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Speaker 1: Filler, ridiculous historians, We get a we get a classic

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Speaker 1: for you that just keeps coming back to our mind.

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Speaker 1: We brag about our friend Christopher hasiotis constantly because he

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Speaker 1: is just that cool and uh, just here in spirit.

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Speaker 1: He is always with us. And uh, Christopher came to

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Speaker 1: us a while back and said, hey, guys, do you

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Speaker 1: think the military does dumb stuff?

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Speaker 2: Sometimes? Not a chance, not a chance, They're all it's all.

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Speaker 2: It's all thriller, no filler. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And Christopher, you know, knows us well, and he probably

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Speaker 1: if I had, if I had to guess, Christopher probably

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Speaker 1: knew that we had been working on some hilarious stuff

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Speaker 1: they don't want you to know, historical missteps or some

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Speaker 1: ridiculous history. Weird ideas like the government the world's governments

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Speaker 1: pitch all kinds of crazy stuff. They'll see a cat

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Speaker 1: walking around and then and I'll say, can we turn

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Speaker 1: this cat into a spy?

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Speaker 2: What if? Yeah, let's just mount to some lasers on

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Speaker 2: the heads of these dolphins. That was doctor Evil. But

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Speaker 2: you get the idea. If I'm not mistaken, then this

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Speaker 2: episode on idiotic military prototypes involves like a thing that

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Speaker 2: was like a pedal driven helicopter under a dome like

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Speaker 2: it was trying to be sort of like a War

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Speaker 2: of the World sort of space vehicle like Jetson's type thing,

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Speaker 2: but just it could not stay aloft. And I'm probably

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Speaker 2: misremembering some of the details there, But that's the kind

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Speaker 2: of stuff you're in for on this episode, and we

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Speaker 2: can't wait to roll the tape.

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. First things first,

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Speaker 1: the US military has so much money. It's only tangentially

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Speaker 1: related to our episode today. But if we're looking at

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Speaker 1: a hard number, in twenty seventeen alone, the US military's

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Speaker 1: budget was around a little over six hundred and ten

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Speaker 1: billion dollars.

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Speaker 2: Ben, that can't be true. It's true.

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Speaker 1: No, it's true, And you have to wonder where all

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Speaker 1: this money goes. We have not been in the military ourselves,

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Speaker 1: that we're aware.

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Speaker 2: Of, right, No, No, but I think you've spent some

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Speaker 2: time around military type things. That's true in my other life.

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Speaker 1: And our super producer, Casey Pegram has also to our knowledge,

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Speaker 1: not been involved in the military or cannot admit to anything.

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Speaker 2: He's more of a sleeper agent type, you know.

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Speaker 1: I always had him pegged as that as well, and

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Speaker 1: I mean that as a compliment, Casey, every time that

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Speaker 1: we are looking into strange stories for ridiculous history, we

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Speaker 1: have a pretty high likelihood of running into some shenanigan

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Speaker 1: by one military or another. Because militaries and governments drive

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Speaker 1: a lot of technological innovation, right, There are a lot

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Speaker 1: of things that are now common in the civilian world

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Speaker 1: started out as military initiatives for the purposes of waging war.

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Speaker 2: It's right, And there's always kind of a disconnect where

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Speaker 2: you think, oh, that's like crazy future technology, but terns

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Speaker 2: out the military was doing it like twenty years ago,

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Speaker 2: and then it kind of gets when they're like done

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Speaker 2: with it, then it gets leaked out into the public

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Speaker 2: sphere and you can kind of you know, get a

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Speaker 2: thumb drive or like a PlayStation or whatever, or a

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Speaker 2: GPS system exactly.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and this this is something that's been on our

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Speaker 1: collective minds for some time, both in this show and

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Speaker 1: other shows.

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Speaker 2: That we've done. So we were over the moon when

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Speaker 2: our good pal friend of the show, Christopher Ahasiotis hit

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Speaker 2: us up earlier and said, Hey, what what do you

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Speaker 2: guys think about weird military weapons that never quite made it?

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Speaker 2: We said, something to the effect of holy smokes, will

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Speaker 2: you please hang out with us on air? And by

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Speaker 2: golly by gum he agreed. Welcome back to the show,

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Speaker 2: Ridiculous Historians. Christopher hasiotis, Hey, thanks for having me. And

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Speaker 2: then we all hugged, and then we all hugged again

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Speaker 2: and again and again.

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Speaker 1: We've been hugging this whole time and doing light handholds. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: So Christopher, of course, thank you for returning to the show.

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Speaker 1: If anyone listening through some gross miscarriage of cosmic justice

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Speaker 1: hasn't had the chance to check out your appearance on

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Speaker 1: our Louie Louie episode, I would say, I don't know

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Speaker 1: what you think, nol. I would say, pause this episode

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Speaker 1: and listen to that. It's one of my personal favorite

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Speaker 1: episodes we've ever done. So, Christopher, what inspired you to

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Speaker 1: think about this topic?

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Speaker 3: There are, as you mentioned, You know, the military contributes

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Speaker 3: so many things to society in terms of technological innovations,

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Speaker 3: lots of great stuff that we've gotten out of, you know,

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Speaker 3: the minds behind military weaponry. But to get to those successes,

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Speaker 3: you know, sometimes you got to break a couple what

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Speaker 3: nuclear bombs eggs to make a god we're gonna stretch

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Speaker 3: this metaphor out to make some sort of omelet of

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Speaker 3: death and destruction and death omelet.

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Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, I like that.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, there are just a lot of examples of

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Speaker 3: really strange things out there where you would think this

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Speaker 3: is an Internet hoax the first time you hear about it,

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Speaker 3: or you would think surely someone on some committee would

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Speaker 3: have said, guys, wait a minute, that's that's just not

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Speaker 3: gonna work. But I probably a lot of you out

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Speaker 3: there listening have been in a situation where you know

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Speaker 3: your boss has an idea, and your boss really loves

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Speaker 3: the idea, and you're thinking, I know that's not a

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Speaker 3: good idea, and everyone around here knows that's not a

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Speaker 3: good idea, but the boss really wants to do this.

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Speaker 2: And sometimes bosses like to throw out big, wild ideas

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Speaker 2: to justify their existence, you know, in the hopes that

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Speaker 2: it'll like be a big splash, but a lot of

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Speaker 2: time to just kind of fizzles. And today we're going

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Speaker 2: to talk about some good fizzles.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, fizzles splashes kabooms uh puts. Yeah, all the onomatopeias

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Speaker 3: out there.

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Speaker 1: That's true yet, and we have we have compiled some

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Speaker 1: of our favorites. We do have to say from the beginning,

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Speaker 1: we're not going to get to every single spectacular, strange,

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Speaker 1: hilarious failure.

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Speaker 2: Now we're going to do to a piece. Yeah, we're going.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna We're gonna, maybe, if the winds at our

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Speaker 1: back and everything goes according to plan, hit up a

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Speaker 1: total of six. But we have curated these, and we

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Speaker 1: want to know what you think. You know, what do

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Speaker 1: you think about this?

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Speaker 2: Guys?

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Speaker 1: Christopher Sinture our guest today, would you like to do

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Speaker 1: the honors and kick off the first invention?

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Speaker 3: Guys, just sit right back and I'll hear a tale,

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Speaker 3: A tale of a fateful trip that departed from a

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Speaker 3: Russian port upon a rounded ship.

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Speaker 2: Was a mighty sail in. Man, I'm sorry, I can't

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Speaker 2: not do that.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know what's Gilligan and Russian Comrade Ben,

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Speaker 3: I know you've got.

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Speaker 1: A Russian accent, uh Coln Red gilgelf I love it.

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Speaker 2: I love it. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: The first thing I want to talk to you about

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Speaker 3: are the round ships of the Russian Navy. We're talking

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Speaker 3: eighteen sixties technology. Two ships in particular, the Vitzi Admiral

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Speaker 3: Popov and the Novgorod. Now these were coastal defense ships.

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Speaker 3: You have to think back to the time of the

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Speaker 3: Russian War. So Russia had just suffered some defeats at

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Speaker 3: the hands of France and some of their allies, and

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Speaker 3: they had actually been banned from building and maintaining battleships

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Speaker 3: in the Black Sea. But Russia still needed to defend

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Speaker 3: their land and their sea, and specifically we're talking about

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Speaker 3: the Kerch Strait. Now that's the if you think back

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Speaker 3: to your geography class, the part of the world right

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Speaker 3: between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. So

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Speaker 3: you've got a little straight where ships passed through and

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Speaker 3: they need to defend it. And this task of creating

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Speaker 3: a defense was given to Vice Admiral Popov. He said,

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Speaker 3: I'm gonna make you some ships to defend the waters.

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Speaker 3: He said, I'm gonna make you some round ships to

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Speaker 3: defend the waters. Next, it's three hundred and sixty degrees

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Speaker 3: of protection RW floating platforms kind of tank like, not

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Speaker 3: intended for quick fleet battle, but just intended to defend

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Speaker 3: more like death bullies. Yeah, so he came up with

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Speaker 3: this circular boat. He wanted to build ten of them,

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Speaker 3: but the Russian Navy said, let's let's go, let's build two,

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Speaker 3: you know, and then we'll talk about the rest. So

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Speaker 3: I want you to picture just a circular platform, a

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Speaker 3: couple hundred feet across, Okay, six propellers on the back,

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Speaker 3: two cannons on the top. Now let me ask you.

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Speaker 3: Have you guys been canoeing?

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Speaker 2: Yes? Yeah, no, kayaking? Kayaking?

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Speaker 3: Okay, So have you ever been kayaking and just road

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Speaker 3: just on one side?

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Speaker 2: You kind of go around in circles like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 3: Now imagine you're just firing a cannon just on one side.

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Speaker 2: And then it accelerates your spin.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and you're a completely circular boat.

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Speaker 2: So this wasn't moored in any way to the seafloor.

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Speaker 3: So this was a ship. It was a monitor, which

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Speaker 3: is a type of small light warship defined by kind

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Speaker 3: of oversized guns. So you've got this round ship, two

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Speaker 3: guns on top, and anytime one gun would fire, it

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Speaker 3: would just spin the ship around in a circle. And

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Speaker 3: they tried and tried and tried to figure out a

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Speaker 3: way to counterbalance this. They tried to run the propellers

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Speaker 3: in the opposite direction of the firing. It just didn't work,

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Speaker 3: and it just came down to a severe misunderstanding and

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Speaker 3: or just plane ignoring the physics on the part of

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Speaker 3: Admiral Popov. Well, isn't there a vodka named after I

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Speaker 3: don't know if it's named after him, but it is

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Speaker 3: named that. Okay, Well, maybe maybe there was vodka vodka

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Speaker 3: best forgotten from the it's no mister Boston.

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Speaker 2: You know, I know it's pretty low shelf.

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Speaker 1: But so maybe those were his two big ideas. Round

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Speaker 1: warships and you know, low rent vodka.

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Speaker 3: Well, he thought that if you if you created a

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Speaker 3: really shallow round broad boat, it would float really well

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Speaker 3: on the water.

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Speaker 2: And it did.

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Speaker 3: It floated fine. But the problem is what makes boats

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Speaker 3: so successful is the shape. They're sort of long. They

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Speaker 3: cut through the water.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 3: When you have a wide broad boat with six propellers

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Speaker 3: trying to push forward, you're pushing the entire mass. There's

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Speaker 3: a lot more drag. It just does not work. And

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Speaker 3: nobody said, hey, Popov, let's not do this. So the

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Speaker 3: ships were built, we're talking eighteen seventy. They actually, despite

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Speaker 3: their ridiculous nature, were put into service defended the straits.

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Speaker 3: Didn't do it particularly well.

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Speaker 2: So they did these embarrassing tests and they tried to

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Speaker 2: fix it, but they realized they couldn't, but they just

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Speaker 2: went ahead and forged on.

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Speaker 3: Well, the thing is is the tests themselves weren't that embarrassing.

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Speaker 3: We're still in early days of tank testing. And by

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Speaker 3: tank I mean a giant tank of water. You know,

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Speaker 3: it takes a lot to build a ship, and you

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Speaker 3: don't want to just put it out on the water and.

