Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired
Come on Dan, I thought April Fool's didn't count after noontime :)
I don't get up until afternoon :)
Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com
Who took what down?
>Roger wrote:
>
>> Awhhhh come on...Why'd you take it down. It was a good topic for the
>> 1st.
>>
>> Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
>> (N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
>> www.rogerhalstead.com
>
>Who took what down?
>
The three previous posts come up as "no longer on server".
From your comment it sounds like it's a server problem (used by
charger) rather than the posts being taken down.
It sounded like a good topic for the date.
Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com
>Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired
Levity aside, I am certain that the Moller air car -can- achieve
horizontal flight. At least for a short distance off a carriers
catapult.
Harry K
OK, let's do that on the condition Moler flys it.
I had a lengthy e-mail discussion with the editor of a well known business
publication about the Skycar. Last fall, the magazine published an article
extolling the Skycar and how it will revolutionize travel. I took them to
task for publishing essentially the same story that has appeared in Popular
Science, Popular Mechanics, and every other marginally accurate publication
of that type over the last 30 years. I pointed out that, other than a
mock-up with a fancy red paint job, very little progress has been made over
40 years, and that we're still waiting on the Skycar's first flight. I also
noted that one downside of good press is that more and more people are
encouraged to invest their hard earned money in the same sinkhole that has
claimed $100,000,000 in the last 30-40 years.
Amazing that a <seemingly> reputable business magazine didn't do any more
behind the scenes research before publishing what was essentially a press
release for Moler...
KB
From what I have seen, Theoretically it should with proper power and
controls be able to fly, BUT the practicality of 4 ducted fans,
reliability and power balancing makes the Osprey tilt rotor look safe
to me.
To provide an operable car should not be beyond reach, but to make
them safe and controllable would probably put them in the price class
of a TBM-700.
I have heard several engineers say they could fix most any thing...
given enough money, but then again one of the engineers working on the
land speed record made the statement (quite a few years ago), Given
enough HP they could even blast the Queen Mary through the sound
barrier.
I guess I'd rate the practicality of both pretty much in the same
region.
Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com
>
>Harry K
[[.. munch ..]]
>I have heard several engineers say they could fix most any thing...
>given enough money, but then again one of the engineers working on the
>land speed record made the statement (quite a few years ago), Given
>enough HP they could even blast the Queen Mary through the sound
>barrier.
Google for "orion spacecraft". Getting the Queen Mary to Mach 1 is a
_trivial_ job for that kind of propulsion system. <grin>
> Google for "orion spacecraft". Getting the Queen Mary to Mach 1 is a
> _trivial_ job for that kind of propulsion system. <grin>
>
The orion was like shooting a bullet shaped 10 story building into
space. It's a shame the project was scrapped. The fallout from it
would have been less than from the 3rd world countries doing nuke tests.
I taped the show on the Orion from the History channel and I'm over due
to watch it again...
Tony
> Robert Bonomi wrote:
>
>> Google for "orion spacsatellite Getting the Queen Mary to Mach 1 is a
>> _trivial_ job for that kind of propulsion system. <grin>
>>
>
> The orion was like shooting a bullet shaped 10 story building into
> space. It's a shame the project was scrapped. The fallout from it
> would have been less than from the 3rd world countries doing nuke tests.
>
> I taped the show on the Orion from the History channel and I'm over due
> to watch it again...
>
> Tony
Well reading one article it notes that the fallout was way underestimated
because they figured to use nuclear fusion vice fission so would have
significantly less fallout unfortunately the required fission triggers
would mostly make up for any savings in fallout, the net affect is a very
dirty launch.
The biggest problem from what I read is EMP which would take out any
satellite within about 1000 miles which wasn't a big deal in early 70's
when there wasn't any satellites but these day's would take out hundreds of
satellites cost billions and billions plus pissing off more than a few
countries <g>!
John
As I recall they had a target launch date in the early 1960s and
ecpected to reach the outter edge of the solar system by 1970. EMP
wouldn't have been a problem in 1963... Doubt there will be anything
remotely like like the Orion in my life time.
Tony
I found the graph below interesting:
http://www.pinksheets.com/quote/chart.jsp?symbol=MLER&duration=2-6-9-0-0-512
I'm not sure if it's their stock price or the altitude graph during 'hover
tests', measured in Inch..
Rob
The scary part is people are still investing in this toy. Personally I'd
laugh my butt off if some whiz kid could develop a workable sytem before
Moller does.