The Beer Shuttle: Kirin ad, Japan, 1984

The Beer Shuttle. If NASA had used this sort of pragmatic ingenuity, perhaps the shuttle program would have lasted longer. Generously scanned and shared in the Boing Boing Flickr Pool by v.valenti.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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allium

That, or if the Air Force hadn’t insisted on that cross-range capability…

Quick, to the timehole to make things right!
http://japandailypress.com/ Adam Westlake

Wow, I would love to have one of those bottles!
hadlockk

The shuttle was finally killed because we managed to wring some usefulness out of it for the money we put in to the program. By the time the program was finally cut it was mostly coasting on inertia and nostalgia. Notice that nobody else is developing a side-mounted shuttle. That era is over, let’s learn our lessons and move forward.
acerplatanoides

1.2ℓ of Kirin could make your world spin.
- John Maple
  
  Indeed. Who needs a rocket when they have this booster!
gwailo_joe

“Chabudai ga hasshadai nan desu ne.”

Roughly translated: ちゃぶ台(small, round table)が(is)発射台(launchpad)なんですね(isn’t it)。

Anyhow, I would love to blast off with 1.2l of cold, scientific Kirin…３．２．１。。。うまい！
- Ean Moody
  
  So: “Your table is really just a small launchpad, isn’t it?” might be an english equivalent with the same general feel?
John Maple

This advertisement still looks good after all this time.
wolfman_al2

Heh, reminds me in the beverage containers in “Back to the future2″. You know, the futuristic Pepsi containers in 2015 Hill Valley.
oasisob1

What is wrong with all of you? Doesn’t anyone notice the two tiny men who can fit into the Kirin Shuttle? The Japanese will be able to send men to Mars for about $200. Imagine!
- SumAnon
  
  What is this, a space shuttle for ants?!?!?!
mappo

My God, it’s full of beer!
toobigtofail

OMG – I remember the Beer Shuttle. Bought some in Osaka from a vending machine. The top (the nose cone) was a cup. No flat bottom, so you had to be sociable and pass it around.
http://twitter.com/TheSadakoMoose TheSadakoMoose

Also, why is nobody referencing the presence of Giant Baba in this ad?