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Speaker 2: Because then there you are. So they did models.

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Speaker 3: Right, Well, they built a big tank of water, built

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Speaker 3: some models, and you know, these tanks were still water,

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Speaker 3: and that's one of the things. These ships worked fine

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Speaker 3: in still water. But let me read you a little

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Speaker 3: bit about this ship from the book World's Worst Warships,

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Speaker 3: a very specific book out in two thousand and two

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Speaker 3: from Anthony Preston. He said the Vita Admiral pop Up

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Speaker 3: and the Novgorod were quote too slow to stem the

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Speaker 3: current and proved very difficult to steer. In practice. The

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Speaker 3: discharge of even one gun caused them to turn out

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Speaker 3: of control and even contra rotating. Some of the six

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Speaker 3: propellers were unable to keep the ship on correct heading.

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Speaker 3: They were prone to rapid rolling and pitching in anything

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Speaker 3: more than a flat calm and could not aim or

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Speaker 3: load their guns under such circumstances.

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Speaker 2: So wouldn't that throw off the trajector of the shot

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Speaker 2: as well? Right, So it would not only screw up

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Speaker 2: the navigation of the boat in the direction, it would

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Speaker 2: like be completely impossible to aim.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you would have to just be really

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Speaker 3: lucky or hit the broadside of a boat that's nearby,

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Speaker 3: or try to shoot it, I don't know, at the

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Speaker 3: water as a warning. Basically, these were in serve. These

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Speaker 3: two boats were in service for about three decades. They

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Speaker 3: just kind of floated there, they did their thing. Ultimately,

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Speaker 3: they were put into storage in eighteen ninety three, and

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Speaker 3: right before the First World War kicked off.

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Speaker 2: They were just scrapped.

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Speaker 1: Because they figured they could use the materials for something

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Speaker 1: a little bit less cartoonishly ineffective.

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Speaker 3: Or it was just wasting everyone's time. You know, you

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Speaker 3: had better things to do than to just keep a

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Speaker 3: giant round boat that Honestly, it looks like a toy.

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Speaker 3: It looks like a child's toy that you would float

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Speaker 3: in a bathtub. So it doesn't even look scary, No,

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Speaker 3: it looks perfect circle.

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Speaker 2: Yeah no, I yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 3: And we've got some photos we can share on ridiculous historians.

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Speaker 2: What's the logic though, is it? What's this pop off

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Speaker 2: fellow thinking, like, is he trying to cut corners? Oh? Wow,

249
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Speaker 2: literally cut all the corners.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, he really just want to come up with a

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Speaker 3: really smart idea, you know, it's the kind of thing

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Speaker 3: you want to be the one who solves the problem. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: and he just didn't. There were other round boat proponents

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Speaker 3: at the time. There's a guy in England in eighteen

255
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Speaker 3: fifties who was really all about the roundhul People thought

256
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Speaker 3: it would add stability to the ship, and it added

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Speaker 3: stability in certain circumstances, but in rain, in wind, in

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Speaker 3: choppy waters, you know, the kind of things that happen

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Speaker 3: when you're at sea.

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Speaker 2: No dice.

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Speaker 1: So one important note for everyone listening who's thinking maybe

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Speaker 1: the same thing I initially thought, which is, well, okay, sure,

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Speaker 1: this ship rotates wildly anytime the gun is fired. The

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Speaker 1: guns are fired. Rather, why don't they just make these

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Speaker 1: weapons of absolute chaos and have the guns fire quickly?

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Speaker 1: So this stuff is just sort of spinning Tasmanian Devil

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Speaker 1: style firing on all sides. The problem, I believe is

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Speaker 1: the loading time, right, because every shot was so these

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Speaker 1: were order type rounds.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, this is still eighteen seventies, eighteen eighties, so we

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Speaker 3: don't have machine gun technology on a boat like this.

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Speaker 2: And they can't load it while it's spinning. Yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 1: So I would be very curious to find out how

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Speaker 1: long it took them to shoot, get back to a calm,

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Speaker 1: stable state, and then reload and shooting.

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Speaker 3: I guess in theory, if you fired both cannons at

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Speaker 3: precisely the right time, it would stabilize itself. But that

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Speaker 3: seems so so unlikely and.

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Speaker 2: A wasting a shot because obviously your target's only going

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Speaker 2: to be on one side or the other chances are

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Speaker 2: so you got to coordinate and be like, all right, guys,

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Speaker 2: we got a three two one go oh yeah, this

283
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Speaker 2: is comical. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I mean, in Popov's defense, he was trying to solve

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Speaker 3: problems and ignoring the problems generated by his supposed solutions.

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Speaker 3: The ships that were round like this could be much

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Speaker 3: more heavily armored so they could withstand more attacks. So

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Speaker 3: he did solve that problem, but it just kind of

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Speaker 3: ignored with the failings.

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Speaker 2: I think we can definitely call that a military fail.

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Speaker 3: Yes, Popovka as it was known, the type of ship

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Speaker 3: they named it after him, to his glory and or

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Speaker 3: maybe in glory.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, what's next? Do I get to go? Do you

295
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Speaker 2: want to go? I do, because I really want to

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Speaker 2: say these two words. Yeah, I go for it. Rocket bullets, yes, okay,

297
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Speaker 2: rocket bullets. That's fine, right, yes.

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Speaker 1: So one of the first questions would be aren't all

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Speaker 1: bullets propelled?

300
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Speaker 2: What makes these different? Well? These these are propelled using

301
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Speaker 2: rocket fuel? Nice or jet fuel, let's let's be fair. Yeah,

302
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Speaker 2: so this is uh, this might sound like something out

303
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Speaker 2: of a James Bond movie, and as it turns out,

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Speaker 2: it actually is. This weapon called the gyro Jet made

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00:15:47,760 --> 00:15:51,120
Speaker 2: by two gentlemen named Robert Mainhart and Arthur T. Beal

306
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Speaker 2: who started a company, an arms company called MBA, which

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00:15:54,400 --> 00:15:57,920
Speaker 2: was short for Manhart and Bell Associates. They decided they

308
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Speaker 2: wanted regular guns just weren't cut for them. They want

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Speaker 2: to do something a little more futuristic because this is

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Speaker 2: the time when we wanted to rocketize everything.

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Speaker 3: And so their company was NBA, right, yeah, NBA, and

312
00:16:08,040 --> 00:16:10,320
Speaker 3: I should have been like Magic Bullet Association or something.

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Speaker 2: Thanks, thank you. So the first thing they worked on

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Speaker 2: was something called the fin Jet, which shot these tiny

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Speaker 2: little needle type rocket bullets out of this weapon. And

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Speaker 2: the thing that was cool about rocket bullets that so

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Speaker 2: what I'm gonna keep calling them is they were self propelling.

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Speaker 2: They didn't need that much complicated mechanisms in the gun

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Speaker 2: itself because these bullets literally had a rod of jet

320
00:16:34,560 --> 00:16:37,360
Speaker 2: fuel running through them and a little element that could

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Speaker 2: get hit by the hammer didn't even need a firing pin,

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Speaker 2: and then it would propel itself out of the muzzle.

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Speaker 2: And I actually saw a really great video where some

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Speaker 2: guys with a YouTube channel got ahold of one of these,

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Speaker 2: the Gyrojet model, and you can see they did slow

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Speaker 2: motion photography where the bullet exits the muzzle and then

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Speaker 2: a little ways out it gets rocketized, so when it

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00:16:57,280 --> 00:17:01,080
Speaker 2: comes out initially it's actually going quite slow. So one

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Speaker 2: of the issues with this gun was it didn't work

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Speaker 2: very well at point blank range because you know, people

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Speaker 2: would joke that you could stop it with your hand,

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Speaker 2: and you know, it might break some bones in your hand,

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Speaker 2: but it certainly would not penetrate your skin.

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Speaker 3: And its range. If you fired a bullet that's moving

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Speaker 3: not slowly, its trajectory wouldn't stay constant.

336
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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the thing about it. It used a technology

337
00:17:22,080 --> 00:17:26,800
Speaker 2: called spin stabilization, which I'm a little foggy on the

338
00:17:26,840 --> 00:17:29,760
Speaker 2: exact because I'm not like a ballistic specialist or anything.

339
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Speaker 2: But the bullets had these three holes drilled in the

340
00:17:33,440 --> 00:17:36,000
Speaker 2: back of them that when it would cause them to

341
00:17:36,200 --> 00:17:39,560
Speaker 2: rotate really really fast, and they would achieve such an

342
00:17:39,600 --> 00:17:43,440
Speaker 2: incredible speed once they actually got to their maximum velocity,

343
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Speaker 2: And a lot of that had to do with the

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Speaker 2: fact that they came out of the barrel like spinning.

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Speaker 3: So it's sort of like a rifling technology exactly like that,

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00:17:50,119 --> 00:17:53,199
Speaker 3: but not because the barrels were smooth. They didn't actually

347
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Speaker 3: have that.

348
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Speaker 2: That's what a regular gun it has bored out kind

349
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Speaker 2: of like little whatever you call it, markings or kind

350
00:17:59,320 --> 00:18:01,520
Speaker 2: of grooves exactly. That caused the bullet to do that,

351
00:18:01,680 --> 00:18:05,159
Speaker 2: because otherwise it would just go wild and not be

352
00:18:05,280 --> 00:18:08,240
Speaker 2: accurate at all. Turns out, it still wasn't very accurate

353
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Speaker 2: because of the fact that this rocket fuel would burn

354
00:18:12,119 --> 00:18:16,360
Speaker 2: at pretty unpredictable rates and you could never quite predict

355
00:18:16,400 --> 00:18:18,359
Speaker 2: what it was going to do. So this video that

356
00:18:18,400 --> 00:18:20,440
Speaker 2: I saw, which is really really worth checking out, if

357
00:18:20,480 --> 00:18:24,240
Speaker 2: you just searched testing gyrojet rocket guns, why were they

358
00:18:24,240 --> 00:18:26,800
Speaker 2: a commercial failure? On YouTube you can find these guys

359
00:18:26,880 --> 00:18:28,960
Speaker 2: that do this amazing test of this. You can't find

360
00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:31,280
Speaker 2: these anymore because the parts don't exist.

361
00:18:31,359 --> 00:18:33,159
Speaker 3: Yeah, I imagine that they look kind of like a

362
00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:35,760
Speaker 3: like a bottle rocket, you know, where they just sort

363
00:18:35,800 --> 00:18:39,000
Speaker 3: of spin off wildly you can't quite decide which way

364
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Speaker 3: it's going to go.

365
00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:42,080
Speaker 2: No, they were much more stable than that, Yeah, but

366
00:18:42,160 --> 00:18:44,920
Speaker 2: they certainly were not as stable as a traditional gun.

367
00:18:45,240 --> 00:18:48,320
Speaker 2: They did some tests where they measured how, you know,

368
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Speaker 2: how accurate they were compared to a regular gun, and

369
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Speaker 2: it wasn't insane, but it was just very unpredictable. And

370
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Speaker 2: there's one part where it just kind of like went

371
00:18:56,880 --> 00:18:58,960
Speaker 2: up all of a sudden and like shot the GoPro

372
00:18:59,080 --> 00:19:01,520
Speaker 2: camera off of the dummy that they were firing at. So,

373
00:19:02,040 --> 00:19:04,199
Speaker 2: but they had other models. They had a more of

374
00:19:04,200 --> 00:19:05,879
Speaker 2: a rifle with a scope on it, and they had

375
00:19:05,880 --> 00:19:09,119
Speaker 2: something that kind of looks like a machine gun, a carbine,

376
00:19:09,400 --> 00:19:12,600
Speaker 2: but these were they loaded one bullet at a time

377
00:19:12,640 --> 00:19:14,640
Speaker 2: and it was semi automatic, so you could fire one

378
00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:17,400
Speaker 2: after the other, but it certainly wasn't fully automatic and

379
00:19:17,960 --> 00:19:20,879
Speaker 2: this is pretty neat in order to keep the rocket

380
00:19:20,880 --> 00:19:24,000
Speaker 2: fuel from like leaking out or to keep it contained properly.

