Posts by Mips 514 publicly visible posts • joined 29 Apr 2010
And most of the disinformation is stoked up by the press, and judging by recent performance I can include the technical press as well. I am sure you are familiar with the tabloid statement: "generates 1MW enough electricity for 1000 houses per year". Those of you not recognising what is wrong with that, I suggest you go back to school, or stop reading the tabloids. No! Only Godzilla consumes houses per year. Power comes in MW or kW etc., energy comes in kWh or MWh and the like.
It is over 20 years ago I was introduced to a mind hive bidding process for contracts. The strange thing is that it can produce better results than bidding by calculation and is somewhat faster. The process involves each individual in the team guessing the price, secretly, the prices are all opened and the results discussed, no one is to say what their price is. There is a second and third iteration, by this time the prices are very close. The average is taken. The process is called ESP. Not surprisingly.
.. the front wheels have morphed into conventional aircraft style and generally it looks more like a plane than a car. But, here is the big thing, it has four wheels. Do you really fancy your chances of landing that in a crosswind? Not for me sorry. Now if it was to loose a wheel at the next design iteration it would be OK. What's that? Just like any other light aircraft. Well, there you go then, what more could one need.
With the cantilever from the engine through to the rotor mount Gyrojet has some serious structural engineering to sort out. This will affect cost and weight. Kenneth Wallis knew the problem and the answer: keep the load and lift close together. That is how you dare go for speed records, the Girojet will fold up at half the speed. And why? Just for a bit of style.
One thing I have always wondered. There are advantages to having a two blade rotor, mainly it is easy to park and garage and even drive about. However with higher loads, would a four blade rotor be more efficient and a lot smaller?
They say comparisons are odorous. True. However if you remember the task is as a flying camera mount; the fact that it is not as fast and cannot hover has to be weighed against low vibration and duration on site. With an autopilot and auto stabilised camera mount an autogiro looks ideal. Ok so so you cannot do motorway chases, so use a fixed wing aircraft. The bottom line is that it will cost about as much to operate as the average police mobile speed trap.
Do more for less. Remember.
This looks ever so ever so familiar. There are quite a few dotted about the country and they are all pretty much the same generally used as military communications sites, some were converted as emergency regional seats of government.
They have all been out of use since the 1990s, not that they had much use before that. They will have been left to rot, if they have generators they will be stuffed, all in all a expensive prospect to put back into working order.
As it happens I know of one only 3 miles from the centre of London and has it's own football field and helicopter landing pad, good views over Wembley stadium as well, I have been waiting for a Russian oligarch to buy it. Would you be interested?
Notice the innocent head; no jokes today.
Well hell yes! There is a stone wall to get over. Financial notations and framework agreement favour the big players. No. I am wrong, favour is the wrong word. Forget glass ceilings, think in terms of reinforced concrete. Some of this is caused by EC regulations. Anti-competitive? I should say so!
Carbon fuel is too easy to chose because it is too cheap. "Political will" should comprise a tax regime that penalises carbon based fuels and I do mean all fuel not just transport. This will change the face of Britain. Suddenly renewable energy does not need any kind of support and people will buy the output because it is cheaper, transport will become electric, heating will be renewable.
The tax take at a rate of 50p per kg would produce about £100bn, and, lets see, we could eliminate VAT, council tax, income tax and more - take your choice.
One downside our goods would be more expensive, so carbon tax would have to be rebated on exports and imports would have to pay carbon tax. The rules would be complex but could be made to work. if you want to know more just ask.
...you were going to use a single sheet of plain old A4. Well. Well. I won't say cheat but if you are going to use "just paper in any form" perhaps we can incorporate some Paxolin hardening points and movable surfaces and maybe flight control and if it is big enough a real pilot. I mean look what they made the Trabant from. Er... that's probably not a good example.
This report comes as no surprise, I have been saying the same for the last 20years. The following is true:
This island cannot produce sufficient food to support the population even if every square metre is producing vegetables. We cannot support animals: so no meat.
In this country life without artificial energy is impossible.
We cannot produce sufficient energy from renewables to supply even 20% of what we use now; we have to cut back hard on what we use and for the remainder we have to go nuclear.
