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Real Life "Kerbalisms"


Lisias

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2 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Now this was weird. I assume an electrical motor can work on the entire speed range of the car without any gearing. Manual transmissions has always been popular in Europe but is going away. 
That killed them was that automatic is more efficient less pollution also an hybrid want automatic as it want to control then to use the electric engine, mostly then going slowly or then its fully charged. 

Manuals are a pain in stop'n'go driving, and the strata where I live now has a driveway on a major artery, making for challenging left turns. A clutch would increase the risk, especially with the potential for stalling. No thanks, I made sure any vehicle we bought was an automatic.

That said, manuals can be more fun. The gimmick in that article brought that fun back by mimicking a manual without any transmission at all beyond the usual electric direct drive at whatever gear ratio.

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11 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Manuals are a pain in stop'n'go driving, and the strata where I live now has a driveway on a major artery, making for challenging left turns. A clutch would increase the risk, especially with the potential for stalling. No thanks, I made sure any vehicle we bought was an automatic.

That said, manuals can be more fun. The gimmick in that article brought that fun back by mimicking a manual without any transmission at all beyond the usual electric direct drive at whatever gear ratio.

Yes that is another problem with them, not much of an problem but automatic are much better at this. Wore out the clutch on an old car because of lots of queues. Granted it was an very old car and I guess automatic would also getting into issue at this time. 
 

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20 hours ago, Lisias said:

Man, oh man… Flying under bridges is, as it appears, an arcane instinct for Humans and Kerbals!! :)   

 

I say that was an very small bridge to fly under, something like golden gate would be easier. Extending the landing wheels would give an margin. 

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The Vickers-Carden-Loyd M1931 Amphibious Tank is one of those things that get called "mostly safe".

scale_1200

It's one of the two original exhibits of the Kubinka museum in 1938, alongside the Mark V.

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Someone tried building a ‘thopter?

https://imgur.com/gallery/ntWuxA8
 

245peZQ.jpeg
 

Quote

The Riout 102T Alérion is an ornithopter built in 1937 designed by René Riout. The Alérion went through a series of ground tests including in the Chalais-Meudon wind tunnel 1938 when the wings suffered a structural failure. Further development was abandoned with the start of World War II. It never flew and was stored until it was found in 2005 and brought to the Musée Régional de l'Air at Angers, where it was partially restored.

 

Edited by StrandedonEarth
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4 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Someone tried building a ‘thopter?

People keep trying. Albatross AS-5mx, showcased in MAKS-2017's Kerbal Home-Made Aircraft section. Powered solely by a compressed air flask. No radical wing flapping, just the flexing of the central section (struts?)

28268430_original.jpg

28269478_original.jpg

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This is the Centurion tank s/n 169041. You might not want to hang out near it for too long.

Lobster-1-CC-BY-SA-3.0-cropped..jpg

The tank was placed less than 500 yards away from the tower for Britain's second nuclear blast. It survived with loss of simulated crew and external damage, and was decontaminated and declared salvageable, and drove halfway home before the engine broke down from sand ingestion.  Now, here's the one part that isn't supported by the original reporting, but the on-site measurements had understated the radiation by a factor of 80. The tank was scrubbed again, given some time to decay in storage, and then had its turret swapped out and spent some time as a turretless tractor before being re-equipped with a new turret... and sent to Vietnam, where it fought and suffered battle damage.

One of the crews and techies that worked on it in the 1950s claimed in 1990 that out of sixteen on his team, twelve were already dead from cancer and the rest were sick. They were also responsible for heavily cannibalizing 169041 while it was in storage, thus spreading radioactive parts out across the Centurion fleet. The old turret was left in the yard and used as a sunbathing platform... that gave people beta burns.

https://archive.is/4MbJG#selection-2459.0-2475.9

1950s, maaaan.

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1 hour ago, DDE said:

This is the Centurion tank s/n 169041. You might not want to hang out near it for too long.

Lobster-1-CC-BY-SA-3.0-cropped..jpg

The tank was placed less than 500 yards away from the tower for Britain's second nuclear blast. It survived with loss of simulated crew and external damage, and was decontaminated and declared salvageable, and drove halfway home before the engine broke down from sand ingestion.  Now, here's the one part that isn't supported by the original reporting, but the on-site measurements had understated the radiation by a factor of 80. The tank was scrubbed again, given some time to decay in storage, and then had its turret swapped out and spent some time as a turretless tractor before being re-equipped with a new turret... and sent to Vietnam, where it fought and suffered battle damage.

