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Huh, I'd never seen a rotary aircraft engine in action outside the cowl - I knew the sound, but the motion had remained a mystery. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UBAukXPD-0 Crazy... now I understand the gyroscopic forces that guy was talking about.
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Mar 13, 2010 04:33
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| # ¿ May 7, 2024 23:59 |
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eggyolk posted:I don't care if it leaves streaks of space radiation leaking holes in the upper atmosphere that roast us all, I want supersonic booms going around me while I sip cocktails and hit on stewardesses and deafen innocent farmers thousands of feet below. They made that one already, but it was a missile, not an airliner:  More: http://www.merkle.com/pluto/pluto.html
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Mar 19, 2010 19:46
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Munnin The Crab posted:That, and the B52's with the wings cut off and laid next to them were required to be guillotined apart with a giant... guillotine on a crane. If I'm recalling, this was so the US could take photos of them this way and hand the pictures over to the Russians as part of the strategic arms reduction act. I think it was actually so the Russians could take pictures directly from their own satellites... I was reading about bombers last night in a uniquely spergy way and from what I recall being told on-site at my last visit years ago and what I just read, the nuclear-capable bomber fleet had to be reduced on both sides as a condition of one treaty or another, so we had to take a few hundred B-52G and H out back and guillotine them into an unsalvageable condition. e: god I'm sorry I ended up just writing most of your post over again with different words, that was inappropriate. I swear, though, it was for the Russians to take the pictures!
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Mar 22, 2010 21:03
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OptimusMatrix posted:I read the whole thread but I'm not sure if this story was posted. It's an article from Gizmodo about a Sled Driver on a mission over Libya. It's a heart racing read. I loved the SR-71 already, but that was one of the best stories I've ever read. Thank you. Also, trying to think in terms of traveling a mile every 1.6 seconds is hurting my brain a little bit.
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Apr 7, 2010 18:55
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Sterndotstern posted:The legion of engineers, materials scientists, machinists, mechanics, chemists and flight ops people who contributed to the existence of such a thing as the Apollo program or the SR-71, each with their own stories and heart swelling with pride at the staggering feats that would've been impossible without their particular contribution. Actually, the mere capability of craft like the U-2 and SR-71 and especially the X-31 are what inspired me to try to get into aeronautical engineering. Granted, the program didn't work out for me, but it was weird outside-the-envelope craft and the way they were designed and built that impressed me more than just being shiny fancy airplanes that could do crazy things. Lately, I've come to the desire to go down and catch a shuttle launch because some reptilian part of my brain is telling me "this is it... this is the last great accomplishment of our time. A reusable space vehicle that big will never happen again in our lifetimes." And that means something - it really is the end of the era of support having its own life and meaning. Sure, we'll have survival things happen here and there - especially in water quality and management - but the freakin space shuttle, you know? It's only a select few were able to make use of the piles of thought and elbow grease that were the Apollo program, and it'd be unforgivable to not go witness firsthand the only thing that approaches that that's happened in my lifetime to even get the chance to appreciate it as a spectator... I can only imagine what it would be like to have worked on designing that hardware and then to have watched it succeed more or less for thirty years.
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Apr 7, 2010 20:27
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| # ¿ May 7, 2024 23:59 |
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You know, the thing about 787 wing flex is that I've only ever seen people talk about it with regard to that airplane, and even then only in "OMG WE AL GON DIE  " terms.If you watch out the window of a conventional-wing airliner, though, the wingtips sit higher in flight than while on the ground and they look like they're outright going to snap off at any given moment in turbulence, and yet nobody ever whines about that. Think there's any reason for that?
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May 20, 2010 21:31
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