Cold War,” to describe the struggle for power between America and the Soviet Union, was first used on April 16, 1947. The name of financial genius Bernard Baruch is almost forgotten today, but those two words he first uttered in a speech to the South Carolina House of Representatives have earned a place in history.That period, stretching from the end of the Second World War until the early 1990s was marked by dangerous flirtations with nuclear war – and wild schemes to get the upper hand.Here are just a few of the strangest tales from the archives:The Convair B-58 Hustler was a sleek, high-altitude bomber designed to outfly the Soviet fighter planes of the early Sixties, carrying up to five nuclear bombs at speeds over over 1,000mph.But it needed an advanced ejection seat system to allow crews to bail out at supersonic speeds.After some discussion of recruiting the unemployed to work as crash-test dummies for the Hustler’s unique ejection capsules, US Air Force commanders had a better idea.
Bears. Bears on drugs.Heavily medicated bears were loaded into the cutting-edge bomber’s crew compartment and fitted with an array of sensors before being ejected from the planes at high speed.Miraculously, most of the bears survived.
Only one of the bear bomber pilots is known to have died during the tests, a fatality that was put down to an undiagnosed brain condition which made it unable to withstand the strain of ejection.The tests were pronounced a success, but sadly the Hustler’s advantage was countered by the development of long-range Soviet anti-air missiles and it was retired by 1970.
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