381
00:19:24,280 --> 00:19:27,600
Speaker 2: These guys were super innovative. They figured out that titanium

382
00:19:27,680 --> 00:19:31,560
Speaker 2: oxide was the best chemical for containing this stuff so

383
00:19:31,600 --> 00:19:35,080
Speaker 2: it didn't accidentally ignite, just like in the casing. And

384
00:19:35,320 --> 00:19:38,080
Speaker 2: they just went down to the local paint store and

385
00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:41,760
Speaker 2: bought the white paint that had the most titanium oxide content,

386
00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:44,879
Speaker 2: And so you can actually see they got these rocket

387
00:19:44,880 --> 00:19:47,879
Speaker 2: fuel rods in these long kind of like almost like

388
00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:50,879
Speaker 2: big thick pencil lead and then they lathed it on

389
00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:53,159
Speaker 2: like an actual lathe to get it cut down to

390
00:19:53,160 --> 00:19:55,880
Speaker 2: the right size to fit these bullets, and then they

391
00:19:56,359 --> 00:19:58,320
Speaker 2: spray painted them white on the outside and then put

392
00:19:58,320 --> 00:20:01,480
Speaker 2: them in the casing and it did discharge a shell.

393
00:20:02,080 --> 00:20:04,280
Speaker 2: It shot the whole thing out. So that's what made

394
00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:05,080
Speaker 2: them different.

395
00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:09,480
Speaker 1: To question, Yeah, how much did these costs and did

396
00:20:09,520 --> 00:20:11,760
Speaker 1: the cost play a role in their failure other than

397
00:20:11,760 --> 00:20:13,320
Speaker 1: they're completely hilarious.

398
00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:16,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, lack of reliability and this maybe is a very

399
00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:18,719
Speaker 2: good military one because it doesn't feel like they were

400
00:20:18,760 --> 00:20:21,399
Speaker 2: developed for the military, but it was too good of

401
00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:23,879
Speaker 2: like a weaponry fail to not throw in here and

402
00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:26,679
Speaker 2: especially the fact that it was very much featured in

403
00:20:26,760 --> 00:20:29,840
Speaker 2: You Only Live Twice, the James Bond movie, because of

404
00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:31,919
Speaker 2: the fact that you look at them, they look like

405
00:20:32,119 --> 00:20:34,520
Speaker 2: a cool like spy gun.

406
00:20:34,960 --> 00:20:37,760
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, absolutely that. I mean, given that it's full

407
00:20:37,760 --> 00:20:39,480
Speaker 3: of rocket fuel, I wouldn't want to carry that around

408
00:20:39,520 --> 00:20:41,640
Speaker 3: in my pocket. But it's a it's a cool looking gun.

409
00:20:41,720 --> 00:20:43,520
Speaker 3: It is a cool looking gun. Not to mention that

410
00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:47,360
Speaker 3: apparently they could engineer the bullets so that they would

411
00:20:47,440 --> 00:20:49,240
Speaker 3: dissolve in the human body.

412
00:20:49,400 --> 00:20:51,000
Speaker 2: Cool wow, And that was a big part of it,

413
00:20:51,040 --> 00:20:52,879
Speaker 2: I believe in the Bond film because that way you

414
00:20:52,880 --> 00:20:54,879
Speaker 2: would leave no trace and there would be no forensic

415
00:20:54,880 --> 00:20:58,280
Speaker 2: evidence to tie anybody to it. To the mice bullets exactly.

416
00:20:58,359 --> 00:21:02,520
Speaker 1: But I think that they did at least get tested

417
00:21:02,520 --> 00:21:07,000
Speaker 1: by the US Army, if not specifically this brand of

418
00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:11,399
Speaker 1: rocket bullets, something something like this. They had a gyro

419
00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:15,800
Speaker 1: jet had an assault rifle that the Army tested briefly.

420
00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:18,119
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I didn't run across that myself. It

421
00:21:18,160 --> 00:21:20,679
Speaker 2: was a very bit of a blip in the history

422
00:21:20,680 --> 00:21:23,959
Speaker 2: of these weapons. But I mean, the Army's gonna get

423
00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:27,040
Speaker 2: wind of any new fangled device. They'll give it a go,

424
00:21:27,240 --> 00:21:28,399
Speaker 2: they'll throw a little money at it.

425
00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:30,400
Speaker 3: But if you're going to miniaturize something, I mean you might.

426
00:21:30,520 --> 00:21:33,080
Speaker 3: You could. You could load that thing with little tiny

427
00:21:33,119 --> 00:21:35,399
Speaker 3: explosives in the tip. You could have like a tiny

428
00:21:35,400 --> 00:21:40,240
Speaker 3: little ballistic missile. And it's interesting. The weapons failed because

429
00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:42,880
Speaker 3: of largely they were expensive and they were a pain

430
00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:45,200
Speaker 3: to make because to drill those holes I was talking

431
00:21:45,200 --> 00:21:47,520
Speaker 3: about that that created the spin, they had to have

432
00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:51,360
Speaker 3: these tapered drill bits which had to be custom machined themselves,

433
00:21:51,440 --> 00:21:53,720
Speaker 3: and they would always break. So to make that the

434
00:21:53,760 --> 00:21:57,639
Speaker 3: ammunition was very expensive because again the guns themselves only

435
00:21:57,680 --> 00:22:00,560
Speaker 3: really had a hammer and the firing pin was fixed

436
00:22:00,760 --> 00:22:04,040
Speaker 3: because it actually would push the hammer would push it backwards,

437
00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:06,760
Speaker 3: and then the firing pin would pierce the little primer

438
00:22:06,960 --> 00:22:09,560
Speaker 3: that would then set off the chain reaction that would

439
00:22:09,640 --> 00:22:11,600
Speaker 3: like the rocket fuel, but you would see it come

440
00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:13,480
Speaker 3: out of the gun and it wouldn't start shooting a

441
00:22:13,480 --> 00:22:15,160
Speaker 3: little rocket tail out of it until it was about

442
00:22:15,200 --> 00:22:18,320
Speaker 3: halfway to the target. So, I mean, it's it's pretty fascinating.

443
00:22:18,320 --> 00:22:22,720
Speaker 3: But the company NBA actually went on to make a

444
00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:27,080
Speaker 3: lot of non lethal ammunition like beanbag shot, and they

445
00:22:27,119 --> 00:22:30,720
Speaker 3: made little pen guns like little pen projectile things that

446
00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:32,960
Speaker 3: were that were used in the military.

447
00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:37,080
Speaker 2: So cool, pretty cool, right, yeah, And that's ridiculous. I mean,

448
00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:38,720
Speaker 2: I don't know. I think it's more interesting, but it's

449
00:22:38,760 --> 00:22:41,520
Speaker 2: just a very roundabout way of doing something that was

450
00:22:41,560 --> 00:22:43,680
Speaker 2: already done pretty well, sort of like but but but

451
00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:46,920
Speaker 2: these use rocket fuel. These use rocket fuel. Guys, have

452
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:48,160
Speaker 2: you heard about rocket fuel?

453
00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:51,359
Speaker 3: I like to think in the future, when humanity is

454
00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:54,560
Speaker 3: gone and the world is overtaken by let's say, mice,

455
00:22:55,240 --> 00:22:59,639
Speaker 3: U super smart intelligent mice. Yeah, absolutely, they're going to

456
00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:02,160
Speaker 3: find the guns and these will act like giant bazookas

457
00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:05,280
Speaker 3: or missile launchers. I'm just picturing a cute little mouse

458
00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:08,680
Speaker 3: holding one of these guns on its shoulder, launching rockets

459
00:23:08,760 --> 00:23:09,720
Speaker 3: at you know cats.

460
00:23:09,760 --> 00:23:12,200
Speaker 2: I love that image. And last thing I do want

461
00:23:12,240 --> 00:23:14,879
Speaker 2: to say that in the video that I saw, the

462
00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:18,080
Speaker 2: ammunition they had was was very, very old and it

463
00:23:18,160 --> 00:23:20,639
Speaker 2: all worked, you know, And I would have thought that

464
00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:23,800
Speaker 2: the fuel would have degraded or something would have happened

465
00:23:23,800 --> 00:23:25,600
Speaker 2: to make it not function properly, or it would just

466
00:23:25,640 --> 00:23:27,280
Speaker 2: explode in the gun and not do what it was

467
00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:29,760
Speaker 2: supposed to do. And it wasn't perfectly accurate, but It

468
00:23:29,880 --> 00:23:32,760
Speaker 2: definitely reached the target every time and didn't just like

469
00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:35,480
Speaker 2: zoom off somewhere else entirely. It just didn't, you know,

470
00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:37,080
Speaker 2: keep a perfect bead, you know what I mean?

471
00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:38,800
Speaker 3: Well, you know what the answer is to all this, that,

472
00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:44,880
Speaker 3: the expensive, boring tips and all that. Lasers. Lasers, Yeah, always, yeah.

473
00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:47,040
Speaker 3: I am not a scientist, I am not a ballistics expert.

474
00:23:47,320 --> 00:23:49,960
Speaker 3: But as with all things in life, the answer is

475
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:51,200
Speaker 3: probably just lasers.

476
00:23:51,359 --> 00:23:54,520
Speaker 2: And you are. You are a well known laser enthusiast. Yeah,

477
00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:54,840
Speaker 2: why not.

478
00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:57,520
Speaker 1: It's one of the first things people told me about

479
00:23:57,560 --> 00:23:58,960
Speaker 1: you when we started working together.

480
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:02,480
Speaker 2: They're just neat, They're great. Oh man.

481
00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:05,720
Speaker 1: We used to have a very like an industrial class

482
00:24:05,840 --> 00:24:11,119
Speaker 1: laser at the office years and years ago. It mysteriously disappeared.

483
00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:13,040
Speaker 3: Would it make a cool laser sound? Like in the

484
00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:14,720
Speaker 3: really cheesy techno songs?

485
00:24:14,920 --> 00:24:17,320
Speaker 1: I feel like every time we played around with it

486
00:24:17,359 --> 00:24:20,040
Speaker 1: and we were literally just playing with a dangerous laser,

487
00:24:20,400 --> 00:24:23,639
Speaker 1: one of us was making sound making. Yeah, because it

488
00:24:23,680 --> 00:24:25,159
Speaker 1: was better than the click click.

489
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:26,800
Speaker 2: Why did you Why did you have this to what

490
00:24:26,840 --> 00:24:29,040
Speaker 2: was it? What was it for? You know, just to

491
00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:31,240
Speaker 2: learn about stuff? Lasers are cool?

492
00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:35,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, it wasn't powerful enough. To physically cut things. But

493
00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:38,800
Speaker 1: it was one of those lasers that would do permanent

494
00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:40,920
Speaker 1: damage to your eye. Got it and if you shot

495
00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:43,840
Speaker 1: it towards someone's eye, and we do some good for kids,

496
00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:45,359
Speaker 1: good for great for children.

497
00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:48,080
Speaker 2: I was at a Black Crows concert once and someone

498
00:24:48,080 --> 00:24:49,879
Speaker 2: had one of those laser pointers and was shooting at

499
00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:53,040
Speaker 2: the singer guy, and he got very upset. He threatened to,

500
00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:55,440
Speaker 2: uh take it away from him and put it someplace

501
00:24:56,720 --> 00:25:00,720
Speaker 2: like uh yeah, Poughkeepsie in his pocket. Yeah, it was

502
00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:05,200
Speaker 2: gonna confiscated, not give it back. It sounds a very

503
00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:15,719
Speaker 2: substitute teacher vibe there. So we've talked about an amazing ship.

