[Milsurplus] Atomic John

[Mike Hanz]

I have an electronic copy if the New Yorker article has timed out.  I 
spent several hours with John and my NASM boss at Udvar-Hazy and Garber 
discussing these details over the last couple of years.  John is a huge 
bundle of energy, that's for sure.

Marty Reynolds wrote:

>That's title of art'l in 12-15 New Yorker.  Seems a Waukesha, WI
>fella made an exact copy of the PU239 bomb.  
>

I think it was a copy of the U-235 bomb, Marty.  :-)

>Product
>of exhaustive research..  Details go right down
>to three, not four, APS-13 3-ele yagis for proximity
>voting.
>

His book, which is a bargain at $50 for those who are into the technical 
details of these first weapons, shows four antennas, as do all the 
photos I have here - including the glossy of his replica.  You can see 
three of the four cad plated antenna base pads in slide 9 of the slide 
show.  Slide 10 shows a quantity of four antennas.  That meshes nicely 
with the four APS-13 radars used as the proximity fuse.  I suspect the 
photo, which is clearly a composite of several shots, was from a weapon 
that was in one of the museums but wasn't correct - even the paint color 
isn't that of Coster-Mullen's replica, which is in slide 13 and clearly 
shows the left hand pair of antennas at a 90 degree angle to each other..

>I've only read half art'l & don't know if electronics addressed
>

Not really.  The journalist was more into details of his travels with 
Coster-Mullen than technical details.  A good read, nonetheless.

Happy Christmas, everyone!

 - Mike