What brought the simmering Convair/seaplane/nuke-yu-ler thing to a boil?

One – discovering the San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives on Flickr. There’s a huge set devoted to Convair.

*

*

Two – finding a link to the work of the great and hilarious Stan Mott (hadn’t thought about him in too long) that included this image of a seaplane aircraft carrier. I don’t know whether it relies on a reactor or the combined power output of the lashed-together Cyclopii that form the hull (I suspect the latter). Thank you, Agent Malki.

*

Impossibly wealthy Oil Sheik:  Signor Martini, I am blue.
Martini:  Hah, I have idea for you!  (See how quick he is?)
Sheik:  What?
Martini: Something expensive.
Sheik:  To buy?  Where?
Martini:  The personal aircraft carrier!  Fantastico!
Sheik:  But cars…
Martini:  Exactemente!  I make aircraft carrier out of cars,  Cyclops Us.  They float.  So by lashing hundreds of thousands of them together they form magnifico aircraft carrier.  Just what you need.  No one else has.
Sheik:  But I get seasick.
Martini:  Ah hah … that is why it is land-based carrier.  It rolls on ground, desert, your desert.
Sheik:  But how could it be a real aircraft carrier with no water?
Martini:  We bring our own water.
Sheik:  Where?
Martini:  On deck.
Sheik:  But how can the planes land on water?
Martini:  Sea planes.
Sheik:  Well, I don’t…
Martini:  Don’t worry.  Will be absolutely safe from Russian scoobie divers.  I put sharks in water.
Sheik:  You are a shrewd man, Signor Martini.
Martini:  Ah, my friend, for you … anything!
Sheik:  What will my aircraft carrier look like?
Martini:  It is up above this text.
Sheik:  Ohhh, praise Allah!  How much?
Martini:  I thought you would never ask. *