One of the crews and techies that worked on it in the 1950s claimed in 1990 that out of sixteen on his team, twelve were already dead from cancer and the rest were sick. They were also responsible for heavily cannibalizing 169041 while it was in storage, thus spreading radioactive parts out across the Centurion fleet. The old turret was left in the yard and used as a sunbathing platform... that gave people beta burns.

https://archive.is/4MbJG#selection-2459.0-2475.9

1950s, maaaan.

Oh, so that’s why they had the tank in front of a nuclear blast in the artwork when they added the Centurian Mk. 5/1 to War Thunder…

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"So you're saying that an aircraft that is dilapidated because of your bureaucratic obstitance is going to be razed along with the hangar because it's dilapidated!?"

"Ha-ha, bulldozer goes brrrr"

https://vintageaviationnews.com/warbirds-news/the-city-of-irvine-neglects-and-destroys-pv-1-ventura.html

Edited by DDE
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1 hour ago, DDE said:

"So you're saying that an aircraft that is dilapidated because of your bureaucratic obstitance is going to be razed along with the hangar because it's dilapidated!?"

"Ha-ha, bulldozer goes brrrr"

https://vintageaviationnews.com/warbirds-news/the-city-of-irvine-neglects-and-destroys-pv-1-ventura.html

Here's one better!

Vega-C contractor accidentally throws out two fourth-stage tanks into the trash.

https://europeanspaceflight.com/the-case-of-the-missing-vega-avum-propellant-tanks/

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41 minutes ago, SunlitZelkova said:

Readers context got added. It’s from a video game :/

Seriously? Last year, when I first read about it, it was presented as a (allegedly) serious proposition - besides unfeasible.

Quote

One emerging (ha!) aircraft is getting a lot of air time these days. The Sky Cruise, a creation of brilliant CGI artist (and terrible aircraft conceptualizer) Hashem Al-Ghaili, is a concept for a nuclear-powered craft the size of a cruise ship that would fly around with thousands of guests aboard to see the world. And is it ever special. The craft would never land (how it takes off is not addressed), and jets both commercial and private would “dock” with it (again, the details of such a dramatic meet-up are omitted); and ferry passengers back to earth, errr, I mean land.

[…]

In short, the Sky Cruise, while it’s presented as a product or a project, isn’t either. It’s a far-fetched notion that stands less than a zero percent chance of ever having part one produced. The video is fantastic, but presenting it as anything other than total fantasy is just plain silly and more than a little misleading.

https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/news/the-latest/an-emerging-nuclear-powered-flying-hotel-your-questions-answered/

Anyway, Art imitates Life:

The original idea (besides not being a Hotel) is a 1968 Study from NASA!

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19720063062/downloads/19720063062.pdf

-- -- POST EDIT -- --

HA! I found the CNN article!

Quote

Nevertheless, Yemeni engineer Hashem Al-Ghaili, who created the Sky Cruise concept video based on a futuristic design by artist Alexander Tujicov, insists it’s only a “matter of time” before aviation engineering catches up to his vision.

 

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/nuclear-sky-hotel/index.html

 

Edited by Lisias
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6 hours ago, Lisias said:

Seriously? Last year, when I first read about it, it was presented as a (allegedly) serious proposition - besides unfeasible.

Anyway, Art imitates Life:

The original idea (besides not being a Hotel) is a 1968 Study from NASA!

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19720063062/downloads/19720063062.pdf

-- -- POST EDIT -- --

HA! I found the CNN article!

 

Damn. I already thought I was living in a Phildickian hellscape where I can't tell if news is bogus or not, but now I can't trust the factcheckers? (Depressing) lesson learned.

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7 hours ago, SunlitZelkova said:

Damn. I already thought I was living in a Phildickian hellscape where I can't tell if news is bogus or not, but now I can't trust the factcheckers? (Depressing) lesson learned.

Or perhaps that factchecker is right, and everybody and the kitchen's sink were trolled last year! :sticktongue:

(would not be the first time!)

Spoiler

Remembering Tony Signorini, a WW2 Hero and one of the most successful prankster of the History!! :) 
 

https://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/two-feet-from-clearwaters-past-fathers-funny-legacy-leaves-a-deep/2159682/

 

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