The TWA Moonliner rocket is returning to KC!
Hey, you can't spell Luftwaffe without TWA. Looking for images for this post, I found an old ad that featured the name of Dr. Wernher von Braun in connection with the Moonliner. I'm not sure if it's official or just nice advertising but I'm sure all of you history buffs know the integral role that former the former Nazi scientist played in the U.S. Space program (after his pioneering work with the help of Jewish slave laborers on the V-2 rocket - London baby!) and I'm sure the connection wasn't lost on crazy ass Howard Hughes who was just as afraid of Black people as he was of germs. Anyway, considering all of this I think the rocketship makes a wonderful addition to KC's skyline and quite apt when put into the context of the gentrification that's attempting to kick every local minority as far, far away from downtown or midtown.
Here's a little more info about the Moonliner (basically just a modified V-2 rocket) and a great shot of Von Braun with KC's favorite Nazi sympathizer Walt Disney:
The article isn't entirely correct, T. Yes, the original rocket has been restored, but that's not the one going up on the building. Right now, the restored one is sitting outside the TWA museum at the downtown airport. Barkley Evergreen is paying a couple hundred grand to build a replica of that original rocket and that's the one that'll be hoisted up on top of their newly restored offices.
ReplyDeleteThe whole thing is funny considering that a) Barkley hasn't won a significant piece of new business in over 2 years, b) they've lost nearly every major national account they had on their door since their new chief took over 3 or 4 years ago, c) they continue to have rolling layoffs as a way of regularly cleaining house, and d) haven't had an original creative thought since Sonic's "2 guys" campaign started up ages ago.
What better symbol to sum up their current state than restoring the corporate headquarters of a business that no longer exists?
The United States used information from Nazis and the Japanese in exchange for pardons. If not for that, we wouldn't have information about rocketry and biological warfare.
ReplyDelete"What better symbol to sum up their current state than restoring the corporate headquarters of a business that no longer exists?" Heh heh! I don't know squat about Barkley Evergreen, but it sure sounds like anonymous does!
ReplyDeletej.u. - Yeah we may have given some Nazis a free ride so that they could get us to the moon and back. So what? Look what we got in return...velcro and Tang! You just can't argue with that equation! LOL!
DISCLAIMER: I'm a HUGE space geek. My library shelves are lined with books about space exploration. I think that in the larger scheme of things, getting off this planet and spreading our demon-seed amongst the stars is the single most important thing that we as a species will ever do.
So the fact that an unwilling, reluctant Nazi is the one that got us out of the cradle is OK with me.
Two of my favorite von Braun stories:
In the early days of the space program when the Soviets were kicking our ass and our shit was routinely blowing up on the pad, Kennedy told everyone we're going to the moon! When reporters asked von Braun what we would find when we got to the moon, he replied "At this rate...empty vodka bottles."
Later, when people were arguing whether we should be sending humans or robots into space, von Braun's position was "Humans can be mass produced by unskillied labor."
Fucking Nazi. LOL!
The spellchecker @NBC must be broken: "The skin is maid of 16-gauge steel."
ReplyDeleteI have a nephew that will dig the rocket, so i also dig the rocket.