Old Koreelah

We can thank Labor governments for tossing in a bit of money to kick off the solar industry- which now employs so many, and is likely to become self-sustaining.had solar on mobile home 2001 when dipstick dudd gave me 9000 dollars and paid me 65 cent per kw into grid I grabbed it how bloody stupid was dudd when I was paying 16 cents per kw have not paid for elect for five years

last bill I paid was 375 dollars for three months

 

have 5 kw set up neil

It's encouraging to hear that Marty, but the housing developments I see fill me with dispair.

Finally. A thread on my favourite topic. After almost four decades dabbling in and teaching about solar design, people are finally starting to take some interest. It's great to see, but we can do so much more.

So many right-wingers dismissed renewables and actively worked against incentives. Despite their opposition, a significant and growing share of Australia's power now comes from renewables.

We can thank Labor governments for tossing in a bit of money to kick off the solar industry- which now employs so many, and is likely to become self-sustaining.

In the 70s and 80s there were lots of coffee table books on solar design and how to live more sustainably.

A few of us built passive solar homes and have enjoyed the benefits, but the building industry doesn't seem to know or care about the possibilities (yes, I know governments mandate energy-saving designs in new construction, but the guidelines are weak and unimaginative.) Just look at the poorly-designed homes most people mortgage their life to buy. Houses with dark-coloured walls and roof, plonked down on the block with no effort to make use of winter sun for warming, or to keep out the summer sun. Try asking the neatly-presented sales people at display villages if they have any solar designs and you'll get blank looks.

It amazes me that people seem happy to pay four times as much for power as they need to.

Good outcome; I bet that airframe is repaired and flies again.

Agree totally Nev, but we boys still love our toys! If you want rapid progress, there is no substitute for war. Biplanes were still being used with effect in WWII at the same time jets were being developed. It's amazing how much creativity and efficiency humans can invest in weapons. If only we could harness the same energy into the real challenges facing us.

Of the German aircraft, the FW-190 is surely the most elegant. I lust after the scale replicas which are flying in several countries. Interesting that the Germans eventually replaced the air-cooled radial with a liquid-cooled V12. The result was not elegant but very successful. Meanwhile, the Japanese went the other way, replacing the V-12 in their Kawasaki Ki-61 with an air-cooled radial. It also became a better aircraft.

I met a man a while back, who had been a design engineer on the SR71. Unfortunately he had gone all religious, as much as I was interested in the SR71, he only wanted to talk about Jesus.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-13/ak-47-rifle-inventor-mikhail-kalashnikov-regrets-creating-weapon/5198396

...Even just sitting still on the ground they look like the personification of evil. And they could outrun most bullets.[

That's a whole new discussion. Often the only people qualified to build, maintain and fly these beasts are in nursing homes.

This story has appeared a number of times:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x688145

I like them, but the cockpit is a bit too small. They might not be much cheaper to produce than a 172. Nev

Unfortunately those attributes came at a cost. Lack of fire power and amour. Especially the fuel tanks.But was still one of my favourites on the Microsoft's Combat Flight Simulator in the good old days......

Very hard to out maneuver and get in behind.............

So easy to be an armchair historian.

Yes cost of fuel at various locations is a good feature also, however I wonder how up to date that would be,with the need for constant upgrading as prices change daily ?...........Maj....

...so, no lawyers in China?

You blokes have got it all wrong. Some of those fuel-guzzlers are indeed beautiful to behold, but the prize for lethal simplicity, beauty and incredible range is surely this one; once flown for 12 hours and five minutes without refuelling.

Try doing that in any of the others.

The all time most beautiful 2 airdraft shared the same name, but were years apart. The De Haviland Comets.The original grosvenor House is in the Shuttleworth collection, I don't know where there is a Comet airliner, but they were beautiful

The Comet is one of several being restored by a dedicated team at Mandeville, NZ.

I did see a video of a working nuclear plane a while ago can't remember if it was Russian or German

They've tried it once already:

...As a kid i'd spend many a day alongside Heathrows boundary fence and loved it when a VC10 took off. The ground seemed to shake and the ear-splitting roar from it's engines seemed to crackle and made ones hair stand up on your back.

Living between Henley and Biggin Hill, I used to see dozens of Spitfires and Hurricanes flying low overhead and that was awe-inspiring for any boy around that time.

Infernal combustion gas it's limits too. Efficiency doesn't matter too much if the energy source is abundant and there anyhow. Nev

That's the problem for me, they are blatant killing machines and they should look like the Terminator, not Mary Poppins.I reckon it was the P51s with teeth that got me as an impressionable youth watching Saturday Matinee war movies!...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nose_art

It is only the exhausted steam that makes any sound. With a condenser it never goes to atmosphere. I like steam too OK for the nostalgia, but it can't be efficient due to the high latent heat of vaporisation of water. With other liquids perhaps better. Nev

You don't have to build one to prove it's inefficiency. You just do the maths and apply the physics. Nev

Damned impressive engineering to take that punishment!

Love it GG. I'd always wondered if it could be done, and like so many feats, it was done in the 30's. One advantage; just about any old liquid fuel could be used. I bet the pilot has to be even more ahead of the aircraft; with steam a big lag between pouring on the juice and feeling the power.

Soldier on, Phil.

As a child I didn't expect to reach 21 because of the expected nuclear war, then the Club of Rome said we would have global starvation by about 1995. I'm a Geoscientist which means I know a bit about the earth ( but really mainly about the economic minerals) and I'm just not persuaded that this round of scary stuff will wipe me out either. I'm pretty sure that man is affecting climate a little, but I reckon we are just as likely to go into an ice age as to warm up. That is really a reflection of the poor state of our knowledge. I think geologists have a better understanding than the self-appointed climate scientists ( in fact there is no such discipline in science). And to those hanging it on the filthy rich miners, who do you have in mind? Most mining companies are public companies, so we can all buy their shares if we think that makes you filthy rich. It hasn't worked for me yet, but I live in hope.

Since I originally started this thread whilst having a whinge about our airfield being shut by the weather which quickly metamorphosed into a climate change discussion, I hope I have not offended anyone by the way, as another poster once said, If you don't like this opinion. . . . .I have others. . . . Anyway, back to mundane things. . . .I took these few pics early this morning after an evening of severely high winds, . . . . . I don't think there is any climate change connection here, as this seems to happen at our airfield every couple of years or so, when it's windy, and someone forgets to check the forecast and then the tiedowns . . . very sad though, the BFC Challenger broke free when the hangar covering stripped off. It hit the steelwork of the tunnel hangar a couple of times then impaled itself on a trailer jockey wheel. The other two aircraft in the hangar, a Mignet Ballerit (sort of flying flea with folding wings if you have none of these in Austrtalia ) and a Mk one X'Air were missed by a couple of centimetres.

I managed to get a free breakfast from the aircraft owner after helping him to lift the aircraft back to where it was supposed to be, and peg it down securely. It will need some serious work, there are dents all over the leading edges, and two of the main strut tubes are badly dented, covering broken through in several places on the fuse and wings, and one grp wingtip smashed. this aircraft had a total of 25 hours flight test time in it's life,. . . even more sad.

 

Phil