actual number of acknowledged flights. Bill
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