504
00:25:16,320 --> 00:25:19,840
Speaker 1: We've talked about some uh some I would say, very

505
00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:23,320
Speaker 1: innovative bullets. Both of those things on the offset seem

506
00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:26,960
Speaker 1: like they are worth investigating, right, I'd like to give

507
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:30,240
Speaker 1: you one that I'm on the fence about, especially because

508
00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:33,159
Speaker 1: in my past life hosting car stuff, I learned to

509
00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:38,159
Speaker 1: love ridiculous vehicles. Have you ever looked at a jeep

510
00:25:38,520 --> 00:25:42,199
Speaker 1: and thought I would get one of these if it

511
00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:45,639
Speaker 1: was also a helicopter? Because if you have been thinking

512
00:25:45,680 --> 00:25:49,080
Speaker 1: about this, I want to introduce everyone to the Hafner

513
00:25:49,320 --> 00:25:54,320
Speaker 1: Rota Buggy. It is a British experimental aircraft that looks

514
00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:55,080
Speaker 1: kind of doofy.

515
00:25:56,040 --> 00:25:58,160
Speaker 3: So it looks like exactly what you said. It looks

516
00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:00,760
Speaker 3: like a helicopter truck. Yeah, there you go.

517
00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:05,360
Speaker 2: And what's ridiculous to me is there's having the rotors

518
00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:06,680
Speaker 2: and the wheels.

519
00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:09,840
Speaker 1: It's sort of transit wise. It's kind of like wearing

520
00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:14,440
Speaker 1: Paris suspenders and a belt. So the Rota Buggy came

521
00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:19,680
Speaker 1: about as as a solution to the problem of air

522
00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:23,640
Speaker 1: dropping off road vehicles and a guy named Raoul Hafner

523
00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:31,200
Speaker 1: of the Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment created this after they

524
00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:35,480
Speaker 1: had an earlier invention that had some success, which was

525
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:39,680
Speaker 1: the Rota shoot. They took this rotor thing and ran

526
00:26:39,760 --> 00:26:45,840
Speaker 1: with it. It was an experimental one person kit rotor thing.

527
00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:46,480
Speaker 2: Wow.

528
00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:50,320
Speaker 3: So it's kind of like a helicopter that you sit

529
00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:54,359
Speaker 3: on that is sort of like a segue with blades.

530
00:26:54,840 --> 00:26:56,840
Speaker 3: It just seems that seems dangerous. It looks like a

531
00:26:56,840 --> 00:26:59,760
Speaker 3: wind sock or something like that. Yeah, it's hovering behind this.

532
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:01,880
Speaker 3: Is it tethered to that truck bed?

533
00:27:01,880 --> 00:27:04,639
Speaker 1: It is tethered. They though they were probably be picking

534
00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:08,920
Speaker 1: up speed and then the air would catch here. It's

535
00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:10,200
Speaker 1: a kite essentially with.

536
00:27:11,320 --> 00:27:13,560
Speaker 3: It's like a giant kite or like a big rudder

537
00:27:13,560 --> 00:27:16,600
Speaker 3: that flies behind your back, but also you have helicopter

538
00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:17,520
Speaker 3: blades on your head.

539
00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:21,639
Speaker 1: I think the emphasis was to look whimsical in this,

540
00:27:21,800 --> 00:27:25,160
Speaker 1: but it enjoyed some, as we said, some success, which

541
00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:29,560
Speaker 1: led to the creation of the Rota buggy. I think

542
00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:31,879
Speaker 1: similar to the way you feel about rocket bullets. No,

543
00:27:32,119 --> 00:27:33,840
Speaker 1: I think I just like saying Rota buggy.

544
00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:35,800
Speaker 2: Rotabuggy's fun. But Ben, do you think they were trying

545
00:27:35,800 --> 00:27:38,400
Speaker 2: to strike fear into the hearts of their enemies with whimsy.

546
00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:41,080
Speaker 2: I think they were trying to strike whimsy into their

547
00:27:41,080 --> 00:27:44,080
Speaker 2: heart of their enemies. Yeah. So here's the crazy thing.

548
00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:46,040
Speaker 2: It's so un aerodynamic.

549
00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:50,560
Speaker 1: It looks so poorly designed because jeeps and helicopters have

550
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:54,920
Speaker 1: two very different ways of transporting people and two very

551
00:27:54,960 --> 00:28:00,360
Speaker 1: different footprints design wise. But their initial tests were were

552
00:28:00,359 --> 00:28:04,679
Speaker 1: pretty promising because they weren't testing it stemmed to stern,

553
00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:08,000
Speaker 1: soup to nuts, an entire operation. They were testing aspects

554
00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:12,679
Speaker 1: of an operation. They started by dropping it from around

555
00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:14,640
Speaker 1: eight feet or so, and then they say, okay, well

556
00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:17,600
Speaker 1: it can just drop eight feet it'll be fine, and

557
00:28:18,320 --> 00:28:22,920
Speaker 1: things didn't really go wrong until November nineteen forty three,

558
00:28:23,240 --> 00:28:25,919
Speaker 1: when they tried to toe it to get enough speed

559
00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:28,200
Speaker 1: to get the Roto buggy into the air.

560
00:28:29,040 --> 00:28:29,520
Speaker 2: It didn't.

561
00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:32,080
Speaker 1: It didn't work the first time on the sixteenth of November,

562
00:28:32,080 --> 00:28:35,199
Speaker 1: and it wasn't till the twenty seventh of November that

563
00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:38,800
Speaker 1: they got a Bentley auto to pull it, and this

564
00:28:39,120 --> 00:28:43,880
Speaker 1: unwieldy machine was able to become airborne and it reached

565
00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:46,800
Speaker 1: gliding speeds of forty five miles an hour, which is

566
00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:49,320
Speaker 1: surprisingly good, you know for.

567
00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:52,520
Speaker 3: A totally not aerodynamic object.

568
00:28:52,120 --> 00:28:55,200
Speaker 2: A jeep with a helicopter button. Yeah, but okay, so

569
00:28:55,280 --> 00:28:57,400
Speaker 2: what when did it all go south? Ben? When did

570
00:28:57,400 --> 00:28:58,080
Speaker 2: it all go south?

571
00:28:59,040 --> 00:29:01,640
Speaker 1: So would you believe me if I told you in

572
00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:04,440
Speaker 1: the parking lot on our office. Now I'm kidding, I

573
00:29:04,480 --> 00:29:06,160
Speaker 1: wish I could take us out of a Rota buggy

574
00:29:06,200 --> 00:29:12,200
Speaker 1: ride went? It went severely south. As they continued testing,

575
00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:18,920
Speaker 1: there were huge problems with vibration, speed and instability, and

576
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:21,880
Speaker 1: they kept improving it. Nineteen forty four they got it

577
00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:24,640
Speaker 1: to a flight speed of seventy miles an hour or

578
00:29:24,680 --> 00:29:29,840
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirteen kilometers, and the last flight in

579
00:29:30,040 --> 00:29:31,920
Speaker 1: September of nineteen forty four.

580
00:29:32,760 --> 00:29:34,320
Speaker 2: It broke a record for itself.

581
00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:38,120
Speaker 1: It was able to fly for ten minutes and was

582
00:29:38,120 --> 00:29:42,120
Speaker 1: described as highly satisfactory. And the thing is that the

583
00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:45,600
Speaker 1: British Army probably would have continued trying to make Roda

584
00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:49,840
Speaker 1: buggies if it were not for the introduction of large

585
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:55,120
Speaker 1: gliders that could carry vehicles. So gliders like the air

586
00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:59,520
Speaker 1: speed horsa which are just they look like planes, but

587
00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:03,680
Speaker 1: they're these things if you see the picture, can carry vehicles.

588
00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:06,880
Speaker 3: So it's the kind of situation where whoever came up

589
00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:09,800
Speaker 3: with the road a buggy solved a problem pretty well,

590
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:12,040
Speaker 3: but as they were doing that, someone else is working

591
00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:14,640
Speaker 3: on the same problem and just totally surpasses that.

592
00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:17,880
Speaker 2: The laser disc conundrum. Yeah, I mean, but can't you

593
00:30:17,960 --> 00:30:19,840
Speaker 2: just drive a jeep out of the back of an

594
00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:23,160
Speaker 2: airplane and have it like a jeep parachute, like in

595
00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:24,640
Speaker 2: Fast and the Furious.

596
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:27,360
Speaker 1: One would one would think. I guess what they were

597
00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:31,160
Speaker 1: grappling with was a failure of material science at the

598
00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:33,719
Speaker 1: time too, because then you would have to build a

599
00:30:33,800 --> 00:30:36,720
Speaker 1: fabric strong enough and resilient enough not to just break.

600
00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:40,760
Speaker 3: That's true, and maybe this, uh, this cheepicopter could then

601
00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:45,200
Speaker 3: speed up and take off again and return. So like

602
00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:47,480
Speaker 3: let's say you were attacking a little island, you could

603
00:30:47,560 --> 00:30:49,840
Speaker 3: drop them all off, they could come back. You could

604
00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:51,080
Speaker 3: have a cheepicopter for a while.

605
00:30:51,120 --> 00:30:52,000
Speaker 2: It does sound like fun.

606
00:30:52,120 --> 00:30:57,440
Speaker 3: Yeah, take a chepicopter ride, see the Grand Canyon, see

607
00:30:57,440 --> 00:31:00,000
Speaker 3: the world. It sounds like a like a nice whims

608
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:00,840
Speaker 3: a holiday things.

609
00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:03,280
Speaker 2: I would just prefer though, if like the blades like

610
00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:05,440
Speaker 2: folded up, like in a really cool way with like

611
00:31:05,440 --> 00:31:06,120
Speaker 2: a sound effect.

612
00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:08,600
Speaker 3: Like so you're talking about transformers.

613
00:31:08,120 --> 00:31:09,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly what I'm talking about. It and a

614
00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:13,960
Speaker 2: lot of flying cars do that now, or flying car prototypes?

615
00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:14,840
Speaker 2: This was eight minute.

616
00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:16,520
Speaker 3: We have flying what do you know that we don't?

617
00:31:16,560 --> 00:31:19,440
Speaker 1: We have flying car prototypes, as in like one to

618
00:31:19,520 --> 00:31:21,480
Speaker 1: two copies of something like Terrafugia.

619
00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:24,120
Speaker 2: So it's like, finally it's the future. It's weird.

620
00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:28,200
Speaker 1: So we're all good friends with our pal Scott Benjamin,

621
00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:34,360
Speaker 1: who's a wonderful, brilliant aerodype man, but he hates flying cars,

622
00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:37,880
Speaker 1: and for the better part of the last six years

623
00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:39,960
Speaker 1: he and I have been very beefed up about this.

624
00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:40,440
Speaker 2: Look.

625
00:31:40,480 --> 00:31:43,000
Speaker 1: I get that they're dangerous. I understand that I get

626
00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:46,560
Speaker 1: that it would be disastrous to have flying cars. But

627
00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:49,760
Speaker 1: I don't want everyone to have flying cars. I just

628
00:31:49,800 --> 00:31:52,480
Speaker 1: want one because as long as there's only one, things

629
00:31:52,520 --> 00:31:55,320
Speaker 1: are going to be relatively fine. You guys are cool.

630
00:31:55,360 --> 00:31:57,320
Speaker 1: Would you guys want one? I think we could get

631
00:31:57,320 --> 00:31:59,960
Speaker 1: the number up to four without we just wouldn't.

632
00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:02,720
Speaker 2: Well, there's a whole conundrum that goes into flying cars.

633
00:32:02,760 --> 00:32:04,560
Speaker 2: I mean, you ever heard of airplanes. We have to

634
00:32:04,560 --> 00:32:07,440
Speaker 2: have a whole system of air traffic controllers and you know,

635
00:32:07,520 --> 00:32:10,880
Speaker 2: coordinated takeoffs and landings. And if there were flying cars,

636
00:32:10,920 --> 00:32:14,000
Speaker 2: just willy nilly, there'd be a lot of air mid

637
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:14,959
Speaker 2: air collisions. I think.

638
00:32:15,080 --> 00:32:16,880
Speaker 3: Yeah, but we figured it out right. I mean, I

639
00:32:17,160 --> 00:32:21,360
Speaker 3: imagine there's a podcast from the late eighteen hundreds on

640
00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:25,480
Speaker 3: whatever format they podcasted in back then, saying, would you

641
00:32:25,560 --> 00:32:25,880
Speaker 3: have an.