Here is the IT angle: electronics take far too much of what we use, that reduction to 20% goes for electrics as well. So get busy guys.
Because all energy will be delivered by electricity, the electrical distribution system will have to be about three time the size it is now. So expect to see pylons everywhere.
Because of the switch to electricity expect to see the completion of about two nuclear power stations per year FOR EVER.
This is a pragmatic view and factors in that we will not be rescued by technology. I think you will recognise that this is close to what will happen. The only question when?
I always though that when I died I would leave a better world for my kids. Not going to happen is it?
Like as now you mean. But we have not had a war as such.
The truth is that the army always want more men, the Navy more submarines and the RAF more spiffy jets to fly around in. It is more about bragging rights than getting the job done.
Remember the down wash throwing people aside and stories of buckling deck plates; and here we are working on a bigger setup, more air volume and heat AND it operates over water. The water might solve the heat problem but the down wash will kick up such a cloud of water and water vapour it will kill the engines if in fact the crew can see to fly anywhere in a permanent mega monsoon.
And another thing, sea state four; how is anything that big supposed to get off the deck with one rotor up in the air and the other in the drink?
Barking mad
..well me I am going to stand under the King of Kings statue at the Solid Rock Church Ohio. It is obviously a good lighting conductor so will drain away the aural field before it gets me. I will not be wearing a tin foil hat, these pesky pointed bits keep sticking through and spoil the effect.
.. hosting you lot while you mess about. Not exactly cutting edge technology.
And there is another thing, as pointed out 75000ft and -56C. So you have a paper airplane at 60% moisture content at ground level and you increase the height, the temperature drops humidity rises until -. Well we have all arrived back in the office after the weekend to find all the paper in all the printers is distorted, that is what will happen. As you rise further the temperature drops further the paper will freeze.
Now when you release said distorted frozen lump with all the aerodynamic quality of a brick into the thin air of 75000ft, how will it fly? Very well, straight down. Gravity is a fine thing, makes you keep a sense of proportion, unless, of course, you are on acid.
A short course in electrical energy would benefit many respondents. Here are some highlights:
Conductors: Fact: Gold is a better conductor than copper. We do not use it because it is bloody expensive, you might find it plated onto copper in Hi-Fi wiring because high frequencies do not pass well through the interior of metals (all to do with self inductance). Aluminium is not as good as copper and larger sizes have to be used for the same volt drop. The conductor weight is less because of the lower density but the overall cable weight is much the same because of the grater insulation weight, aluminium cable is stiffer as well.
High frequency generators and motors are much smaller and lighter, 400Hz is used in aircraft for that reason. There is not much influence on cable size unless the frequency gets too high, see above.
Power system: use three phase, you get a lot more power for the volt drop.
Volt drop: for safety the voltage at the bottom end has to be limited, in the UK it would be 110V. You might be able to use more elsewhere or in military applications, but there is always a limit. If you need so much power for the drive motor this will fix the current but the cable volt drop is proportional to the square of current, so more power needs larger cable and larger cable needs more power. Catch 22, Ha Ha!
Why bother with electricity, it might be quieter but the fans still make a noise? I am sure a suitably silenced motor can be found and if the device is tethered it does not need to carry the fuel, that can be fed from the ground through a umbilical which would be much lighter and more flexible than a cable.
But wait a minute, why use lifting fans at all? Dynamic lifting devices would also work and if payload is an issue you do not even need motors in the device, they can work by induction powered by compressed air fed through the universal umbilical.
See solved it. What you looking at me for? I like it in here. Please not the little pink room again.
...in fact I have an almost identical item in my hand. It is an El Cheapo clutch pencil, real throw away job. Rather worrying that NASA would let this into ISS. Why? Well my pencil the lead breaks off about every two minutes producing a piece 2mm long and when you get to the end a 20mm long piece comes out, then when you use the eraser (sorry rubber) and lots of little rubber crumbs appear. Down here on Earth I just brush off my desktop and it all falls on the floor. No problem. Up there. Well?
"Jack the toilet failed again". "Let me see - woah it's full of little rubber bits, the seal must have failed"
"Pasha that's a nasty cough you got there - keep it up it might go away"
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