On Fri, 13 Mar 2015 22:43:42 -0500, "Byker" wrote:

If only the public knew: The B-58 was difficult to fly and a quarter of them
crashed before they were retired in 1970. We lived about forty miles from
March AFB, Ca., and their sonic booms shook our neighborhood all the time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M64Ai4I9-as

We kids knew all about the Redstone. The teacher in my second-grade class
brought a TV into the classroom and we got to watch Alan Shepard lift off
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iCm22yyz1I

Many kids had "Jimmy Jet" at home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CclDgg2FDVA

We had real heroes back then
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cmGLg6TcxA

I asked for one of these for Christmas but I didn't get it, presumably
because the 1959 asking price of $14.98 would equal $122.00 in today's money
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuEhNzoCnJA

Oh, golly...

I remember my Cape Canaveral Rocket set as a little kid. Launched the
first lima bean into space (well, would have, had the kitchen ceiling
not interfered.)

For learning to tie my own shoes, getting a United Airlines 727 (as I
recall - might have been a Caravelle) that had a geared system where
pushing it on its wheels ran a flint doohickey that made sparks come
out the engines. Looking back, this seems like a rather
self-defeating plan if your engines quit the second you leave the
ground...

A little older, and had the 'DarePlane' (sort of an indoor, battery
powered control line biplane) and 'VertiBird' helicopter. There's
actually a PC software simulator available of the latter:

http://www.peterhirschberg.com/vertisim/

Maybe my misspent yoot wasn't so badly misspent after all.