642
00:32:25,840 --> 00:32:27,760
Speaker 2: Automobile a horseless carriage?

643
00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:30,240
Speaker 3: We have horses. You know what would happen if you

644
00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:32,680
Speaker 3: had ten people in a town with a car. That

645
00:32:32,720 --> 00:32:33,480
Speaker 3: would be madness.

646
00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:37,120
Speaker 2: I think that is etched podcast right into wax cylinders. Yes,

647
00:32:37,560 --> 00:32:43,040
Speaker 2: absolutely so, there we are road a buggy. I like it.

648
00:32:43,280 --> 00:32:45,640
Speaker 2: If you are a road of bugs that you have

649
00:32:45,680 --> 00:32:48,080
Speaker 2: missed this period in history. Do not despair. The last

650
00:32:48,120 --> 00:32:50,360
Speaker 2: thing I'll say about it is you can go to

651
00:32:50,440 --> 00:32:52,760
Speaker 2: a town with an amazing name. You're gonna love this.

652
00:32:52,880 --> 00:32:57,560
Speaker 2: No Middle Wallop. And in Middle Wallop there.

653
00:32:57,440 --> 00:33:00,600
Speaker 1: Is a museum of Army Flying that has a replica

654
00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:03,480
Speaker 1: of a Roada Buggy as well as a road a

655
00:33:03,520 --> 00:33:06,040
Speaker 1: tank which is the same thing, but a tank.

656
00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:08,160
Speaker 3: That seems like you would need much bigger blades to

657
00:33:08,240 --> 00:33:09,000
Speaker 3: keep a tank aloft.

658
00:33:09,120 --> 00:33:10,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a weird idea, but this.

659
00:33:10,880 --> 00:33:13,040
Speaker 3: Is the kind of thing where if if any ridiculous

660
00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:15,840
Speaker 3: historians are listening at home, and you're enjoying this show

661
00:33:15,880 --> 00:33:19,160
Speaker 3: with your who knows you know, your your daughters, your sons,

662
00:33:19,200 --> 00:33:21,680
Speaker 3: you could make a little toy Roada buggy, you know,

663
00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:24,640
Speaker 3: just go buy a toy helicopter, snap off the blades.

664
00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:26,040
Speaker 2: That's called a transformer.

665
00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:29,560
Speaker 3: No no, no, I'm taking it. Buy two things, gloom together,

666
00:33:29,680 --> 00:33:33,520
Speaker 3: make your own toys. Have a little Rota Buggy warfare.

667
00:33:33,080 --> 00:33:35,720
Speaker 2: Thing going on at home, the toy mashup.

668
00:33:35,760 --> 00:33:39,520
Speaker 1: I like to Yeah, So what's what's next, Christopher?

669
00:33:39,920 --> 00:33:40,160
Speaker 2: Well?

670
00:33:40,720 --> 00:33:45,320
Speaker 3: I started off with some wildly propulsive cannons, and that

671
00:33:45,520 --> 00:33:48,560
Speaker 3: is where we are headed again, but this time we're

672
00:33:48,560 --> 00:33:51,360
Speaker 3: staying stateside. We're not going to Russia. We're in the

673
00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:54,600
Speaker 3: United States. Well, let me correct that we're in the

674
00:33:54,640 --> 00:33:56,000
Speaker 3: Confederate States of America.

675
00:33:56,200 --> 00:33:56,720
Speaker 2: Oh boy.

676
00:33:56,920 --> 00:33:58,360
Speaker 3: Or in the lead up to what would become that

677
00:33:58,880 --> 00:34:00,520
Speaker 3: you're seen a double barrel old canon.

678
00:34:01,400 --> 00:34:03,800
Speaker 1: I feel as if I can picture it in my

679
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:06,360
Speaker 1: mind popped right in when you see the words.

680
00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:09,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, double barrel cannon. Right, you've got think of a shotgun.

681
00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:12,320
Speaker 3: Double barrel shotgun shoots out twice as much shot.

682
00:34:12,400 --> 00:34:15,000
Speaker 2: But can't you unload it one barrel at a time

683
00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:17,600
Speaker 2: as well? You can, yeah, because there's like a little

684
00:34:17,600 --> 00:34:21,440
Speaker 2: compound trigger, right, Yeah.

685
00:34:20,320 --> 00:34:21,439
Speaker 3: But you don't want to do that with a double

686
00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:21,919
Speaker 3: barrel canon.

687
00:34:21,960 --> 00:34:23,000
Speaker 2: Well, I was wondering. Yeah.

688
00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:25,360
Speaker 3: So the double barrel canon we're going to talk about

689
00:34:25,400 --> 00:34:28,160
Speaker 3: is from the American Civil War, but it's not a

690
00:34:28,200 --> 00:34:31,319
Speaker 3: purely American invention. The idea of this goes back to

691
00:34:31,480 --> 00:34:35,920
Speaker 3: sixteen forty two so Renaissance Italy, Florence in particular, and

692
00:34:35,960 --> 00:34:39,080
Speaker 3: there was an inventor named Antonio Petrini who came up

693
00:34:39,080 --> 00:34:41,680
Speaker 3: with the idea of a double barrel canon. It was

694
00:34:41,719 --> 00:34:44,560
Speaker 3: put into action though, in eighteen sixty two by a

695
00:34:44,560 --> 00:34:48,000
Speaker 3: man named John Gilliland. Now Gleiland was a mechanic and

696
00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:52,240
Speaker 3: dentist living in Athens, Georgia. Okay, oh all right, yeah,

697
00:34:52,320 --> 00:34:53,880
Speaker 3: not too far from where we are. We're here in

698
00:34:53,920 --> 00:34:56,440
Speaker 3: Atlanta recording, So about an hour and a half up

699
00:34:56,440 --> 00:34:59,960
Speaker 3: the road, Galliland said, I'm going to take two cannons,

700
00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:04,120
Speaker 3: put them together in one sort of one molded entity.

701
00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:06,920
Speaker 3: They've got two side by side boars in a three

702
00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:10,520
Speaker 3: inch diameter, and you've got these two six pound balls

703
00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:14,120
Speaker 3: next to one another. But that's not it. You've also

704
00:35:14,200 --> 00:35:17,160
Speaker 3: got a ten foot chain connecting the two balls.

705
00:35:17,320 --> 00:35:20,879
Speaker 2: I have heard of this. Yeah, that sounds dangerous.

706
00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:23,920
Speaker 3: Well, you know, think of the what are they called

707
00:35:23,960 --> 00:35:27,360
Speaker 3: the yeah bolos that gauchos in South America used to

708
00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:30,439
Speaker 3: capture birds or horses or whatever. So you've got these

709
00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:33,960
Speaker 3: two balls connected by a chain, propelled from a cannon.

710
00:35:34,480 --> 00:35:38,080
Speaker 3: Think of the destruction possible, these spinning balls of death

711
00:35:38,360 --> 00:35:41,239
Speaker 3: a chain in between them. It's just gonna tear through

712
00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:44,160
Speaker 3: the Union soldiers right, just cut you right in half.

713
00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:46,919
Speaker 2: You would you would think, imagineah, you think you think?

714
00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:49,399
Speaker 2: So it's not quite what happened. Now.

715
00:35:49,440 --> 00:35:52,480
Speaker 3: Gilliland was passionate about this idea. He actually put out

716
00:35:52,520 --> 00:35:56,040
Speaker 3: a subscription service to raise funds to develop the prototype.

717
00:35:56,680 --> 00:35:59,480
Speaker 3: He raised about three hundred and fifty dollars. I don't

718
00:35:59,520 --> 00:36:02,320
Speaker 3: know if those were Confederate or Union dollars. And he

719
00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:05,719
Speaker 3: built it, he tested it, and reports from the time

720
00:36:05,840 --> 00:36:10,200
Speaker 3: say they blasted the cannon two balls a chain, It

721
00:36:10,280 --> 00:36:13,440
Speaker 3: tore through a cornfield, it knocked down a chimney, it

722
00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:16,000
Speaker 3: killed a cow. But it was just so wild and

723
00:36:16,080 --> 00:36:19,480
Speaker 3: uncontrollable that the Confederate Army said, no, no, no, this

724
00:36:19,520 --> 00:36:21,160
Speaker 3: is ridiculous. We do not want this.

725
00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:22,960
Speaker 2: In terms of accuracy, yeah, you.

726
00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:27,400
Speaker 3: Would have to fire both cannons simultaneously because they're sitting

727
00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:31,440
Speaker 3: parallel to one another, but slightly splayed, a slight degree

728
00:36:31,440 --> 00:36:34,800
Speaker 3: of difference in the direction in which they propel the ball.

729
00:36:35,400 --> 00:36:37,520
Speaker 3: And that's so that the two cannon balls that sit

730
00:36:37,600 --> 00:36:39,440
Speaker 3: next to one another, when they fly out of the

731
00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:43,080
Speaker 3: cannon will spread out and kind of pull the chain

732
00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:46,560
Speaker 3: between them. Okay, but getting that exactly right with the

733
00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:50,680
Speaker 3: eighteen sixties technology, you can't be that precise. And so

734
00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:54,120
Speaker 3: what happens is even a split second of timing difference

735
00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:56,320
Speaker 3: in firing one or the other side of the cannon,

736
00:36:56,840 --> 00:36:59,400
Speaker 3: or a little bit of wind or a little bit

737
00:36:59,400 --> 00:37:02,200
Speaker 3: of who knows, some material in the barrel will just

738
00:37:02,239 --> 00:37:05,160
Speaker 3: send one ball slightly faster than the other, and all

739
00:37:05,160 --> 00:37:07,120
Speaker 3: of a sudden you get something that's sort of rip

740
00:37:07,160 --> 00:37:10,520
Speaker 3: sawing through the terrain, going in completely the wrong direction. Now,

741
00:37:10,520 --> 00:37:14,600
Speaker 3: that could be destructive. It tore down some trees. But yeah,

742
00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:16,480
Speaker 3: it's just too risky to bring into warfare.

743
00:37:16,719 --> 00:37:19,520
Speaker 2: I got a good idea. What's your idea? Bigger cannons,

744
00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:23,759
Speaker 2: bigger balls, bigger balls, longer chains. Well no, not even

745
00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:29,080
Speaker 2: just one, just one barrel, one barrel, bigger, So big cannons,

746
00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:29,680
Speaker 2: big cannons.

747
00:37:29,760 --> 00:37:33,759
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's interesting because I heard about the ball and

748
00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:37,959
Speaker 1: chain stuff before. But I always thought to your point, Noel,

749
00:37:37,960 --> 00:37:40,480
Speaker 1: I always thought that the it was a situation where

750
00:37:40,520 --> 00:37:43,800
Speaker 1: there was a single cannon and they loaded the balls

751
00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:46,799
Speaker 1: sort of atop each other with the chain hanging out,

752
00:37:46,920 --> 00:37:48,000
Speaker 1: and then shot it out that way.

753
00:37:48,080 --> 00:37:50,319
Speaker 3: Yeah, that seems like that would make more sense than

754
00:37:50,360 --> 00:37:52,080
Speaker 3: having two sources of propulsion.

755
00:37:52,400 --> 00:37:53,239
Speaker 2: Let's double down.

756
00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:56,560
Speaker 1: Did anybody try like a triple barreled cannon.

757
00:37:56,719 --> 00:37:59,560
Speaker 3: I think they have that at Burger Cane, right, it

758
00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:02,640
Speaker 3: comes with the kid, comes with cheese. Yes, there's a

759
00:38:02,640 --> 00:38:06,279
Speaker 3: special sauce but yeah, so this canon, it was just

760
00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:10,640
Speaker 3: a total failure. But Galliland believed so passionately in his invention.

761
00:38:10,719 --> 00:38:12,959
Speaker 3: He kept trying to make the case to the Confederate army.

