Sierra Hotel Blog
On the 27th of April, 1944, Squadron Leader Anthony F Martindale took off on a highly unusual mission. To put his Mark XI Spitfire through the wringer and find her true top speed. The Spitfire, whose beauty and proclivity for...
Continue reading
A Christmas like no other...Twenty hours, ten minutes, and 13 seconds after Apollo 8 entered lunar orbit, it was Christmas day, and the crew were looking forward to pointing their spacecraft back towards Earth for the long journey home, but...
Continue reading
Pete Conrad was born on June 2nd, 1930, in Philadelphia, just prior to the Great Depression. Pete struggled continuously with his schoolwork, suffering from dyslexia, a condition little understood at the time. After failing most of his 11th-grade exams, Pete...
Continue reading
A young man nicknamed Mac was born on April 9th, 1899 in the city of Denver Colorado. James Smith McDonnell was raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, after graduating from Little Rock High School in 1917, Mac left Arkansas for Princeton University...
Continue reading
. October 30th, 1961; No, it wasn't Marvin's Illudium Q -36 Explosive Space Modulator, but the RDS-220 hydrogen bomb (code name "Ivan" or "Vanya"). The most powerful nuclear weapon mankind ever detonated. It's test on October 30th, one that is referred to as Tzar...
Continue reading