762
00:38:13,200 --> 00:38:16,319
Speaker 3: The canon was shipped from Athens, Georgia to Augusta, where

763
00:38:16,360 --> 00:38:19,359
Speaker 3: it was put into more testing because he really really

764
00:38:19,400 --> 00:38:22,920
Speaker 3: thought it would work. Ultimately, no, no, no is what

765
00:38:22,920 --> 00:38:25,920
Speaker 3: the Confederates said. It was sent back to Athens. It

766
00:38:26,080 --> 00:38:29,200
Speaker 3: was used in battle, but just as a signal, so

767
00:38:29,360 --> 00:38:32,200
Speaker 3: kind of a warning shot to let the Confederates know

768
00:38:32,280 --> 00:38:36,040
Speaker 3: that the US troops were arriving, so you know, as

769
00:38:36,120 --> 00:38:38,800
Speaker 3: canons are used. And you can see that canon today.

770
00:38:38,800 --> 00:38:41,080
Speaker 3: It still sits in Athens, Georgia. It was sold by

771
00:38:41,080 --> 00:38:44,440
Speaker 3: the city for a while, luckily was not scrapped or anything,

772
00:38:44,480 --> 00:38:46,400
Speaker 3: and the city bought it again and it now sits

773
00:38:46,440 --> 00:38:50,040
Speaker 3: atop a hill in Athens, Georgia, right next to city Hall.

774
00:38:50,360 --> 00:38:52,080
Speaker 3: There's a little plaque. You can kind of go look

775
00:38:52,080 --> 00:38:53,560
Speaker 3: at it and say, that's weird.

776
00:38:53,680 --> 00:38:55,879
Speaker 2: Have you seen it? I have seen it. Yeah, See,

777
00:38:55,880 --> 00:38:57,799
Speaker 2: I used to live in Athens and this is all

778
00:38:57,880 --> 00:39:00,120
Speaker 2: ringing a bell when you were talking about it, and

779
00:39:00,160 --> 00:39:02,200
Speaker 2: I feel like I've seen it before.

780
00:39:02,400 --> 00:39:06,239
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's at the corner of College Avenue and what not,

781
00:39:06,280 --> 00:39:08,480
Speaker 3: West Washington. I think corner of Clayton Street.

782
00:39:08,480 --> 00:39:09,120
Speaker 2: I think that's right.

783
00:39:09,200 --> 00:39:13,080
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's it's it's on the Northeastern corner. Pointed

784
00:39:13,640 --> 00:39:17,560
Speaker 3: straight up at the Yankees. Oh oh wow. Not that

785
00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:19,319
Speaker 3: it's a threat or anything. It doesn't work, and it

786
00:39:19,360 --> 00:39:21,239
Speaker 3: never worked, but you know, it might as well.

787
00:39:22,400 --> 00:39:26,280
Speaker 1: Might as well have the impotent rage represented in a statue.

788
00:39:27,080 --> 00:39:29,120
Speaker 2: Oh that's a good one, Christopher. Yeah, that's a great one.

789
00:39:29,160 --> 00:39:30,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you guys want to take a field trip,

790
00:39:30,560 --> 00:39:31,800
Speaker 3: we'll just hop on over to Athens.

791
00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:33,719
Speaker 2: Let's go. I'm all about I haven't been back in

792
00:39:33,800 --> 00:39:42,640
Speaker 2: too long. It's a good place, all right. Well, I

793
00:39:42,880 --> 00:39:46,560
Speaker 2: guess I'm gonna stick with kind of retro futuristic kind

794
00:39:46,560 --> 00:39:49,279
Speaker 2: of ones. Cool. This one is. I'm just gonna call

795
00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:54,239
Speaker 2: it the hoverboard. Heard of it? Yes, yes, yes, yeah.

796
00:39:54,239 --> 00:39:55,279
Speaker 2: It turns out it was real.

797
00:39:55,560 --> 00:39:57,279
Speaker 3: So I feel like a lot of what we're talking about,

798
00:39:57,280 --> 00:39:59,279
Speaker 3: at least what you guys are talking about, could come

799
00:39:59,320 --> 00:40:00,840
Speaker 3: straight out of the back the Future movies. You've got

800
00:40:00,880 --> 00:40:03,560
Speaker 3: the flying cars, You've got a hoverboard.

801
00:40:03,320 --> 00:40:06,600
Speaker 2: Rocket bullets. Yeah, okay, it's a Hoverboard's a bit of

802
00:40:06,640 --> 00:40:10,760
Speaker 2: a misnomer. It's really more like a helicopter platform. Okay,

803
00:40:10,960 --> 00:40:14,400
Speaker 2: So this is something that was designed by the Hiller

804
00:40:14,480 --> 00:40:17,960
Speaker 2: Company for the US Navy. Originally it was called the

805
00:40:18,080 --> 00:40:23,320
Speaker 2: VS one Pawnee and it's basically a disc with fans

806
00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:27,080
Speaker 2: underneath it, and it used something called rotor duct technology.

807
00:40:27,360 --> 00:40:30,200
Speaker 2: So here's the interesting part about it. I also used

808
00:40:30,239 --> 00:40:33,080
Speaker 2: something called kinesthetic control. Can you guys guess what that is?

809
00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:36,399
Speaker 2: Controlling by moving your body? That's right, which is why

810
00:40:36,480 --> 00:40:40,640
Speaker 2: I think of the hoverboard. So yeah, literally, a person

811
00:40:40,719 --> 00:40:43,560
Speaker 2: manning one of these things, or piloting one of these

812
00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:47,239
Speaker 2: things rather would be standing atop the strange little disc

813
00:40:48,080 --> 00:40:51,200
Speaker 2: in kind of like a cage with no controls except

814
00:40:51,200 --> 00:40:54,920
Speaker 2: for a throttle. So all they had control over was altitude.

815
00:40:55,200 --> 00:40:58,960
Speaker 2: With an actual device to navigate, they have to lean

816
00:40:59,080 --> 00:41:02,040
Speaker 2: the left lean of the lean four lean backward, and

817
00:41:02,080 --> 00:41:05,759
Speaker 2: so it's almost like a segue in that respect. So

818
00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:09,160
Speaker 2: they definitely tested these. They had a prototype which was

819
00:41:09,239 --> 00:41:12,359
Speaker 2: much smaller than the second one. They kind of made

820
00:41:12,360 --> 00:41:14,520
Speaker 2: the whole thing a little bigger, added a little bit

821
00:41:14,520 --> 00:41:17,880
Speaker 2: more stability, and then the third one is massive, and

822
00:41:17,920 --> 00:41:20,520
Speaker 2: it was so massive that it wouldn't even allow you

823
00:41:20,560 --> 00:41:23,320
Speaker 2: to do the kinesthetic controls because it was just so unwieldy.

824
00:41:23,719 --> 00:41:27,879
Speaker 3: They had like a group of guys run exactly now,

825
00:41:27,920 --> 00:41:30,040
Speaker 3: come back center go, I know.

826
00:41:30,120 --> 00:41:31,919
Speaker 2: So they added a seat to this one in more

827
00:41:31,920 --> 00:41:36,000
Speaker 2: traditional helicopter type control, so there were actually some steering

828
00:41:36,040 --> 00:41:39,840
Speaker 2: capabilities on this third one. So this was in nineteen

829
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:45,480
Speaker 2: fifty three. The US Navy's Office of Naval Research essentially

830
00:41:46,200 --> 00:41:52,239
Speaker 2: gave this company, Hillar Helicopters, a contract to develop one

831
00:41:52,280 --> 00:41:57,040
Speaker 2: of these. It was a twin engined ducted fan VTOL,

832
00:41:57,520 --> 00:42:00,840
Speaker 2: which I think we all agree stands for verse takeoff

833
00:42:00,840 --> 00:42:04,239
Speaker 2: and landing better. Yeah, no runway, no runway required. That's

834
00:42:04,239 --> 00:42:07,040
Speaker 2: that's the one positive thing about this this device.

835
00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:10,640
Speaker 3: Well, also I imagined it inspired a lot of Mega

836
00:42:10,640 --> 00:42:12,640
Speaker 3: Man villains. To me, it sounds like kind of thing

837
00:42:12,760 --> 00:42:15,200
Speaker 3: it's like right out of a nineteen eighties video game,

838
00:42:15,200 --> 00:42:18,840
Speaker 3: which is like bad guys fun flying platforms exactly.

839
00:42:19,200 --> 00:42:23,480
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, these things were very slow and they couldn't really

840
00:42:23,600 --> 00:42:27,239
Speaker 2: figure out like any kind of real practical use for

841
00:42:27,280 --> 00:42:30,239
Speaker 2: it in battle. There is in fact a video though,

842
00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:32,800
Speaker 2: I'd like to play a clip from of one of

843
00:42:32,840 --> 00:42:34,960
Speaker 2: the first flight tests of this thing.

844
00:42:39,520 --> 00:42:41,360
Speaker 4: Well, this is quite a machine you have here. I

845
00:42:41,400 --> 00:42:44,080
Speaker 4: suppose you've come as close as anyone to operating a

846
00:42:44,120 --> 00:42:44,880
Speaker 4: flying carpet.

847
00:42:44,960 --> 00:42:47,560
Speaker 5: How does it feel, Well, it feels fine. And the

848
00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:48,719
Speaker 5: nice thing about it's very.

849
00:42:48,600 --> 00:42:49,160
Speaker 2: Easy to fly.

850
00:42:50,280 --> 00:42:53,120
Speaker 4: What do you think, phil is a truly revolutionary characteristic

851
00:42:53,200 --> 00:42:54,000
Speaker 4: of this machine.

852
00:42:54,239 --> 00:42:56,520
Speaker 5: Well, I mentioned earlier it was so easy to fly.

853
00:42:56,719 --> 00:42:58,440
Speaker 5: We do it by shifting our weight. Is the way

854
00:42:58,440 --> 00:42:59,360
Speaker 5: we control the aircript.

855
00:42:59,840 --> 00:43:01,520
Speaker 4: I say by that, you mean you don't have any

856
00:43:02,239 --> 00:43:05,360
Speaker 4: mechanical controls as we normally think of them in then aeroplanes,

857
00:43:05,400 --> 00:43:06,680
Speaker 4: such as a stick in the rudder.

858
00:43:07,120 --> 00:43:10,239
Speaker 5: Oh, we have a throttle, which all aircraft have, but

859
00:43:10,719 --> 00:43:14,760
Speaker 5: we control it by shifting our weight using our feet.

860
00:43:14,960 --> 00:43:17,600
Speaker 2: So yeah, again, he even says the interviewer, like, I

861
00:43:17,600 --> 00:43:19,879
Speaker 2: guess it's because it's close to anyone's coming to fly

862
00:43:19,960 --> 00:43:22,120
Speaker 2: and cop it. It's all about the future, you know,

863
00:43:22,160 --> 00:43:26,239
Speaker 2: it's all about magic and technology. It's great, but yeah,

864
00:43:26,239 --> 00:43:28,719
Speaker 2: they don't go very high. They seem a little. The

865
00:43:28,760 --> 00:43:30,480
Speaker 2: guy keeps talking about how easy it is to fly,

866
00:43:30,960 --> 00:43:34,239
Speaker 2: but it just doesn't seem like you could really get

867
00:43:34,239 --> 00:43:37,239
Speaker 2: it to go forward very quickly at all, or be

868
00:43:37,400 --> 00:43:39,200
Speaker 2: very precise in your movements on it.

869
00:43:39,239 --> 00:43:40,840
Speaker 3: You know, yeah, And it seems like the kind of

870
00:43:40,840 --> 00:43:43,120
Speaker 3: thing where if as you're training people to use it,

871
00:43:43,160 --> 00:43:45,320
Speaker 3: you would just break a lot of them. And I

872
00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:47,719
Speaker 3: also wonder what the point of it is. I mean,

873
00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:49,640
Speaker 3: if it doesn't go that high, it can't be used

874
00:43:49,640 --> 00:43:54,200
Speaker 3: for reconnaissance. If it moves as you move, you probably

875
00:43:54,200 --> 00:43:56,879
Speaker 3: can't use it like a heavy rifle, because then you might,

876
00:43:57,239 --> 00:43:59,040
Speaker 3: you know, throw yourself off, and it'll be like you're

877
00:43:59,080 --> 00:44:03,239
Speaker 3: in a round ship. Yeah, exactly. You could even sneeze, yeah,

878
00:44:03,280 --> 00:44:04,279
Speaker 3: and just crash.

879
00:44:04,520 --> 00:44:08,280
Speaker 1: So maybe it's more of a proof of concept because

880
00:44:08,800 --> 00:44:11,600
Speaker 1: one would imagine there surely there would be ways to

881
00:44:12,440 --> 00:44:17,600
Speaker 1: mitigate those issues. Even just fixing one of those issues

882
00:44:17,680 --> 00:44:21,000
Speaker 1: would make it a more worthwhile investment by a military,

883
00:44:21,040 --> 00:44:21,480
Speaker 1: that's right.

884
00:44:21,520 --> 00:44:23,759
Speaker 2: And of course they did take them out of commission

885
00:44:23,880 --> 00:44:27,600
Speaker 2: entirely by nineteen sixty three, but it did offer some

886
00:44:27,640 --> 00:44:32,319
Speaker 2: pretty valuable information, of research wise, for technology they would

887
00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:35,640
Speaker 2: later use for more practical vertical takeoff and landing planes,

888
00:44:35,640 --> 00:44:38,000
Speaker 2: which which are a thing I don't thought that was

889
00:44:38,080 --> 00:44:38,520
Speaker 2: kind of cool.

890
00:44:38,600 --> 00:44:40,760
Speaker 3: I agree, Yeah, it's the kind of thing that reminds

891
00:44:40,800 --> 00:44:44,160
Speaker 3: me too of technology you know, supposedly coming from Project

892
00:44:44,239 --> 00:44:48,200
Speaker 3: Bluebook and that investigation into alien technology in Area fifty one.

893
00:44:48,239 --> 00:44:51,560
Speaker 3: This weird flying saucer stuff, it kind of makes me

894
00:44:51,600 --> 00:44:53,240
Speaker 3: think of that, and I know it's.

895
00:44:53,120 --> 00:44:55,799
Speaker 2: Not real, but oh, I wish I'd done that. Maybe

896
00:44:55,880 --> 00:44:56,799
Speaker 2: it could be.

897
00:44:57,120 --> 00:45:00,719
Speaker 1: I was having such a tough time off the air

898
00:45:00,880 --> 00:45:06,680
Speaker 1: preparing for this episode because there's an extensive list of

899
00:45:07,320 --> 00:45:13,560
Speaker 1: ridiculous experiments but also very promising, somewhat space age stuff

900
00:45:13,640 --> 00:45:18,120
Speaker 1: that militaries have gotten up to in secret. And I

901
00:45:18,160 --> 00:45:21,200
Speaker 1: wanted to find one of the dumbest ideas, not one

902
00:45:21,239 --> 00:45:24,280
Speaker 1: that has some promise, not one that's innovative.

903
00:45:24,400 --> 00:45:25,399
Speaker 2: Let's try something new.

904
00:45:26,400 --> 00:45:31,720
Speaker 1: The dumbest, a dumbest idea that I found is the

905
00:45:31,760 --> 00:45:35,400
Speaker 1: ball tank. The ball tank, the ball tank, tell me

906
00:45:35,480 --> 00:45:40,680
Speaker 1: more it We are a family show. It's a tank.

907
00:45:41,160 --> 00:45:45,560
Speaker 1: It's been known alternately as the kugle Banzer or the

908
00:45:45,680 --> 00:45:49,680
Speaker 1: tumbleweed tank. The thing about this is we'll start with

909
00:45:49,680 --> 00:45:52,520
Speaker 1: one story. We'll start with the tumbleweed tank. There's an

910
00:45:52,520 --> 00:45:53,800
Speaker 1: inventor in Texas.

911
00:45:53,880 --> 00:45:54,719
Speaker 2: His name is A. J.

912
00:45:55,160 --> 00:45:59,960
Speaker 1: Richardson, and in nineteen thirty six he says, you know,

913
00:46:00,640 --> 00:46:03,480
Speaker 1: the First World War, which they just called the World

914
00:46:03,560 --> 00:46:06,600
Speaker 1: War at that time, no war. Yeah, can you imagine

915
00:46:06,680 --> 00:46:09,480
Speaker 1: calling that war the First World War. Back then it was.

916
00:46:09,920 --> 00:46:14,600
Speaker 1: He said it was well. He was haunted frankly by

917
00:46:14,880 --> 00:46:18,640
Speaker 1: the sheer mass of human suffering and carnage and death

918
00:46:18,640 --> 00:46:23,560
Speaker 1: that occurred. And in his estimation, one of the reasons

919
00:46:23,800 --> 00:46:27,200
Speaker 1: so many people died in World War One was because

920
00:46:27,920 --> 00:46:32,400
Speaker 1: of trench warfare. People couldn't aim very well. They could

921
00:46:32,440 --> 00:46:36,240
Speaker 1: just blindly throw mortars toward the enemy's trench and hope

922
00:46:36,239 --> 00:46:39,880
Speaker 1: they hit someone who's a soldier rather than a civilian,

923
00:46:40,080 --> 00:46:43,279
Speaker 1: rather than medical personnel and all this other stuff. So

924
00:46:43,360 --> 00:46:48,880
Speaker 1: he said the best idea would be to send heavily armored,

925
00:46:49,120 --> 00:46:53,200
Speaker 1: motorized bunkers across that no man's land that kills zone

926
00:46:53,200 --> 00:46:56,920
Speaker 1: between the trenches, because again, I just want to emphasize

927
00:46:56,960 --> 00:47:00,520
Speaker 1: this important. Later he thought the main problem was that

928
00:47:00,560 --> 00:47:04,480
Speaker 1: you couldn't really see who you were firing at, and

929
00:47:04,560 --> 00:47:07,520
Speaker 1: so he decided that he would invent this thing called

930
00:47:07,560 --> 00:47:11,399
Speaker 1: the tumbleweed tank. It is a sphere. It has room

931
00:47:11,480 --> 00:47:15,040
Speaker 1: for three people. It has each of the three people

932
00:47:15,280 --> 00:47:19,239
Speaker 1: are manning one gun. I would like to show you, gentlemen,

933
00:47:19,640 --> 00:47:24,160
Speaker 1: a picture of this of this design. I want you

934
00:47:24,239 --> 00:47:28,040
Speaker 1: to get a look at it, because the guns you

935
00:47:28,120 --> 00:47:32,120
Speaker 1: see the guns you see have a lot of random placement.

936
00:47:33,360 --> 00:47:36,560
Speaker 1: There's one pointing toward the air, there's one pointing toward

937
00:47:36,600 --> 00:47:38,759
Speaker 1: the ground, and then there's one just out there on

938
00:47:38,800 --> 00:47:40,880
Speaker 1: the right, and the one on the right can swivel

939
00:47:40,920 --> 00:47:41,279
Speaker 1: by the way.

940
00:47:41,560 --> 00:47:45,520
Speaker 2: It sort of like cars in the newer Jurassic Park movies,

941
00:47:45,719 --> 00:47:46,400
Speaker 2: I guess it is.

942
00:47:46,520 --> 00:47:49,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, because those are two seaters. That's two seaters,

943
00:47:49,080 --> 00:47:53,360
Speaker 1: so this one is an uncomfortable three seater. And just

944
00:47:53,400 --> 00:47:57,000
Speaker 1: from that initial picture you guys saw, the tumbleweed tank

945
00:47:57,040 --> 00:47:57,840
Speaker 1: has some problems.

946
00:47:57,920 --> 00:47:59,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is.

947
00:47:58,920 --> 00:48:01,680
Speaker 3: The kind of thing that should be drawn and then

948
00:48:01,800 --> 00:48:02,919
Speaker 3: immediately torn up.

949
00:48:04,160 --> 00:48:06,720
Speaker 2: How is it going to roll if there's random guns

950
00:48:06,760 --> 00:48:09,680
Speaker 2: poking out every which way? Do they collapse? It has

951
00:48:09,880 --> 00:48:12,919
Speaker 2: a ring it is propelled by uh.

952
00:48:13,400 --> 00:48:16,239
Speaker 3: Oh, so it only goes forward and back. Yeah, it

953
00:48:16,280 --> 00:48:19,000
Speaker 3: doesn't roll in like, not even three hundred and sixty degrees,

954
00:48:19,040 --> 00:48:23,360
Speaker 3: but the entire spherical gyroscopic motion, it just goes straight

955
00:48:23,560 --> 00:48:24,240
Speaker 3: back and forward.

956
00:48:24,400 --> 00:48:27,520
Speaker 1: Let me let me correct myself there in the diagram,

957
00:48:27,920 --> 00:48:31,840
Speaker 1: from what we understand, the actual the sphere wherein the

958
00:48:32,280 --> 00:48:37,399
Speaker 1: soldiers are located, that is enclosed within two rotating outer

959
00:48:37,600 --> 00:48:41,040
Speaker 1: shells that are each like bowls round the thing, so

960
00:48:41,120 --> 00:48:45,120
Speaker 1: it can it can turn a little bit in theory.

961
00:48:45,280 --> 00:48:48,120
Speaker 3: So it's sort of like a deadly gerbil ball kind

962
00:48:48,160 --> 00:48:52,400
Speaker 3: of yeah, hamster mechanism with guns, yep, and men.

963
00:48:53,120 --> 00:48:54,960
Speaker 2: And it had some it had some good points.

964
00:48:55,000 --> 00:48:58,719
Speaker 1: It could be very easily sealed against poison gas attacks.

965
00:48:59,120 --> 00:49:02,360
Speaker 1: And Richardson also thought it would present a much smaller

966
00:49:02,480 --> 00:49:05,680
Speaker 1: target for enemy shells and that they would glance off

967
00:49:05,760 --> 00:49:09,520
Speaker 1: of the curved sides. But remember how we mentioned the

968
00:49:09,600 --> 00:49:14,160
Speaker 1: part where his primary beef with World War One was

969
00:49:14,200 --> 00:49:16,160
Speaker 1: that people were just blindly throwing.

970
00:49:16,280 --> 00:49:19,359
Speaker 3: Yeah, you couldn't see people. So this was his way

971
00:49:19,360 --> 00:49:20,320
Speaker 3: around that somehow.

972
00:49:20,600 --> 00:49:25,680
Speaker 1: So the guys sealed inside this tank, Christopher frantically firing

973
00:49:25,800 --> 00:49:30,279
Speaker 1: guns in all directions, could not see outside. They had

974
00:49:30,360 --> 00:49:32,359
Speaker 1: no idea what was going on.

975
00:49:33,160 --> 00:49:36,920
Speaker 3: So it would maybe work if you could somehow catapult

976
00:49:36,920 --> 00:49:39,600
Speaker 3: one of these balls into the middle of your enemy

977
00:49:39,800 --> 00:49:44,000
Speaker 3: and just shoot in willy nilly directions. This just sounds

978
00:49:44,040 --> 00:49:45,520
Speaker 3: like a terrible, terrible idea.

979
00:49:45,680 --> 00:49:48,680
Speaker 1: I mean, imagine, yeah, terrible is the right word. Imagine

980
00:49:48,680 --> 00:49:52,319
Speaker 1: how terrifying this is for the operators they can't see outside,

981
00:49:52,560 --> 00:49:55,000
Speaker 1: how terrifying it is for the enemy.

982
00:49:55,120 --> 00:49:55,960
Speaker 2: What the hell is that?

983
00:49:56,040 --> 00:49:58,520
Speaker 1: Are they even aiming for us? How terrifying it is

984
00:49:58,560 --> 00:50:02,759
Speaker 1: for nearby troops who are like, hey, whoa, whoa, I'm

985
00:50:02,880 --> 00:50:03,680
Speaker 1: on your side.

986
00:50:03,960 --> 00:50:05,680
Speaker 3: The only way I could imagine this would be worse

987
00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:08,120
Speaker 3: is if instead of a track, they all had to

988
00:50:08,200 --> 00:50:10,319
Speaker 3: run inside to make it going. You know, like those

989
00:50:10,320 --> 00:50:13,160
Speaker 3: big kind of translucent plastic balls you see on America's

990
00:50:13,160 --> 00:50:14,239
Speaker 3: fundies home videos or whatever.

991
00:50:14,719 --> 00:50:17,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, sorbian that's what what zorbian zeo or what are

992
00:50:17,920 --> 00:50:22,000
Speaker 2: you saying? Is that like furries zorbian zo r B

993
00:50:22,200 --> 00:50:24,440
Speaker 2: I n G So like a furbie. It's where you

994
00:50:24,480 --> 00:50:27,640
Speaker 2: get inside that giant plastic ball sorbing zorbian Is that

995
00:50:27,719 --> 00:50:31,680
Speaker 2: an acronym? And then they fight? Uh they fight? Yeah, yeah,

996
00:50:31,719 --> 00:50:32,520
Speaker 2: they've they've fought.

997
00:50:32,560 --> 00:50:35,160
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's I don't know if it's

998
00:50:35,160 --> 00:50:38,920
Speaker 1: an acronym. I know it's it's meant to cite the

999
00:50:38,960 --> 00:50:41,520
Speaker 1: fact that you're rolling downhill in an orb.

1000
00:50:41,600 --> 00:50:45,080
Speaker 3: So like maybe zero gravity or.

1001
00:50:45,680 --> 00:50:48,560
Speaker 2: I think there's but I think there's proper gravity. Yeah, yeah,

1002
00:50:48,600 --> 00:50:52,839
Speaker 2: well neither. Hell, I've also seen them on water. Yes,

1003
00:50:53,040 --> 00:50:55,480
Speaker 2: you can get inside those on water and just roll

1004
00:50:55,520 --> 00:50:59,120
Speaker 2: them around aquasorb aquasorbing, but I like that, but you

1005
00:50:59,160 --> 00:51:02,080
Speaker 2: can see through through those, which I think is key here.

1006
00:51:02,160 --> 00:51:09,759
Speaker 3: So aquasorbing, rotocopter, battle, rocket, chip, bullet failure, disaster war.

1007
00:51:10,480 --> 00:51:11,480
Speaker 3: That's what we're talking at right now.

1008
00:51:11,480 --> 00:51:13,200
Speaker 2: That's what we're talking Oh, there's one other point.

1009
00:51:14,120 --> 00:51:16,879
Speaker 1: We do know that there was at least one other

1010
00:51:16,960 --> 00:51:20,680
Speaker 1: group of people who thought this balltank idea was just

1011
00:51:21,000 --> 00:51:24,759
Speaker 1: the top notch military concept of the time. It was Germany.

1012
00:51:25,160 --> 00:51:30,840
Speaker 1: We know that during World War Two Germany designed that

1013
00:51:31,080 --> 00:51:35,359
Speaker 1: google poundcer the ball tank, and we don't know what

1014
00:51:35,400 --> 00:51:39,080
Speaker 1: they meant to do with it. We don't know how

1015
00:51:39,160 --> 00:51:42,279
Speaker 1: often it was used. Clearly not that much, but we

1016
00:51:42,320 --> 00:51:45,080
Speaker 1: haven't found any plans or documents about it. Only one

1017
00:51:45,120 --> 00:51:47,560
Speaker 1: survived the war. It was captured in Manchuria in nineteen

1018
00:51:47,840 --> 00:51:51,080
Speaker 1: forty five. You can go see it in the Kubinka

1019
00:51:51,200 --> 00:51:56,799
Speaker 1: Museum's collection of German vehicles. It was apparently used by

1020
00:51:57,120 --> 00:52:02,040
Speaker 1: some unfortunate German and the Germans, in their part did

1021
00:52:02,040 --> 00:52:06,560
Speaker 1: include a small visor or small slit so the operator

1022
00:52:06,600 --> 00:52:07,640
Speaker 1: could see what they were rolling.

1023
00:52:07,640 --> 00:52:11,720
Speaker 2: That's nice, that's thoughtful. Yeah, they learned from the tumbleweed tank.

1024
00:52:11,600 --> 00:52:15,160
Speaker 3: And that's what they learned is just let them look outside.

1025
00:52:15,480 --> 00:52:15,879
Speaker 2: Just see.

1026
00:52:15,960 --> 00:52:17,880
Speaker 3: It feels like there's a lot more lessons to be

1027
00:52:17,960 --> 00:52:19,560
Speaker 3: learned from the ball tank.

1028
00:52:20,280 --> 00:52:23,080
Speaker 1: This was such a cool idea for an episode. Thank

1029
00:52:23,120 --> 00:52:24,279
Speaker 1: you for bringing this to us.

1030
00:52:24,520 --> 00:52:27,120
Speaker 2: Absolutely yeah, always a pleasure to have you in the

1031
00:52:27,160 --> 00:52:30,520
Speaker 2: studio and kind of kick the ball tank around nice.

1032
00:52:32,280 --> 00:52:35,399
Speaker 3: Speaking of kicking, if any ridiculous historians want to kick

1033
00:52:35,440 --> 00:52:39,239
Speaker 3: it with me over on another show this week, you guys, okay,

1034
00:52:39,239 --> 00:52:40,280
Speaker 3: if I plug something.

1035
00:52:40,120 --> 00:52:41,560
Speaker 2: Oh please plug away.

1036
00:52:41,800 --> 00:52:44,520
Speaker 3: So ridiculous historians. If you're listening to this show, I

1037
00:52:44,560 --> 00:52:46,839
Speaker 3: know you like learning about stuff in the way back,

1038
00:52:47,440 --> 00:52:51,239
Speaker 3: So point your podcast machines over to This Day in

1039
00:52:51,440 --> 00:52:54,319
Speaker 3: History Class. It's one of our sister podcasts here on

1040
00:52:54,360 --> 00:52:57,520
Speaker 3: the House Stuff Works Network. It's a daily history show,

1041
00:52:57,760 --> 00:53:01,239
Speaker 3: just really quick, five minute tid bits of one thing

1042
00:53:01,280 --> 00:53:03,080
Speaker 3: that happened that day in history.

1043
00:53:03,719 --> 00:53:03,919
Speaker 2: Now.

1044
00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:06,880
Speaker 3: Normally the host is Tracy V. Wilson, who you probably

1045
00:53:06,880 --> 00:53:09,200
Speaker 3: know from stuff you missed in history class. She's out

1046
00:53:09,239 --> 00:53:11,719
Speaker 3: this week, So the week that you are listening to

1047
00:53:11,800 --> 00:53:14,200
Speaker 3: this in your podcast machine, I'm going to be guest

1048
00:53:14,200 --> 00:53:16,839
Speaker 3: hosting over on This Day in History Class. So head

1049
00:53:16,840 --> 00:53:18,560
Speaker 3: over that way and you can find all sorts of

1050
00:53:18,600 --> 00:53:21,839
Speaker 3: cool weird things that happen every single day of the year,

1051
00:53:22,280 --> 00:53:22,879
Speaker 3: day by day.

1052
00:53:23,160 --> 00:53:27,160
Speaker 1: Awesome, congratulations, and we are definitely going to check it out.

1053
00:53:27,640 --> 00:53:30,040
Speaker 1: We can also go ahead and maybe post a link

1054
00:53:30,120 --> 00:53:32,520
Speaker 1: to that, yeah, ridiculous Historians.

1055
00:53:32,760 --> 00:53:35,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll share that on the Facebook page. Ridiculous Historians

1056
00:53:35,560 --> 00:53:37,680
Speaker 3: will point you in that direction. It's a great show.

1057
00:53:37,960 --> 00:53:39,479
Speaker 3: I'm only on it for a week, but you should

1058
00:53:39,480 --> 00:53:41,879
Speaker 3: definitely take a listen. It'll be going through some cool

1059
00:53:41,960 --> 00:53:43,600
Speaker 3: changes in the coming year too. I think we're going

1060
00:53:43,680 --> 00:53:45,719
Speaker 3: to be getting a little more creative, but still a

1061
00:53:45,800 --> 00:53:48,719
Speaker 3: daily podcast kind of updating you just on the things

1062
00:53:48,719 --> 00:53:50,480
Speaker 3: you need to know about what's happened in the past

1063
00:53:50,520 --> 00:53:52,120
Speaker 3: and how that affects our days today.

1064
00:53:52,400 --> 00:53:56,280
Speaker 1: Awesome, and thank you so much for coming on the show.

1065
00:53:56,520 --> 00:53:59,319
Speaker 1: This is going to be one of a number of

1066
00:53:59,360 --> 00:54:01,040
Speaker 1: recurring appearances.

1067
00:54:01,120 --> 00:54:02,799
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're gonna mean this's a regular thing.

1068
00:54:02,880 --> 00:54:03,520
Speaker 3: I'll be around.

1069
00:54:03,800 --> 00:54:08,600
Speaker 2: Fantastic. Well, let's as always thank our super producer, Casey Pegram.

1070
00:54:09,000 --> 00:54:11,879
Speaker 2: I think we've already thanked Christopher enough that I'm gonna

1071
00:54:11,880 --> 00:54:13,920
Speaker 2: do it one more time film for measure. Thank you, Christopher.

1072
00:54:17,880 --> 00:54:20,080
Speaker 2: Do I have a choice? Doesn't that sound like an

1073
00:54:20,120 --> 00:54:21,720
Speaker 2: alien overlord character?

1074
00:54:21,880 --> 00:54:27,600
Speaker 1: There is a Zorba the Great I think, oh wait,

1075
00:54:27,719 --> 00:54:28,600
Speaker 1: this works out with you?

1076
00:54:28,880 --> 00:54:32,040
Speaker 2: It does? Yeah, thanks to you as well, Ben Hey,

1077
00:54:32,040 --> 00:54:34,600
Speaker 2: thanks to you looking dapper as ever today, sir.

1078
00:54:34,600 --> 00:54:38,799
Speaker 1: And thanks to Alex Williams who composed our track. Thank

1079
00:54:38,880 --> 00:54:41,680
Speaker 1: you for checking out the show. We hope that you

1080
00:54:41,880 --> 00:54:44,360
Speaker 1: enjoyed it, and we hope that this is kindled a

1081
00:54:44,440 --> 00:54:49,520
Speaker 1: spark of inspiration. Let us know what strange military contraptions

1082
00:54:49,520 --> 00:54:53,600
Speaker 1: were otherwise ridiculous inventions you have run across.

1083
00:54:54,360 --> 00:54:56,920
Speaker 2: We will be all ears. We would love to hear

1084
00:54:56,960 --> 00:54:57,400
Speaker 2: this stuff.

1085
00:54:57,440 --> 00:54:59,520
Speaker 1: And you know, we're of course that should go out

1086
00:54:59,560 --> 00:55:03,279
Speaker 1: saying we're we're not really picking on these inventors. A

1087
00:55:03,280 --> 00:55:06,759
Speaker 1: lot of these ideas seem very promising, and the only

1088
00:55:06,800 --> 00:55:09,279
Speaker 1: way you can learn whether or not they're feasible is

1089
00:55:09,320 --> 00:55:12,040
Speaker 1: to test them, you know what I mean. Rocket Bullets

1090
00:55:12,040 --> 00:55:15,200
Speaker 1: sounds like a tremendous idea. It sounds really cool and.

1091
00:55:15,200 --> 00:55:16,839
Speaker 3: One of my favorite bands and.

1092
00:55:16,719 --> 00:55:21,080
Speaker 2: One of your favorite bands, Rocket Bullets. Sure, if they

1093
00:55:21,080 --> 00:55:25,279
Speaker 2: don't exist yet, they absolutely need to. So please come

1094
00:55:25,320 --> 00:55:27,319
Speaker 2: and hang out with us next time. When we talk

1095
00:55:27,520 --> 00:55:31,440
Speaker 2: about flowers as currency or you know, some sort of

1096
00:55:31,480 --> 00:55:42,759
Speaker 2: like the bitcoin bubble, we'll see you then for more

1097
00:55:42,800 --> 00:55:46,320
Speaker 2: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

1098
00:55:46,360 --> 00:55:48,440
Speaker 2: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.